Hazlit gave his host a measuring glance. “Such as you are too much of gentleman to eavesdrop, and you are enough of a papa to spend a summer morning in the stables with your sons. Beneath your tailored attire, you have the muscles of a yeoman, which suggests you are not prone to gentlemanly idleness. Your children are welcome at your table and even welcome to speak at table. Your staff is competent, your grounds well maintained, and you call my sister Alice, which means she’s given you that honor.”
“It is a rare honor?” Ethan heard himself ask.
“Outside of family? Your brother Nicholas; Matthew Belmont; Thomas, Baron Sutcliffe, by virtue of his relationship as Priscilla’s uncle; and now… you.”
The other three were married. Happily married.
“I will not abuse the privilege,” Ethan said. “Have you more questions for me?”
“What happened to her predecessor?”
An insightful, uncomfortable question. “As to that…” Ethan ran a hand through his hair and turned to survey his back gardens. “I chose poorly, and my sons paid the price. His name was Harold, tall, blond, the epitome of the earnest English scholar, devoted to his calling. I’m not sure what the boys learned from him, except to fear the birch rod, and me.”
“How long was he here?”
“Since the first of the year,” Ethan said. “Your sister is a lovely change of approach for them, and though I do trust her, I have no intention of allowing anybody such unbridled control of my children again.”
“That’s all you can do,” Hazlit said, sympathy in his eyes. “You vow to be vigilant and never let it happen again, and you pray until God must go deaf from your ceaseless begging.”
Ethan regarded him at some length. Such an invitation was not to be declined.
“It must have been a very bad scandal,” Ethan said. “Is this how Alice was injured?”
“It is. Her injury doesn’t seem to be bothering her though.”
“Her hip gives out on her if she takes a bad step,” Ethan said, pouring them both more lemonade. “Then it pains her for a while. And the breathing spells? You know she had two while at Belle Maison?”
“She didn’t say,” Hazlit said slowly, new respect in his eyes at this confidence. “Change can bring them on, situations that feel out of control, sudden frights.”
“So she controls children, and thus orders her universe,” Ethan said. It was a sound strategy. Ethan himself controlled businesses, which were probably more predictable than children.
Hazlit looked… disgruntled. “You notice things.”
Alice told him things, too, which he wasn’t about to admit to her brother. “From a man of your calling, this is a fine compliment.”
“It is. This is a kind of compliment too, Mr. Grey: if you cause my sister any substantial distress, by being difficult to work for, by being a sorry excuse for a parent, by so much as looking at her with that well-honed imitation of patrician condescension, I will meet you. Your choice of weapons.”
Despite an affable tone, there was a thread of steel in Hazlit’s dark eyes. Ethan gave him credit for rattling a loud sword.
“She has my children in her care, Hazlit. I will be as demanding, sorry, or condescending as I must be to ensure they are safe with her. I appreciate your protectiveness, but Alice is your grown sister, whereas Jeremiah and Joshua are my little children.”
Hazlit’s half smile bloomed into the complete version, illuminating his face with a startling charm. When he smiled, he looked more like Alice and less like some avenging Saracen warrior masquerading in civilized attire.
“We understand each other, Mr. Grey. Now let’s rehearse our chitchat, because no hat could take this long to tie. How is Wee Nick?”
“Managing,” Ethan said. “He will do a good job by the title, and he’s chosen the right countess, but he dreads all the Parliamentary nonsense.”
“He’ll take to it well enough when he sees his first bill pass,” Hazlit said. “But you’d better get your brother George on a shorter leash. He’s cutting a bit of a left-handed swath.”
“We were hoping he’d take ship, but Nick ignores the problem,” Ethan replied. “Perhaps I should take it on.”
“Somebody should try,” Hazlit said. “George is a good soul, not out to harm anybody, but the parsons get to screaming, and the newspapers want a sensation, and next thing you know, somebody’s harmless brother is swinging for what goes on every day in many a great house, dormitory, or back alley.”
“You needn’t preach to me. I’ll talk to him.”
Hazlit turned, his expression softening. “Here comes my dearest Alice. Sister, I am taking my leave of you. Mr. Grey clearly appreciates your talents and will be a biddable employer. Kiss me now, and write often.”
They didn’t just kiss the air beside each other’s cheeks. Hazlit kissed his sister’s cheeks, and then her forehead, but he held her close even a moment after that, the expression on his face oddly pained.
“Thank you for coming, Ben,” Alice said, and Ethan would have sworn her eyes were getting misty. He wasn’t about to thank Hazlit for leaving him with a teary female, for pity’s sake.
“Be well, Allie. I’m here if you need me.”
She nodded her thanks and let him step back. He bowed slightly to Ethan then retreated, his pace, to Ethan’s eye, a little hasty. Alice stood beside Ethan, silent, until her brother disappeared into the stables. A funny little gulp of breath gave her away.
“Oh, for God’s sake.” Ethan spun her gently by the shoulders and wrapped her in an embrace. “He’s only going to London, and you can have him out any time.”
“I m-miss him,” Alice said miserably. “He’s such a good brother, and I pushed him away, and this is all we have, and it’s my fault.”
“Hush. Brothers understand these things, and you have more with your Benjamin than I do with my younger brothers or sisters.”
“I miss Avie too,” Alice watered on. “I miss her so much. I haven’t seen her for five years, and that’s my fault too.”
“You are a terrible person,” Ethan assured her gently. “An awful sister and a disgrace of a governess. You should be banned by royal decree. Children should see you held up as a bad example, except my children, of course, and your name should replace Beelzebub’s as the imp of Satan. New sins should be named after you…”
He felt her shoulders twitch, and then she was aiming a soft, damp smile at him.
“Thank you.” When she should have stepped back, she bundled back in against his shoulder. “I’m all right until I see them, Ben or Vim, and then I go completely to pieces, but I miss them too.”
“I cried when I saw Nick for the first time in years.” He could say this to comfort her, and because she couldn’t see his face. “He cried too.”
“Of course.” Alice nodded against his chest. “When I saw Avie, I cried.”
There had been nothing
“She doesn’t leave Blessings and its surrounds,” Alice said, and she did step back—alas. Ethan proffered his handkerchief for her use. “She clings to the place. I can’t stand the thought of it.”
“I love Belle Maison,” Ethan said, missing the feel of her plastered against him. He linked his arm through hers by way of consolation and began a progress toward the battlefield. “Going back there made me recall the painful years of not being allowed to go home. It tainted the good memories.”
She sniffed at his handkerchief before using it to blot her eyes. “You need more good memories. You’ll bring the boys back for another visit, maybe at the holidays. You’ll pop out to check on Nick and Leah, and your sisters. I think they worry about you, by the way.”
“My sisters? We used to call them the Furies when they were little, so passionate were they in their loves and hates. I cannot wait to see what manner of gentleman takes each of them on.”
“Do you suppose they were curious as to which lady you wed?”
“A bastard approaches marriage differently,” Ethan said as they heard the first childish shrieks of glee. “Did honor not compel me, I would not have offered for Barbara, and I do not intend to find myself offering for anybody else.”
Alice peered up at him. “Why not? A woman loses everything by marrying. She becomes property, her
