Scandalous Desires (Maiden Lane #3)(34)
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

Yet here he was, as brawny as ever. Asa had the shoulders of a bull and a mane of tawny hair like a young lion. The last year had given him a few differences, however. His scarlet coat was intricately embroidered at the cuffs and skirts, and his shirt, while plain, was of fine linen. Winter’s eyes narrowed. Interesting. However his brother made his living, he was apparently doing quite well for himself.

“What are you doing here?” Concord, never tactful, asked aggressively. “You don’t respond to letters, you don’t bother to make an appearance at Temperance’s wedding or the christening of my new daughter, or when Silence lost her husband at sea, and yet you think you can simply trot back home?”

Winter winced and murmured quietly, “We do need his help, Concord.”

“Ha!” Concord folded bulging arms across his chest. Like Winter, he dressed plainly in black and brown, his hat round and uncocked. “We’ve done just fine without him for the last year.”

“That was before Silence went to live in a pirate’s house,” Winter pointed out drily.

Asa, who’d propped one massive shoulder against the door frame, straightened now. “What pirate? You said in your letter to me that Silence was in dire danger. You never mentioned a pirate.”

Concord snorted.

“Mickey O’Connor,” Winter said quietly before Concord could go off on another tirade.

“Charming Mickey O’Connor?” Asa asked incredulously. “What is Silence doing with him? Did he kidnap her?”

“No.”

Asa pulled out a kitchen chair and sat, planting his elbows on the table. “Then why?”

“Last year a baby was left on Silence’s doorstep,” Winter explained. “Silence named the child Mary Darling and brought her here to the home. This was after Temperance married Lord Caire and was no longer managing the home with me. Silence took her position. She cared for all the children, of course, but she made Mary Darling her special pet.”

Concord stirred. “The baby was like her own. When William died, I think the child gave her comfort.”

Winter nodded. “I returned home from a trip to Oxford several days ago to find Silence gone. When I confronted her at O’Connor’s palace—”

“You went to Mickey O’Connor’s house by yourself?” Asa interrupted.

Winter met his eyes. “Yes.”

For a moment a startled look crossed Asa’s face, and then he slowly nodded. “Go on.”

Winter inclined his head. “She seemed quite as usual. She was dressed in her own clothes and frankly did not appear to be overly happy that I’d come to her rescue. She said that Mickey O’Connor was Mary Darling’s father—”

Asa swore and Concord glared at him.

“—and that O’Connor had brought her and the child to his home to protect them from his enemies. I could not persuade her to leave so I came away again. Now, however, there are questions being asked about where exactly Silence is. If the truth that she’s living with a notorious pirate becomes known…”

Winter shrugged. He didn’t need to tell his brothers what such information would do to the home’s good standing—and the money it needed from its patrons and donors. One whiff of impropriety and the fickle aristocrats would find some other charity to amuse themselves with.

“You should have picked her up and dragged her out bodily,” Concord growled.

Winter arched an eyebrow. “Past O’Connor and a half dozen of his men?”

Concord grimaced.

Asa rolled his eyes. “Trust you to advocate a near-suicidal action based on moral outrage.”

Concord half rose from his chair, bellowing incoherently. Asa rose as well and for the next several minutes the kitchen was filled with loud masculine rage.

Winter sighed and closed his eyes, raising one hand to gently rub his temple. He’d had a lifetime to observe the strained relations between his elder brothers. There were times when they could almost make it through a family meal without resorting to shouts, but those occasions were rare and becoming rarer. Concord dealt with the tension by assuming an unyielding line: He was entirely correct and by contrast everything Asa espoused was entirely incorrect. Winter had once overheard Temperance muttering under her breath that their brother should’ve better been christened Discord.

Asa’s response to this ceaseless state of friction was to disappear. It was a constant worry for their eldest sister, Verity. She feared—and Winter privately concurred—that someday their brother would go away and simply not come back.

His brothers’ voices died.

Winter opened his eyes to find both Asa and Concord scowling at him.

He raised his eyebrows. “Might we continue this discussion now?”

A smile tugged at the corner of Asa’s wide mouth. “We might.” He sobered. “What I don’t understand is why Silence trusted this pirate to speak the truth about his supposed enemies. Has he seduced her, do you think?”

Concord banged a hard fist on the table. “How dare you question our sister’s virtue?”

Asa looked at Concord coldly. “I find that people are capable of many different things. How do you know Silence wouldn’t fall under Mickey O’Connor’s spell? He’s rumored to be quite pretty.”

Concord opened his mouth, but Winter beat him to it. “We know because we have watched Silence in the last year,” he said quietly, but pointedly.

A ruddy flush lit Asa’s cheekbones.

“Silence might be as susceptible to sin as any other female,” Winter said, “but she would never be seduced by O’Connor. You know her history with him. What you may not know is that after William’s cargo was returned, relations between he and Silence were… strained. He perished on his last journey at sea and Silence blamed her confrontation with O’Connor for the sorrow in her marriage before William left.”

For a moment none of the men spoke. Winter looked at his brothers and wondered if they felt as helpless as he. He’d wanted to break things—to kill O’Connor—when he’d seen Silence after her night with the pirate. He hadn’t of course. Such violence would not have helped their sister.

That hadn’t stopped him dreaming of blood for weeks afterward, though.

“So you see,” Winter said quietly, “Silence must truly think that there is danger for the child. She’d never consent to be in the same building with him otherwise.”