Chapter 8
Eight
“Hugo, please stop,” Dorian called as Hugo shifted the positioning of the ladder against the side of the house. “You don’t have lunch with the bloody prince and then climb onto the roof. It’s…it’s just not done.”
Hugo glanced at his brother and frowned. “It wouldn’t matter if I had dinner with the king and queen—the roof still needs to be fixed.”
“Yes, but your mind isn’t focused on fixing things. Your mind is on other things, which it shouldn’t be if you’re going to be on a roof.” Dorian marched over and pulled the hammer from Hugo’s fist. “We didn’t get you back from near death only to have you fall and break your neck.”
“I’m not going to break my neck.”
Dorian pointed the hammer at him. “The sun is setting, and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It won’t rain. You can get onto the roof tomorrow. I’ll even help you.”
Hugo stared skeptically at his brother, who very much hated doing anything with tools unless it had something to do with books. “You’ll help?”
“Sure. I’ll hold the ladder or carry nails. Or whatever. As long as it takes. I don’t want you on the roof today.”
Hugo sighed and moved the ladder away from the side of the house. He put it on the grass. Tomorrow he would fix the roof. As much as he hated to admit it, Dorian was right. His mind wasn’t on the hole in the roof, and knowing his luck, he would probably tumble off and break his neck.
“So…do you want to talk about it?” Dorian asked. He was swinging the hammer idly, not paying attention to what he was doing.
Hugo grabbed the hammer from his hand and set it with the ladder before his brother could hurt himself.
He wished his father had spent more time teaching them to be handy with things other than baking.
All three of them had taken dancing and fencing lessons.
They could comfortably ride a horse, but only Augustine showed any practical aptitude toward things like fixing up the house.
The problem was getting him to stay still long enough to do the maintenance it needed.
“Have a certain prince on your mind?” Dorian continued.
“No,” Hugo snapped. He marched around to the front of the house, Dorian trailing behind him.
“Funny enough, that actually sounded like a yes to me.” He sped up to get in Hugo’s path and made a show of shaking one ear as if to clear it. “Could you try saying that again for me?”
Hugo glared at his younger brother. Dorian was usually the right amount of nosy and helpful. He just didn’t feel like Dorian could be helpful this time.
“Where’s Augustine?”
“Bathing, thank the gods. He caught some nice trout for dinner, but he returned smelling like the lake. Mother is cleaning the fish and working on dinner. Now talk.”
Hugo wandered over to a small bench under a large oak tree and sat with a sigh.
The branches swayed in the breeze and golden light filtered through the leaves, creating a magical dappling effect that left Hugo feeling wistful.
“I guess Prince Everand is on my mind, but not how you are thinking. I’m… disappointed.”
“How? Was he not as handsome as everyone says?”
“More! He was gorgeous. His smile. I think it stopped my heart more than once.” Hugo pressed his hand to his chest as if to check that it was still beating even now.
“His face is perfect, and his physique. I think he was only an inch or two taller than me, but his shoulders and chest were so broad. I can’t even imagine how many hours he must spend fencing. He even boxes, I’ve heard.”
“But…”
Hugo opened his mouth, but for a moment the words couldn’t come out. How could he say these things about the prince? Well, he needed to get them out if he was to overcome his frustration.
“He was a complete ass!” Hugo threw his hands up in the air as the anger burst out of him.
“We’ve all heard for years how charming, pleasant, and erudite the prince is, but he was an uncouth boor.
Rude, disrespectful, and self-centered. I understand that the luncheon wasn’t his idea and that he didn’t want to share a meal with me, who he thought was yet another prospective match his mother had set up for him, but he could have at least been a tiny bit polite.
He barely ate and left in the middle. Yes, I’m a nobody, a commoner, the son of a baker, but he could have pretended for a little while.
Wouldn’t that have been the polite, well-bred thing to do? ”
Dorian dropped onto the bench beside Hugo, a frown digging deep lines into his narrow face. “You’re not a nobody. Please don’t say that.”
“Yes, but I’m not royalty or a noble.”
“That doesn’t matter. It still doesn’t make you a nobody.”
The angry knot of frustration that had pulsed in Hugo’s gut unwound itself, allowing him to feel better. “I guess I’m just…”
“Disappointed?”
“Yes. Like we’ve all been lied to. I saw a hint of what might be a delightful sense of humor, but everything else seemed to overwhelm that bit of goodness.”
“I’m sorry, Hugo.” Dorian placed his hand on Hugo’s slumped shoulder and squeezed. “At least it’s not like you were actually hoping to marry him. It would be worse if you discovered you were betrothed to an ass like that.”
Hugo huffed a laugh. “True. What makes it even worse is that it turns out the man I saved the other day from the runaway carriage was Prince Everand.”
“What? No!” Dorian gasped.
“Yes, and he didn’t even remember me.”
“Are you kidding me?” Dorian launched to his feet, his pale cheeks instantly flushing.
His dark-brown eyes sparkled, and his nostrils flared.
“You saved his life and got splashed from head to toe with mud, and he didn’t remember you?
That bastard! I am going to march right to the castle and bash him over the head with a book! ”
Dorian spun on the ball of his right foot and took two steps as if he were really going to the palace to have it out with the prince.
Hugo choked on a laugh and lunged after his brother, catching him by the elbow and pulling him back down on the bench.
Dorian’s outrage washed the last of the anger from Hugo’s system.
“You wouldn’t dare hit him with a book. You wouldn’t risk hurting the book,” Hugo reasoned.
“That’s true. Where’s the hammer? I’ll hit him with that.”
Hugo laughed harder, leaning against Dorian as they sat together under the tree. “You’re not hitting the prince with a hammer. You’d never get through the front gate.”
“It doesn’t matter. Now I’m very glad you’ll never see him again. He’s obviously not worth a tenth of you. And I hope the queen arranges for him to marry someone equally boorish and ugly. Plus, I hope they smell and have never read a single book.”
Hugo coughed, choking on another laugh. That was the worst insult Dorian could think of—someone who didn’t read. “No, that’s not nice,” Hugo chided.
“I don’t really care.” Dorian folded his arms over his chest and tipped his chin up. “He doesn’t deserve someone good like you.”
“No, but if he were to fall in love with someone who was kind, intelligent, and compassionate, it might give him the nudge he needs to become a better person.”
“Maybe,” Dorian mumbled, still not budging from his stiff pose.
“And if he’s going to be king one day, wouldn’t it be good if he were a compassionate, thoughtful person?”
“Ugh. Fine. I don’t wish misery on his head, even if he deserves it.”
Hugo smiled at his brother. He didn’t know what he’d do without Dorian.
His brother kept him grounded and pulled him from some of his darkest thoughts.
More than anything, he wanted to see Dorian properly settled into a loving relationship where the other person respected his passion for books.
Dorian deserved to live in a house with an enormous library and a husband who doted on him.
And the best way to ensure that for Dorian was for Hugo to marry well. With a prince as a husband, all the doors of the kingdom would open for Dorian, but marrying Prince Everand would never happen. However, that didn’t mean there wasn’t a baron or rich merchant out there who could be a good fit.
That was a long-term plan. They needed more short-term answers to get them through the Season.
“How is the bookshop?”
Dorian grimaced and slouched. “I haven’t been to work yet. When all this happened, I immediately ran to Mr. Cuthbert and told him we were having a family crisis. He was very understanding and said that I could begin work tomorrow.”
“That was very thoughtful of him. Have you told Mother?”
“Nooooo,” Dorian admitted in a near whine.
“With her fluttering about and sobbing over you and her stupid lie, I didn’t think it was a good time to tell her I got a job.
I didn’t want her going on about how I had no prospects because I was working as a clerk in a bookshop.
” Dorian leaned his shoulder against Hugo’s and flashed him an overly bright smile.
“But now that you’re home, I thought you could break the news to her.
She listens to you so much better than me. ”
Hugo groaned. “That’s nonsense, and you know it.”
“No, it’s not. She rarely listens to any of us, but she listens to you a little bit, which is vastly better than nothing.”
With a grunt, Hugo shoved his snickering brother off him and pushed to his feet. “You’re almost as bad as Augustine.”
“Hey! That’s not nice!” Dorian shouted, trailing after him as he started for the house. However, Hugo could hear his snickers underlying his words.
Hugo hid his grin behind his hand. Yes, he would do anything to see his brothers happy and safe. Even marry rude Prince Everand if he had to.