“You dislike me, for one, my lord, and for two, you told my brother your sister was promised to another simply because you see me as a threat to her.”
“You’re a direct man, Dillinger.”
“I’ve always found it’s the best way to be.”
“I should imagine with a brother like yours, you learned to defend yourself early in life, so you can be.”
“I did. He left when I was young. It was then my job to protect my family.” He regretted those words as soon as they left his mouth.
“How old were you?”
“Eight.”
“Dear Christ.”
“Do not pity me, Lord Raine. We all survive the best way we can.”
“Eight is still a child.”
Daniel didn’t reply, and as the food was being placed on the table behind them, he considered the conversation over.
“The food has arrived, my lord.”
“So there you are!” Dimity entered, hands on hips. She did not look happy. Behind her was Abby.
“As you see.” Lord Raine got to his feet. His eyes were on his sister. “Will you share our meal?” He waved at the table and spoke as if Daniel and he were friends and often sat down to eat together.
“We will. Come along, Abby, you need nourishment.”
Abby didn’t glance at her brother, only him, and the devastation was still there in her eyes. What her brother had done had cut her deep. He wanted to touch her, smooth away the lines of pain in her face. Instead, he pulled out her chair and settled her in it. Her brother wisely stayed away.
It was an odd party of four who politely passed each other condiments and potatoes. In fact, it was likely the strangest meal he had ever eaten. He sat with the woman who turned him inside out, her brother who he did not like very much, and Dimity, who he wasn’t sure how to describe.
“How are you feeling, Daniel?” Abby said, and he watched Lord Raine’s hand tighten around the handle of his knife at her use of his name.
“Very well, thank you, my lady.” He had no wish to antagonize Raine further. He may have said Daniel could use his first name, but clearly he had no wish for his sister to do so.
She proceeded to talk to him and Dimity, ignoring her brother. Her words were slowly spaced and deliberate, telling him she was still slightly under the influence of whatever she’d imbibed. When she started hiccupping, Daniel poured her some water.
“Perhaps you should retire, sister?”
She ignored her brother.
“As you seem under the weather.”
“Oh, do you mean I may have overindulged, brother?” The words were so sickly sweet, they came out coated in treacle.
“I do,” Lord Raine snapped.
Abby picked up the glass Daniel had been drinking from and took a large swallow. He had to commend her, as it was whiskey, but the only sign of her discomfort was the flush of color in her cheeks and watering eyes.
“Your behavior, sister, is reprehensible!”
To be fair, had it been one of his sisters, they would have reacted no differently, and Raine was pushing it to think otherwise. Seconds later he had a spoonful of thick brown gravy dribbling down his shirt. Dimity didn’t help matters; she clapped.
Abby was clearly a few glasses into a bottle of something, and this had given her courage.
“That was extremely childish of you, sister.”
“You,” she pointed her knife at her brother, which even Daniel knew was not done, “have no right to speak to me of behavior. You are a drunkard, a liar, and a womanizer!”
Daniel swallowed his smile at the militant look in her eyes. He knew she had spirit, he’d seen it, but this was different. Years of social training were suddenly out the window, and he had to say he was enjoying it far more than he should. Dimity winked at him from across the table.
“How dare you speak to me in such a way!” Lord Raine roared.
“Children, please,” Daniel said, because really, it was the moment for it.
“Shut up, Dillinger!”
“Don’t tell him to shut up! All of this, everything that has happened is your fault, Gabriel!”
“I did not make you drink too much liquor nor behave like a woman with loose morals.”
“That will do, Raine.” Daniel would not have anyone, even her brother, speaking to Abby like that.
“Don’t tell me how to speak to my sister!”
“I will if you insult her.” Daniel sent the earl a look. “She has done nothing to deserve that from you.”
Raine tried to stare Daniel down, and the tension in the room rose.
“This entire situation is of your instigation. Perhaps when you understand that, your relationship with your sister will improve.”
“Daniel—”
“Let me speak, my lady.” He threw her a gentle smile before looking at the seething earl once more, who now had a great deal of color in his face and looked ready to explode.
“You lied to my brother, Raine. Lied about your sister, and while I understand you believe your motives were pure, it is you who are in the wrong.” Daniel didn’t usually get involved in people’s lives, and most especially not the lives of noblemen, but this was Abby, and try as he might he could not distance himself from what he felt for her. He would learn to, but not while she sat inches away from him in pain.
“This does not concern you, Dillinger.”
“In that, I think you are wrong, my lord, as like Dimity I am here and you took the action you did because of me. Your sister deserves an apology. I doubt she’ll accept it, as mine usually like to make me suffer for several days, but it is a place to start.”
The earl’s lips clamped together in a thin, angry line.
“Tell her what your father said to you, Raine.” Daniel got to his feet.
