Page 5 of A Lyon’s Lesson

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Rick was roused from sleep by the irate voice of his eldest brother.

“Damn it Reynolds, stand aside. I will have speech with my brother!”

Rick groaned and covered his head with the pillow. He knew what this was about. The events of last night would be all over London by now, and it was too much to hope that his brother hadn’t heard of his craven act. What made him do it he didn’t know, some instinct to flee an obvious trap. And he had not only abandoned Cecelia to her fate, but he had left his mother stranded, too. She would have been regaled, in no doubt lurid detail, with his supposed heinous behavior. And the worst part was that no one was going to believe he wasn’t the one responsible for Cecelia’s ruin.

His bedroom door was flung open and the Wrath of God in the form of his eldest brother strode into the room, his features set in the form of a thundercloud.

“Get out of that bloody bed and account for yourself!” he said.

Kenrick struggled upright, his shoulders creeping up in natural umbrage at this address. In his brother’s eyes, he was already guilty of the worst without a hearing. Typical!

Striving to mask his annoyance, he said carelessly, “You’ve heard, I gather? Was it Mama or some random gossip?”

“Mama, of course! She was distraught! What the bloody hell happened? Were you drunk or just out of your skull?”

Kenrick swung his legs over the side of the bed and rose. He was naked, as he never wore a night shirt—he found them constricting and hot. He stretched his long body, mostly for show, and moved past his fuming brother toward the basin where the excellent Reynolds had left him jugs of hot and cold water. He chose the cold one, pouring a quantity into the bowl and dunking his head.

“Well?” prompted Robert behind him with barely concealed impatience.

“What do you think happened?” countered Rick, wanting to hear Rob condemn him in his own words.

“I don’t know! That is why I am asking you. I cannot believe you are so lost to all decency as to assault a young woman and abandon her—and yet that is what appears to have happened. I am asking you if there is another explanation.”

Rick’s shoulders dropped slightly, and he let out a breath. Toweling his head dry, he said carefully, “You think there might be another explanation than the obvious conclusion everyone has jumped to?”

“I’m waiting to hear it, if there is one,” said Robert grimly.

He turned to face his brother. “It wasn’t me, Rob. I didn’t do it.”

“You were seen with her Rick! And you abandoned her to those cats, Jersey and Cowper! Her reputation is ruined! And you are responsible!”

That bloody word, responsible! It stabbed him in the chest, and his impulse to tell Robert the truth of what happened dissolved in stubborn, sullen bravado. If Rob is determined to believe the worst of me, why not confirm it?

“Believe what you like!” he said, turning away from his brother’s accusatory gaze.

“Are you telling me you weren’t there? That the patronesses of Almack’s mistook someone else for you?”

Rick shrugged a shoulder, reaching for a pair of breeches flung over the back of a chair. He was aware of Reynolds hovering in the background.

“Doing it too brown, Rick. Tell me the bloody truth!”

Rick’s temper snapped and he rounded on his brother. “I’m telling you the fucking truth! It wasn’t me!” He was fully aware that he had his brother at cross purposes. But some perverse part of him wanted to see how far he could push Robert to reveal what he really thought of him.

“Did you hurt her?”

“Do you think me capable of that?” Rick countered, his heart thudding heavily in his chest and a sick feeling roiling in his stomach.

“At one time I would have said unequivocally no. But lately—”

“Thanks!” said Rick bitterly. “I’ve heard all I need to hear! Get out!”

“Rick—!”

Rick advanced on him, using his additional inches to loom over his elder brother and said menacingly, “I’m not eighteen anymore, my lord Duke! You can’t order me around! Get. Out!”

Robert bowed stiffly and said quietly, “When you come to your senses, go and apologize to Mama for abandoning her, at least. Between Ravenshaw being clapped up in Newgate and you behaving like an ass, the Layne reputation is all but ruined. Not that I expect you to care for that. You might, when you pull your head out of your arse, perhaps think about the effect all this is having on your mother and sisters.”