“They aren’t that detailed,” Robert offered. “But if you’d like to see yours, I’m happy to turn it over to you when you are next in London. What did he do when you met?”
“I was at school. He paid for my education, so there I was, the bastard son of a courtesan surrounded by fops with true connections.”
“That must have been difficult,” Robert conceded and there was nothing but kindness in his tone.
“At first,” Morgan said. “But I learned to…entertain them.”
Robert gave a small chuckle. “Yes, I can see that your charm would serve you well. As it does now.”
“The previous duke materialized one afternoon. I was drawn out of my studies, taken to this room and left alone with a man I’d only ever seen in passing and in the miniature my poor mother kept beside her bed.” He sighed. “He just…staredat me. He stood in that room and stared at me, and when I tried to speak, he stopped me.”
He flashed back to that day. He’d felt so small next to this man. He’d known Roseford was his father, but there had been no affection when the duke looked at him. Up and down, circling him like Morgan was a pony to be evaluated at market.
“He started drilling me with questions about my studies, about my marks in school. After I answered he said perhaps I wasn’t entirely worthless, and then he left and I never met with him again.”
Robert flinched. “How old were you?”
“Nine,” Morgan said.
Morgan stepped up next to his brother, and for a moment they stared out over the garden together. He could see the shadow of Elizabeth’s gazebo in the distance. He thought of her and he felt a little…better.
“It is difficult knowing what he was,” Morgan continued. “And that I meant so little to him.”
“None of us meant anything to him,” Robert said. “That’s not meant as comfort, mind you. Nor to dismiss what you experienced when he took the whim to meet you. I only say it out of understanding. He was a cruel man, unable and unwilling to control himself. He took what he wanted, he never thought of the consequences. He caused nothing but destruction.”
Morgan flinched. “I have inherited that from him.”
“So did I,” Robert said. “Until I chose to be better.”
Morgan glanced toward the house where Katherine had departed a few moments before. “Because of her.”
“Aye. Anything good I’ve managed to become is because of her,” Robert said softly.
They were silent for a moment, but there was no animosity to it. At last Morgan cleared his throat. “Earlier…before we started pushing and swearing, you said there were two reasons you spoke about my past. What was the second reason?”
Robert’s expression softened a bit further. He pivoted to face Morgan and closed any distance between them physically. But it felt even deeper than that.
“Because I wasworriedabout you,” Robert admitted softly.
“You…you were?” Morgan asked.
“Yes. Of course.” Robert shrugged. “I don’t know how to be a good older brother. I never had an example in my life. There is no one more qualified to offer sound advice about the subject of siblings then Brighthollow. He all but raised Lizzie, and their relationship is very close. So yes, I spoke to him about you long before I asked him to consider you as an employee, in the hopes he could help me be…better.”
“I see,” Morgan breathed. It was harder to be angry at Robert for turning to a friend for support. For trying to find a way to be there for Morgan.
“I’m sorry Lizzie heard anything about it. Perhaps she gleaned some information from him or from Amelia about your past. Perhaps Katherine mentioned it in passing, I don’t know. But it was not cruelly meant. I am not our father.”
Morgan shook his head. “I…I know that in my heart. I have just hated that bastard for what he did to my mother, for what he did to me, for so long.”
“I understand that,” Robert said, and clapped a hand on Morgan’s shoulder. “Someday you’ll get me very drunk and I’ll tell you what he did tomymother. What he did tome. And we’ll sob into our tankards and come out closer than ever. But not tonight.”
“No,” Morgan agreed. “Not tonight.”
“Let’s join the others before they send a search party in the fear that we’ve killed each other.” Robert motioned to the door, and they exited and walked up the hallway together. “I must mention that you seem to have had some good influence on you since we talked in the parlor. I cannot imagine who that could have been.”
“That’s enough, Roseford,” Morgan muttered, but he found himself smiling regardless.
His brother stopped. They were a few feet from the parlor where the others were gathered. Morgan could hear their voices drifting out into the hallway.
