Chapter 10 #2
Well, he could not avoid them forever. Not if they knew where he lived.
His heart heavy and footsteps unsteady, Edmund reached the top of the staircase and turned, as was his habit, to the left. One, two, three doors he passed until he reached the fourth. His room.
The door was slightly ajar and through it he could see a tall figure with his back to him. Edmund took a deep breath and opened the door.
“I thought I had just said my farewells to…”
Edmund’s jaw dropped open and he was unable to speak. The two gentlemen had turned to face him and they were not Tom and Jack Bletchley.
They could not be more different. The gentleman on the left was tall, with chestnut hair and fierce eyes; the one on the right had similar features, but his hair was darker and his jaw was tight.
Both of them wore greatcoats with gold thread, and one had a top hat of the highest quality under his arm.
Edmund blinked, but the mirage of two brothers did not disappear. But they were not Molly’s brothers.
They were his own.
“L-Luke?” He said, his voice croaked from exhaustion, thirst, and now utter shock. “George?”
Neither spoke, but Luke gave a curt nod. Edmund’s stomach clenched; of course it would be impossible for Luke to give him a friendly welcome. With Edmund’s banishment from the family, it had been Luke, as the second born, who had risen into his place.
Title, wealth, and fortune. He had never looked back, but now he looked into the face of the brother who had, to all intents and purposes, taken them from him.
“Good morning,” said George awkwardly.
Edmund could not help but grin. George, the baby of the family. He had never enjoyed the fights between the brothers, had always avoided them if he could.
Edmund coughed and moved into the room, throwing down his coat. When he turned back to face them, he found to his surprise that they were still there.
“What in God’s name are you doing here?”
As soon as the words were out, he could hear the callousness of his tone, but he could not help it. Being utterly abandoned by your family and ignored by your brothers will do that to a man.
“That is all you can say?” George sounded hurt, and his eyes were wide. “After five years?”
Edmund’s room had never been large, but it had only ever needed to be large enough for himself – and occasionally, a lady visitor. Three tall, broad, and angry men rather filled the space, and Edmund could not help but feel caged, like three tigers pacing up and down.
“It was hardly my fault,” he said tersely. “You knew what happened, you knew why I left. Did you think that being banished meant only seeing each other at Christmas and birthdays?”
“No, you are wrong.”
This time it was Luke who spoke, and Edmund marvelled a little at the strength and calm in his voice. When he had been forced out of the family home, Luke had been a man, it was true, but he had been young, awkward, unsure of himself.
That vision of Luke had gone. Before him stood a strong, determined, and self-assured gentleman.
That did not stop the hairs on the back of Edmund’s neck from bristling. “What do you mean, wrong? Wrong to think our father was a fool, and a dangerous fool? Or wrong to allow myself the pleasure of being ostracised from my family?”
Luke held his gaze as he sat onto the bed and leaned back, arms folded. “No, wrong to think that we knew what happened. We only discovered why Father threw you out a twelvemonth ago.”
The words echoed around the room as Edmund tried to comprehend them. “A – a twelvemonth ago? Just one year?”
George nodded. “Christmas Day of last year. I asked Father whether you would ever forgive us for whatever it was we had done – I was a child then, remember, I was not even aware for four months that you were not returning. I thought you had gone back up to Oxford.”
“And that was when he revealed his nature to us,” Luke said succinctly. “I prevented George and the younger ones bearing the brunt of it, but the story came out. We have been looking for you ever since.”
Edmund stared between them and saw no lies in their features. It was not like a Northmere to speak a falsehood, anyway. Far better to face the music than to swathe yourself in deceit.
“You…you honestly never knew?”
Luke shook his head. “You are a damned hard man to find, Ed.”
Edmund flinched slightly at the childish nickname. He had never liked it then, and Luke, as his nearest brother, had never lost the opportunity to use it.
But it felt strange now. Like a whisper to home, like a reminder of the life he could have been enjoying the last five years.
“It was only yesterday we received news that an Edmund Northmere was a regular at the King’s Head,” said George quietly. “We rode down last night, and was pointed in this direction. Your Mrs Bird said we could wait.”
Edmund felt unable to speak, unable to process the arrival of two members of his family in this room. It was as though two worlds were colliding; the life he had left behind, and the life he had built for himself in poverty and anonymity.
And through it all was the pain of Molly. His heart was full, too full, and it was all too much to comprehend.
He lowered himself onto the only other piece of furniture in the room, a rickety chair. “Why are you here?”
George and Luke exchanged surprised looks.
“Why, to restore you, of course,” said George.
Edmund snorted. “Oh, so Luke does not mind losing the family name? He is happy to forego the title – what was it, Marquis of Dewsbury? – as well as the income? ‘Tis a pretty purse you have become accustomed to, Lukey, I bet.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed. “That is for discussion. Discussion between brothers.”
“No, it is not,” Edmund said flatly. It hurt to say these words, but they had to be said.
If not now, he would not have the strength to speak them later.
“I have found my own way, gentlemen, and it may not have the power or prestige of the typical life of a Northmere man, but it is my life. Being a knight is more than enough for me.”
He saw their glances around the cramped and moulding room.
“You would rather have this?” Luke’s lip curled.
“No, I would rather have Molly!”
There was silence in the room and then Luke sighed heavily. “Women troubles?”
Edmund glared at his brother, the old rivalry returning, but then the heat dissipated and he sighed himself. “You have no idea.”
And yet it took but five minutes to explain the entire thing to his brothers, and he stared at them hopelessly as his tale came to an end.
“Ah, I see,” said George slowly, who evidently did not.
Edmund tried not to smile. Poor George, always awkward with the ladies. Had that changed in the intervening years, or was he still just as tongue-tied with them.
Luke sniffed. “I do not understand the problem.”
Anger started to rise again in Edmund but he tried to quash it. “Other than the fact that she lied, she betrayed me to her brothers, and any alliance with her would bring the Northmere name into disastrous disrepute?”
“She likes you,” said Luke wearily. “You clearly love her. You both have horrible brothers. And?”