Danger Wears White by Lynne Connolly

Author:Lynne Connolly [Connolly, Lynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The next day, in the relative security of their London residence, Tony bided his time until he had Nick in the breakfast parlor, which was deserted at this time of day, early afternoon. The table was bare but for a tantalus bearing three decanters. Tony resisted the temptation, although he might have need of them later. As soon as Nick closed the door, Tony turned on him. “Leave Imogen Thane alone.”

Nick raised a brow in that infuriated supercilious way he had. “I found her quite charming. Unspoiled, you might say. Also quite astonishingly beautiful.”

“She doesn’t believe it.” Why had he said that? As if his brother needed encouraging.

“Why not?”

Tony shrugged. “How should I know? But she’s mine. I will claim her, and I don’t want you in my way.”

Nick’s lip curled. “And how do you propose to do that?”

Tony met his gaze, his eyes so much like the ones he saw in the mirror every morning. “Do you want to try my practical swordsmanship against your fencing lessons?”

Nick’s face turned stony. “Any time, brother. But I suggest we avoid such measures as our mother—”

Tony rounded on him leaning over the table that was all that separated them. “Don’t hide behind her skirts again! This means more to me than a broken toy or a torn waistcoat.” Naming those incidents from his youth only served to open wounds barely healed. And what he’d done to get away from them.

Nick turned away, walking to the end of the table, toward the sideboard. He touched the polished mahogany, tracing the grain, not looking at his brother. “Childhood incidents best forgotten.”

“Never forgotten.” Tony needed to tell the truth. Since he’d returned from the army they’d skated around the issue, been carefully polite to each other, as men should. Now, when Nick threatened to get between him and the thing he wanted most in the world, he couldn’t allow the issue to fester any longer. “Or rather, put in the shade by other things. Do you ever see her?”

“Who?” Nick didn’t turn around, but his shoulders stiffened.

“Paulina Spencer.”

The name dropped between them like a stone in still water. Here, at the back of the house, little stirred, the silence close to absolute.

“I remember her. Did that rankle, then?”

“Shall we start at the beginning?” Tony recalled Paulina’s lovely face, her sweetness and her joy. She was the brightest thing in his life when he was eighteen, but his resentment against his brother went much further than that. Forced together by their relationship to each other and their close ages, the brothers had, nevertheless, never formed a bond. Not surprising really, considering their history.

“How about when you nearly killed me? When you sawed through that branch? I had never known anyone so clever at that age.”

“I had to be,” Nick said. “Papa would have killed me.” His mouth tightened. “In any case, nearly killing you wasn’t my aim. Destroying your perfect tree house was. Yes, I resented you. What do you expect me to say? Despite being the second child, you were the darling.

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