Home Before Sundown by Tinnean

Author:Tinnean [Tinnean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2017-03-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

Lewis St. Claire returned to his father’s house in Gramercy and tossed the nag’s reins to the waiting groom.

He strode up the walk, took the shallow stairs in two steps, and stormed into the house. He knew at this time of day his father would be in his study, tossing back one glass of brandy after another.

The old man had always been quite fond of brandy, but lately he seemed even more so.

“Lewis.” Father peered at him over a snifter of the amber liquid. “I trust your wife is well?”

“She’s fine. Breeding again.”

“At least that’s one thing you’re capable of. Now if you could just get some sons.”

Beyond baring his teeth at him in an imitation smile of cordiality, Lewis didn’t bother responding to that. He was no more paternal than his father and had little to do with the brats Eloise had presented him with. Although a son would be nice if it got the old man off his back. What did Father care about who inherited? He’d be dead.

“To what do I owe the dubious pleasure of this visit?”

“I saw Olivia.” He was gratified to see the knuckles of the hand that gripped the snifter turn white, and he wondered idly if the glass would shatter. “Did you know she has three children?”

“Two,” his father corrected sharply. “The boy isn’t one of us.”

Lewis shrugged. Olivia considered the pretty boy to be her son. That might be something they could use as leverage. “She’s pregnant,” he announced as he poured himself a brandy.

“The father?”

“Pettigrew.” He left the snifter on the credenza, not that the old man noticed, he thought sourly.

“Goddammit.” Who had Father expected it to be? That useless boy, Barron? No, that was right, he was six feet under, rotting in the red Georgia clay.

“You’d prefer she cuckold her husband?”

“It certainly would have made things easier. No man wants a set of horns on his forehead.” He glared at Lewis for wont of a better target. “Pettigrew should have been taken care of at Gettysburg.”

By pulling a number of strings, his father had been able to get around the age factor and get Pettigrew drafted. Unfortunately, the man turned out to be a wizard when it came to horses, and the generals he served under had him doing that rather than facing the Rebels.

It had seemed their luck was about to change at Gettysburg, when the ambulance Pettigrew drove on occasion—he’d do that whenever they were short-staffed—was hit by a Union cannonball. So much had been going on that no one would have suspected anything other than bad luck. But Pettigrew had been called away at the last minute, another man had taken the ambulance, and once again Pettigrew had emerged without a scratch.

The man had more lives than a fucking cat.

“All right, this needs to end here and now.” Father set down his snifter with a snap and drummed his fingers on his desk.

Lewis took his pocket watch from his waistcoat pocket, opened it to check the time, then wound the stem and returned it to his pocket.

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