Lucas tried to hold back. He didn’t want to damage his brother, but they needed this to look real, and Nathan needed real marks on his face. Was that enough?
Lucas slowed his blows, knowing that most of them had landed on Nathan’s forearms, not his face. Though, one of Nathan’s eyes was already swelling. He’d have one hell of a shiner.
Nathan grabbed hold of Lucas’s torso and heaved him across the room like he was tossing a hay bale. Lucas landed in a heap as he gasped for breath. And then another voice cut through the house.
“What is the meaning of this?”
His mother. Her voice boomed through the house, and it brought everyone to a stop.Oh hell.He looked at his brother and caught a matching flash of regret. But while Lucas was still rolling to hands and knees, his brother was already standing.
Nathan glared first at her, then their father, and finally at Lucas. “It’s not fair!” he finally spit. Then he stormed out of the house.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lucas watched hisbrother rush out of the house, the fury and the pain looking all too real. He knew their fight had been staged, and yet part of him feared that there was true hurt behind the act. After all, he had taken the earldom back from his brother. Any man would be angry at that.
But he had deeper problems now as his mother descended the stairs as regally as a queen. Her eyes were hard, her mouth pinched shut, and she stared at him as she would a rat on her polished floor.
“Lucas,” she said, her voice excruciatingly dry. “You’ve come for a visit.”
He glanced at his father, who was hidden half in and half out of the breakfast parlor. The man gave him an apologetic look and backed away. Lucas guessed his father would now disappear through the kitchen to his London club, which left Lucas alone with his mother. Not an experience he relished. But in Ireland, he had seen Diana work with any number of hateful people who despised the mere fact that she was female. The least he could do was try to find common ground with his mother.
“I am here,” he said. “And I’ve come specifically to ask for your help.”
She paused on the last step to stare at him, and no wonder. He couldn’t remember a time when he’d asked for her help, and her shock echoed his own at the thought.
“If you wanted my help, you shouldn’t have come at this hour.” She looked out the window at the bright sunshine. “I am never about until after noon.”
He acknowledged her statement with a slight bow. “I’d forgotten,” he lied.
She arched a brow and took the last step down to the foyer. “Very well,” she said with a sigh. “What is it?”
“I find my clothing exceedingly unfashionable. If I am to become an earl one day, I should dress the part, but I have no understanding of what is expected these days. I should like your help ordering clothing, if you would care to lend a hand.”
Her scrutiny did not soften as she pounced on one word. “Ifyou become an earl?”
He gave her a rueful shrug. “There is still hope that someone will murder me in my bed. And there is always the danger of illness or insanity.”
She grimaced. “You think I want you dead?”
“Don’t you?” he challenged. He had meant to find common ground with her but found he wanted honesty more. “You want Nathan to inherit.”
“I do,” she admitted, and he could not restrain his flinch. “He is the better steward. You always dreamed of going far and wide. No nanny could keep you from running, and you even went to war before finishing your schooling.” She shook her head. “Your brother likes it at home.”
“Which makes him a proper earl?”
“It makes himat home.” She held his gaze for a long moment as if her words were self-explanatory. They weren’t. Not to him. Did she think a man should linger at home, constantly in his mother’s skirts? The idea was ridiculous, and yet, he could see the truth of it in her face. She liked that Nathan preferred the country to the city, that he preferred a quiet life of farming when Lucas had always craved adventure.
“That is…” He almost said “ridiculous” but softened his tone at the last second. “Unreasonable. An earl’s political responsibilities require him to be here in the city.”
Her eyes sparkled in anger. “It is unreasonable that the first time you are here in years sees a brawl in the hallway. Broken furniture and your brother’s disappearance.” She pointed to the remains of a table cluttering the hall. At least her vase had been saved.
He bowed his head. “My apologies, Mother. I will remove myself—”
“Stop!” she snapped, her voice both exasperated and angry. “You came here for my help, and you shall have it.”
He wasn’t sure he wanted it now, but he dipped his chin. “Thank—”
“On one condition.” She waited until she had his full attention. “You will eat nuncheon with me.”
