Stephanie Laurens - Beyond Seduction

He offered his salver and she picked up Sybil’s letter. Her brows rose as she realized it contained a card; breaking the seal, she unfolded the sheet and read the neatly inscribed lines, first on the sheet, then on the enclosed card.

Lowering the invitation, she hesitated, then asked, “Have my brothers returned yet?”

“I noticed them riding around to the stable, miss. I daresay they’ll be in the kitchen by now.”

“I daresay.” Her lips softened into a smile she shared with Milsom. “They’re no doubt fortifying themselves as we speak. Ask them to attend me here, please-they can bring their biscuits and scones if they wish.”

“Indeed, miss. Immediately.” Milsom bowed and withdrew.

Madeline read the card again, then laid it aside and returned to her figures.

She was shutting the ledger when a commotion in the corridor warned that her brothers were approaching.

Harry led the way into the office, his brightly burnished brown hair windblown, his rogue’s smile lighting his face. At fifteen, he was on the cusp of adulthood, poised between the carefree delights of boyhood and the responsibilities that awaited him as Viscount Gascoigne.

Edmond followed at his heels. A bare year younger, he was Harry’s shadow in all things. A trifle quieter, more serious perhaps, but the Gascoigne temperament-indomitable will and courageous if sometimes reckless heart-showed in his stride, his confidence as, alongside Harry, he grinned at Madeline and obeyed her waved command to settle in the chairs facing her big desk.

The last into the room was Benjamin, Ben, the youngest of the family and a favorite of all. Madeline held Ben especially close to her heart-not because she loved him any better than the other two but because he’d been a babe of mere weeks when Abigail, their mother, Madeline’s stepmother, had died, taken from them all by childbed fever.

With a tight grin for Madeline-his mouth was full of buttered scone-Ben, ten years old and with much of his growing yet to come, hiked himself onto a straightbacked chair and wriggled back, feet swinging.

Smiling-trying not to appear too obviously fond and doting-Madeline waited while they finished the last of their snack; she knew better than to try to compete with food for the attention of growing boys.

Her gaze rested on them, on the three faces alight with undimmed happiness, with the simple joy of living, and as she always did, she felt an overwhelming sense of rightness. Of conviction, of vindication. Of satisfaction that she’d done what she’d needed to do and had succeeded.

This-they-were her life’s work. She’d been barely nineteen when Abigail had died, leaving Ben to her care, with Harry a lost little boy of five and Edmond a confused four-year-old. Harry and Edmond had at least had each other, and their father. For virtually all of his life, Ben had known only her as a parent.

She and her father had been close; she’d been the older son he’d never had. Knowing he was ill, with Harry, his heir, so very young, her father had trained her to be the intermediary, a de facto regent-he’d taught her all she’d needed to know to run the estate, and left her to pass that knowledge on to Harry.

Struck down only months after Abigail’s death, her father hadn’t, as many people described it, lingered; he’d fought and clung desperately to life for nearly two years-long enough for Madeline to attain the age of twenty-one, and the legal status, backed by his will and their family solicitor, to become the boys’ co guardian.

It was no coincidence that her father had died a week after her twenty-first birthday.

Their solicitor, old Mr. Worthington, indeed a worthy man, was the boys’ other guardian. He’d honored his late client’s wishes to the letter and dutifully been nothing more than a cipher, approving any request or instruction Madeline made. She had nothing but fondness for Worthington. Then again, he’d been dealing with the Gascoigne temperament for long enough to acknowledge that the only person capable of dealing with her three brothers was another Gascoigne, namely herself.

She understood her brothers and they understood her. The bond linking them ran much deeper than mere affection, carried in blood and bone. They would all be, like her and their father, tall, strong and vital. Confident, too, masters of their lives, with a streak of open honesty that, on occasion, set others back on their heels.

She’d devoted the last ten years of her life to ensuring they were as they were, that nothing would dim their potential, that they would have every opportunity to be the men they might be, the best men they could be.

What she saw before her pleased and reassured. She’d never consciously questioned the decision she’d taken long ago, foisted upon her by fate perhaps, yet she’d never doubted that being the boys’ guardian was the right path for her. And if sometimes, in the quiet of the night when she was alone in her room, she wondered what might otherwise have been, the question was irrelevant, the thought behind it fleeting.

She’d made a decision, and she’d been right. The proof sat before her, licking crumbs from their fingers.

“The Crowhurst bull.” Her words brought all three boys instantly alert; her expression impassive, she watched them quell the impulse to glance at each other. Instead, they fixed their gazes, limpidly inquirying, on her.

“I spoke with his lordship yesterday,” she continued, “and smoothed things over. However, he said to inform you that he wasn’t amused.”

She made the last words sound ominous. Harry opened his mouth, but she held up a hand, staying his comments. “Be that as it may, you’ll have an opportunity to make your apologies in person. Or at least Harry will.”

“I will?” Harry looked taken aback.

She held up Sybil’s white card. “This is an invitation to dine at Crowhurst Castle this evening. For Aunt Muriel, me”-she looked at Harry-“and you.”

Their father’s older sister, Muriel, a widow, had come to live with them on their father’s death. Built on the same generous lines as all Gascoignes, although now elderly, she was still spry. While she used her age as an excuse to avoid any social gathering she did not choose to attend, Madeline didn’t need to ask to know that Muriel would be dressing tonight; while she was fond of her nephews, she doted on girls, and looked on Sybil’s daughters as de facto nieces. As Muriel had often told Madeline, albeit with amused understanding in her eyes, as Madeline had refused to give her a wedding to think about, she had to find her pleasures where she could.

Harry frowned. “Do I have to-”

“I suspect from what Lady Sybil has written-that she’s holding an impromptu dinner to spread the word that his lordship is home from London and expecting to remain at the castle through summer-that the other local landowners will also be present.” She met Harry’s gaze. “So, yes, as Viscount Gascoigne you should attend.”

Harry wrinkled his nose, then heaved a put-upon sigh. “I suppose I’ll have to start attending such events.”

Madeline felt a whisper of relief. “You may be only fifteen, but it’s better to start to learn the ropes now, little by little, and while your elders will be ready to excuse any blunders you might make.”

Harry shot her a twisted grin. “True enough.”

“I expect Belinda will be there, too, so you’ll have someone your own age to talk to.”

She fully expected Edmond and Ben-if not Harry himself-to make some sneering comment about girls; instead the boys exchanged swift looks.

Edmond nudged Harry. “You can ask how they broke the mill.”

“And about the lights on the headland.” Ben leaned forward. “If that was them.”