Chapter 29

Twenty-Nine

THE CAT’S-EYE ROOM

It wasn’t just due to Ian’s long legs that he passed me.

He saw what I saw.

Therefore, he got to Portia and Daniel in the foyer before I arrived, and immediately wrapped his fingers around Daniel’s wrist, which was attached to his hand that was curled around Portia’s arm in an attempt to drag her, unwilling, back to the stairs.

“Release her,” Ian snarled.

Daniel didn’t move.

“Release her!” Ian thundered.

Daniel let go and Ian instantly shifted between him and Portia, planting a hand in Daniel’s chest and shoving him back.

I rounded them and went to Portia, pulling her in my arms.

She was trembling, but I didn’t think it was from fear. Instead, anger.

“I need her to listen to me,” Daniel said. “She’s not listening to me.”

“You’re old enough to know by now that when a woman doesn’t want to listen, you wait for when she’s ready to listen. And if she’s never ready, tough fucking luck,” Ian retorted.

“She froze me out all day yesterday and barely let me get a word in when she allowed me to speak with her this morning!” Daniel returned heatedly.

“Are you listening? Did you hear what I just said?” Ian asked.

The brothers stared each other down.

Both Portia and I started when we heard Richard order, “Go, Daniel. Walk it off.”

Everyone looked toward the mouth of the southeastern hall to see both Richard and Lady Jane there.

“Go,” Richard repeated inflexibly, disappointment heavy in his features. “Now.”

“I’m going for a ride,” Daniel bit, glowered at Ian, glanced at Portia, then he stomped off toward the northwest wing.

Portia suddenly pulled from my arms while watching Daniel leave, then she whispered, “I’m sorry.” She covered her face with her hands, let out a sob, and cried, “I’m so sorry!”

She then dashed to the stairs.

I headed after her, hearing Richard demand of Ian, “Follow your brother. Make sure he doesn’t do anything foolish and hurt himself.”

I was running up the steps but still saw Ian walking in the same trajectory as his brother.

I didn’t have time to think about how that would go.

I had to see to Portia.

* * *

It was early afternoon.

I was in the Cat’s-eye Room after trying for a short period of time to console Portia, who wanted to “…just be left alone, just for a little while. I need to get my head straight.”

I got a text from Ian who said he was going riding with Daniel, and I hoped that went okay as I headed down to the kitchen to keep a date with Bonnie.

She ordered in pastries from a small bakery that operated out of a local farm, but she wanted to do them herself. She had some experience, but it was an area of cookery she hadn’t yet fully explored. So we made some rough puff together and then moved to choux, both of which she was familiar with, but I showed her some shortcuts that still produced delicious results.

She then had to focus on lunch, but I had nervous (and angry) energy to spare, and I felt at home in any kitchen, so I asked if I could make dessert for dinner that night.

She agreed. I checked her larder. And then I created my fiddly orange custard cake which Americans would recognize as reminiscent of a Creamsicle.

Richard and Lady Jane had Dover sole up in the Viognier Room. I munched on a bacon and brie baguette in the kitchen while I lost myself in the warm comfort of baking.

Now I was in my favorite room of the house (outside the Conservatory and Hawthorn), my Kindle in my hand but my eyes staring unseeing at the cold fireplace.

This was when Ian sauntered in.

For the second time that day, I watched him throw himself on a couch, this time the one across from me, but these movements were even more beleaguered than the last.

“How is she?” he asked.

Back straight, prim and pissed, I answered, “I don’t know. She was too upset to talk. She wanted to be alone. I texted her when I finished in the kitchen with Bonnie, and she said she was feeling better, and she was going to talk to Daniel when he returned.”

“Well, he’s returned.”

I glared at him.

“I have no excuses for my brother,” he said on a harassed sigh.

“I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at him.”

He slouched in the couch so his head was resting on the back, lifted his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

I felt for him. His brother was a mess.

I was still angry Daniel put his hand on Portia in that manner. Granted, it hadn’t been violent, but when someone didn’t want to be where you wanted them to be, unless they were in a situation where they were possibly going to harm themselves, you didn’t physically make them be where you wanted them to be.

But regardless, Daniel had far from been impressing me since I arrived, so I might be overreacting, but with cause.

Ian dropped his hand, kept his pose, but lifted his head to look at me.

“Danny and his mates have created some app.”

I tipped my head to the side, still pissed and knowing nothing he could say would change my mind about his brother, but willing to listen.

“He’s working his job, but he was also the one responsible for getting the funding for startup. As you know, I keep an eye on him, and I knew he was hitting people up for funding. I just didn’t pay too much attention because Danny is, well…”—big sigh—“Danny. He wasn’t being a nuisance to mutual friends or people I have business relationships with, and the project wasn’t outlandish. They get capital requests like that all the time. But mostly, I didn’t think anything would come of it and he’d eventually lose interest.”

I nodded when he paused.

He carried on, “He managed to get the funding needed, and they launched a few months ago. Things are going better than expected, much better, so they’ve decided to expand. Too quickly, in my opinion. But it isn’t my project. It has something to do with football, and they’re adding cricket and rugby. They needed to hire another coder, and that takes money, and still seeing to his regular employment, he was also trying to see to that. He was burning the candle at both ends, and I think we both know this is just me relating the story, with no judgment because you won’t be surprised at this, but Portia wasn’t having it that he didn’t have as much time for her as she’d like.”

Fabulous.

But he was right. I wasn’t surprised.

Ian kept going. “So she offered the money.”

“God damnit,” I mumbled.

Ian nodded. “She pledged to cover their shortfall and saw to that for the past two months, but now she’s cut off, she can’t continue because she needs what she has left to pay her own bills. They’ve already hired the coder, announced the launch of the additional arms of their app, dumped money into marketing them, people are expecting them to release in three months. It was already a tight timeline, and Daniel’s sunk everything he has in this thing, his mates are leveraged up to their necks, they have nothing left to give. They need that money.”

I said nothing.

“He showed me the app. It’s interesting. It’s good. Hundreds of thousands of people have downloaded it. They’ve tried to keep investment minimal so they don’t have to dole out the dividends they want to put in their own pockets to too many shareholders. Now, he needs to find the shortfall and he needs to find it yesterday.”

“So he’s with my sister for her money,” I remarked.

He sat forward, elbows to his knees, and replied, “No. I believe he genuinely loves her. He’s actually in deep for her. Deeper than I suspected. Deeper than even he suspected. Now he’s worried he’s fucked it up beyond redemption, especially after this morning. He didn’t ask her for the money, he swears it. He said she offered. He’s upset that it won’t be forthcoming. However, when she was angry about Brittany, and as such, he should never have broached the subject, at least not now, and like the imbecile he can be, he brought it up. And now she’s convinced he’s with her for the money.”

I had nothing to say to that either.

He pushed up from his knees and announced, “I told him I’d cover the shortfall.”

I was surprised at that. “It’s not my place to advise you how to deal with your brother, but is that wise?”

“It’s not your place?”

That was unexpected.

“Are we there yet?” I inquired.

“He’s seeing your sister, you’re sleeping with me. You’re smart. You have a thriving business of your own. You care about her. I hope you care about me. Isn’t that what relationships are? You have each other’s backs and advise when it’s needed?”

I went cautiously when I asked, “Are we in a relationship?”

“Aren’t we?”

We’d had one date, but had spent so much time together, it amounted to fifty (maybe an exaggeration, but it felt like that). And we’d slept together repeatedly, but we hadn’t yet had sex.

It was wild, but there was only one answer to his question.

We absolutely were.

“Okay, then, allow me to rephrase,” I requested. “Is that wise?”

He seemed appeased and shared, “The app is good. I negotiated a percentage. I’m giving them more than they need so they can hire a further coder and launch on time. He’s written a business plan. He shared the basics of it with me, and they have a solid, if risky and aggressive marketing strategy. A plan for future growth, even beyond these new arms they’re launching. This is a serious project. It isn’t a lark. He’s using words I’ve never heard him use and he’s using them correctly. And it sounds like he’s worked his ass off to make it happen. This has potential to be rather successful. I’d be proud of him if he wasn’t acting like such a bloody idiot.”

I returned my gaze to the fireplace, but I looked back to him when he stood.

“I’m not going to state his case. If he patches things up with Portia, he’ll have to put the work into convincing you he’ll treat her right. But he did promise that would never happen again and it wasn’t his intention to hurt her. Just get her to listen and stop her from shouting at him in the hall.”

“That’s stating his case, Ian.”

He gave me a rueful smile.

“What can I say?” he asked softly. “Danny’s my brother. The ride was long, we talked about a lot of things, but mostly Portia. I think he’s considering marrying her, and he’s an absolute mess, worried like fuck between this and Brittany, he’s blown it.”

I knew Ian loved his brother, but I hoped he’d blown it.

Although it sounded like Daniel had put his attention to something that was worthwhile and he was finding his way, both of those two bumbling along the right path, however right, they were still bumbling, didn’t give me good feelings.

“I had barely any breakfast,” Ian said. “And no lunch. I’m going to go down and get something to eat, then I need to find Dad and set some time to talk about the handover of the earldom.”

“In other words, it’s shaping up to be another sterling day for you, baby,” I murmured sympathetically.

He made no comment to that. He just came around to my couch, bent to me and kissed the top of my head.

Then he said, “I’ll have to see to some work after that. But I’ll see you at dinner?”

“You will.”

“I’m looking forward to whatever you’ll be wearing.”

I decided just what that would be, and I smiled.

He let out a low growl at my smile, a growl I felt in several places in my body, before he moved to the doorway.

He stopped before he used it and turned back to me.

“I feel shit he didn’t come to me from the very beginning. Worse, because I knew he was looking for funding, but I dismissed it not really knowing what it was or how dedicated he was to getting it done. He said he wanted something of his own, but I know I’ve made him feel like the idiot he acts a lot of the time, and he believes in this project, put everything he has behind it, time and money. Thus, he didn’t want me throwing what I thought about him in his face.”

My poor baby.

“This isn’t your fault, Ian,” I assured him.

“I miss my brother, and I’ve convinced myself he’s the whole of the issue that’s keeping us disconnected, not seeing I might have a part to play in it.”

I didn’t think it was the time to remind him that his brother thought he’d stolen Ian’s girlfriend and then went about the effort of parading that in his face with this long visit. That same girlfriend he now might be considering marrying. And all the other rash decisions Daniel had made after reckless actions he’d committed, one of which meant I still had plasters on my temple.

Instead, I said, “You’re a good brother for thinking that way. And now it seems this visit for us both has us reconnecting with our siblings in good ways, so let’s just go with that.”

He did that affectionate chin lift I loved so much, this time with a lovely, soft expression on his face, before he left the room.