He turned but found Terry unmoved, arms rigid at his sides.
Aiden rushed past, “Do you want Amelia to be as fatherless as you?”
He poked his head out into the hall. “Finnegan,” he shouted. Two heads popped out from a nearby doorway. “Come quickly. Lord Henderson looks to be seizing.”
Finnegan’s wife bustled into the library and pressed her hands to Lord Henderson’s brow, touched his hands, and then peered into his eyes. “Likely shock over the discovery, Your Grace. I’ll get some cool compresses for his temper. He needs to be calm.”
Easy to suggest, but not easy to do in this situation. Aiden pushed Terry into an armchair opposite his father. “Now, sit there and wipe the scowl off your face—unless you’d like to inherit today.”
Terry tipped his head back and met his gaze, the corner of his lips lifting in a rueful smile. “I truly don’t want that.”
Aiden returned the grin. “Then be civil and have a drink with your father. I’ll pour.”
The lack of words behind Aiden’s back while he poured three drinks was stifling. He handed one to Terry, sat one by the still puffing Lord Henderson, and settled himself to act as chaperone.
Henderson
’s eyes fluttered open. “Saw you last night, and four years ago at another ball. Your hair was shorter then, clothes not so fine, but it was
you
flirting with my daughter.”
Terry crossed his arms over his chest. “A decent man would not flirt with a half-sister.”
“What did you want with her then? To ruin her chances of making a match?”
Aiden snorted. “Did she have a full drawing room of gentlemen callers today? If so, it was entirely her brother’s doing.”
Henderson
shook his head. “It was your attentions last night that spurred the other gentlemen to step forward. The house has been smothered in flowers since first light.”
Aiden chuckled. “I danced with Lady Amelia at Terry’s request. He was particularly distressed to have Lord Danbury anywhere near her and I was more than happy to oblige him with a favor.”
Henderson
stared at his son. “Why haven’t you come home?”
Terry crossed his leg over his knee. “I’ve been home, as you call it, eight times. There’s no place for me there.”
“Yes, there is.”
Henderson
sat forward. “My wife and daughters will just have to give way.”
Aiden lifted his hands to stop the argument that looked to be moments away. “Gentlemen, perhaps this discussion is best left for another day when you are both cooler in temperament.”
Terry’s head shook. “We leave tomorrow.”
Aiden closed his eyes as Lord Henderson spluttered, “You are not going anywhere, my boy.”
At the rate they were going,
Henderson
would truly have a seizure from the stress. When he opened them, Terry had stood, hands clenched into tight fists.
“Enough,” Terrance shouted as he stormed out of the chamber, leaving Aiden alone with Lord Henderson.
The aggravated man made to follow his son, but Aiden pushed him down into his chair again. “Relax, my lord, he’ll be back eventually.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Finnegan’s wife bustled in with a damp cloth and pressed it over the spluttering lord’s head. “We’ll keep this on till it heats then rinse it again in cool water.”
Since that didn’t sound too difficult for him to manage, Aiden caught her eye and tipped his head toward the door. “I’ll call you should we need you again.”
Although she frowned, she left as Aiden asked.
“Is it true?”
Henderson
asked suddenly.
“That Terry is leaving
London
? Yes, most definitely.”
Henderson
moaned. “I cannot lose him again. I’ve wondered about my boy all these years. We used to be very close. You have to convince him to remain.”
No wonder Terry was so bitter about
Henderson
remarrying so swiftly and having a new family to replace him. But it was a child’s reaction to disappointment to stomp and pout the way he did today. Eventually Terry would accept it. But only if given enough time. “I cannot do that, my lord. He is determined to explore the continent. If it is any consolation he will not be traveling alone. He has the children and will have my company, as well. He will not do anything foolish.”
Henderson
glared. “But will he come back?”
That decision would be entirely up to Terrance to make. Whatever he decided, however, would be good enough for Aiden. “I cannot make any promises on that head. But if he does wish to return I will do everything in my power to smooth his way back into society.”
Henderson
peered at him, his expression softening to puzzlement. “Why would you help him? He’s nothing to you.”
Aiden grinned at the depths of his entanglement. Life wasn’t worth living without Terry in it. “He was my friend, even before I knew he was your heir.”
“I will acknowledge his existence from today,”
Henderson
stubbornly insisted. “I will let everyone know that Viscount Hathaway is alive and well. I’ll hold a dinner this very week.”
Oh, good God, did
Henderson
not listen to a word spoken to him? Terry wasn’t ready for that kind of introduction. What if one of the guests was a prior customer? He shuddered. “Lord Henderson, while I do not know the particulars in detail, your son suffered terribly at the hands of others after the accident that took his mother. Things no child should experience, he says. Do not push him into society like this or he will simply disappear without a trace. He’s done it easily before of his own free will.”
Henderson
pulled the cloth from his head. His color was much better and his chest no longer heaved. “If he will not change his mind, will you write me of his whereabouts from time to time? Can you work on changing his mind?”
Reluctantly, Aiden nodded. A few years on the continent might change his mind. “We will see.”
Henderson
dragged himself out of the chair and held out his hand. “Don’t take too long, I’m not getting any younger.”
~ * ~
Despite the racket Maggie and Gerard were making across the garden, Terrance heard Aiden’s approach.
“He’s gone now,” Aiden murmured.
“Good.” Damn good of the old man to get the hell away. Terrance hadn’t liked conversing with his father at all, not when he clearly had thought him dead.
Aiden’s fingers brushed his thigh. “He’s resigned himself to your plans for travel and insists one of us write him.”
Terrance raked his fingers through his hair. He wouldn’t be writing to anyone but Henry. “What is it with people and letters?”
Aiden’s shrug jostled his shoulder. “Makes them happy to hear from us, as I understand it. It isn’t too big an imposition, is it?”
Gerald and Maggie raced around them, spinning happily as if they had always lived here. When they moved away to pester Finnegan, Terrance sighed. “You think I should claim my title and position in society, don’t you?”
His lover leaned hard against his side. “I think you should not rush to make a final decision. As Viscount Hathaway, you would have wealth and comfort. A half-sister who needs you. A friend who would like his friendship acknowledged as far as society needs to know. There are many things here in
London
that we could enjoy together.”
Terrance curled his arm around Aiden’s back in quick hug. “Do you know you smile as you talk now? You used to be so serious and stern.”
Aiden’s lips curled into a smile as he focused on the children darting about the garden beds and squealing. “That was before I met the real you. I am disgustingly giddy with joy now.”
“Giddy, eh?” Terry leaned closer. “There is this position I have heard of, requiring one partner to be hung upside down while his balls and arse are licked. Want to try it tonight? There will be little chance for pleasure once onboard ship.”
Aiden’s breath caught. “As long as you are with me, I’m up for anything. Will you think me a fool if I tell you I love you?”
Terrance gasped. He’d never expected so much from Aiden. But he was damn glad now that he’d taken a chance on the dark and dangerous Duke of Lewes. Like Terrance, he had hidden layers, the greatest one—his stubborn, fragile heart. He twined his fingers through his lover’s and squeezed. “You say the most extraordinary things, Your Grace, that my heart cannot take much more.”
Aiden’s smile was as warm as the sunset. “Then take me, any which way you choose.”
Lust, an ever present hunger, stirred within Terrance. “Don’t think I won’t bend you over, Aiden Banks, at the slightest provocation. By God, I’m itching to fuck that sweet arse of yours again.”
“Then have at it.” Aiden tugged Terrance toward the house, a sinfully wicked glint in his eyes as the sun set on the first day of their adventure together.
Epilogue
Terry stood stiffly at the ships railing, eyes fixed on the docks as they drew closer. “Think he will be there?”
Aiden scanned the crowd. “Have you ever known him to miss a potentially emotional reunion?”
“Gentlemen do not weep,” Gerald, now ten, insisted as he bounced up and down in excitement.
Today the boy began his own adventure. Today he became Terry’s legal son in the eyes of polite society—a lie so elaborate that Aiden had goggled at
Staines
’ proposal sent a year ago, a month after they had left
London
. Guilt had worked on
Staines
’ mind at the part he’d played in Terry’s life. Over the past year,
Staines
had cajoled, bribed and threatened murder to provide Terry with a plausible history after the accident that took his mother’s life—a lie good enough to pass the
ton’s
intense scrutiny including an early marriage, two children, and flight to the continent to avoid his overwhelming debts.
Those imaginary debts were paid now and as far as the
ton
believed, Aiden was fetching him home.
“Ladies surely do cry a lot,” Maggie argued. “My governess was always weeping over some trifling matter.”
Aiden lifted her into his arms so she could see the crowd better. Although Maggie insisted she was too grown up to allow it often, her arms circled his neck tightly in excitement. “Maggie, my girl, you are about to see an extraordinary event. The Duke of Staines is about to cry like a baby when he sees us.” He tickled her cheek and she giggled.
“You are so silly, Aiden.”
“And you, my girl, are a delight. See there, my sister-in-law, Mrs. Banks, is waiting to escort us home to
London
. She will likely boss you around mercilessly, as she does with everyone in the house, but she has our best interests at heart. She wrote to say she’s looking forward to meeting you and has fixed up your chamber at Mercer House very prettily.”