Malcolm wasn’t sure what Severn was doing with Miss Tilly Perkins—but he also knew that he had heard quite enough.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes,” hissed Scarlett.
He stood up, bracing her against him, and pushed the chair back towards the clutter it had come from.With the extra space, they were both just able to stand.
Malcolm banged on the door and yelled, “Severn!”
“What in the devil?Malcolm?”
“In here!”Malcolm bellowed.
The door sustained multiple muffled bangs without moving and then—after a particularly strong thud—groaned and swung open, illuminating the space.
He peered out and saw Severn, looking distinctly vexed, and Miss Tilly, who had flushed an almost alarming shade of pink.
Malcolm prayed that he and Scarlett did not look too disheveled.He stole a glance over at her, and she looked no less composed than usual—damn her.No one would believe that she had just ridden his fingers to orgasm.He was not at all convinced, however, that he looked as kempt.
“Greetings, brother,” Severn said, who despite his cool tone did not look quite as calm as usual.
“The door,” Malcolm said, aware that he was proffering an explanation that Severn hadn’t asked for.“It sticks.We stuck.We got stuck, I mean.”
“Ah, of course.”
Malcolm had the distinct impression that Severn would have said more if he himself hadn’t just been caught having a rather too intimate conversation with Tilly Perkins.
“It was my fault,” Scarlett said.“I opened the wrong door and walked inside heedlessly.I don’t care for small spaces and got rather turned around.When Mr.Brown came to my aid, the door closed behind us and we became stuck inside.Ridiculous, really.I am not usually such a featherbrain.”
He did not know how she managed to sound so composed.She spoke like the perfect, sophisticated chaperone, who now found herself the victim of the antics of a wild house party.
“My apologies, Miss Perkins,” Severn said, his face now returned to its usual suavity.“Parkhorne Hall can be positively barbarous, especially to outsiders.I am sure you had no notion of what primitive games you would be subjected to upon your arrival.My sister, the marchioness, is the worst of all, I’m afraid.”
“Yes, Beatrice has audacity sending us to the dungeon,” Malcolm said.
Severn rolled his eyes.“That is Beatrice.Always has been.And since she became a marchioness, she has had no one and nothing to check her.Her husband spoils her terribly.Shall we see what her next clue is?”
They moved toward the real dungeon, which, when Severn swung the door open, revealed itself to be nothing more than a little stone antechamber with a single chain mounted to the wall.
There, Beatrice had left a note.
Whether you think I’m fowl or fair,
I like to live in the open air.
If you can brave so many stairs,
you can find me way up there.
“Fowl,” Severn said, pointing to the word.“She means the goddamn birds.”
“The bloody roof,” Malcolm concurred.
Severn met his eye, and Malcolm nodded.
The roof of Parkhorne had a special meaning for he and his siblings.When Beatrice had brought them all to the place, after the death of their father, Philip, the youngest, had been frightened by his new surroundings.He used to climb up to the roof, for some reason no one could fathom.He felt safe there, even though it was objectively dangerous.They had all spent time up there, coaxing him down, trying to comfort him.Malcolm had to admit that he understood Philip’s feelings.Parkhorne had felt vast and unfamiliar to him as well, even though he had been ten years older than the boy.
Severn, of course, had always been different from Malcolm and Sally and Philip.His mother, Mrs.Westmore, owned the small estate that neighbored Parkhorne.He had grown up from the beginning playing with George and exploring Parkhorne by his side.Malcolm did not know when exactly Mrs.Westmore and Mrs.Salisbury had fallen in love—for all he knew, it might have been many years before the death of his father.Nevertheless, George and Severn had been intimates—not to mention secret half brothers—since their infancy.Because his mother was a gentlewoman, and because of the relationship between Mrs.Westmore and Mrs.Salisbury, Severn had a comfort and an ease around Parkhorne and in the upper classes that the other three had either never had—himself, Sally—or had worked to acquire—Philip, seemingly.
