Lions and Lace by Meagan Mckinney

Author:Meagan Mckinney
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781497661189
Publisher: Open Road Media

17

For three days they said not a word to each other, going about their daily routine in utter silence. Alana arrived for dinner; Trevor silently watched her be seated. When Trevor announced plans for the evening, he sent a note to her suite on her breakfast tray. The soirees were the most difficult. For Mara’s sake, Alana couldn’t let anyone know she was anything but pleased with her husband. So they play-acted with a vengeance Shakespeare would have approved.

Mara continued her social success. But sensitive to her brother’s moods, she couldn’t miss Trevor’s dark looks whenever she caught him gazing across a ballroom at his wife. It was worse when they spent the evenings at Fenian Court. The three of them would sit in silence, Trevor drinking his spirits, staring morosely at the fire, Alana working her Berlin wool-work as if the hounds of hell were after her to finish. Mara was beside herself. The time spent in the gazebo had done nothing to bring them together. If anything, Trevor and Alana seemed more cold and detached from each other than before.

This evening was spent much like the others, at home by the blazing hearth in the drawing room. They had dined on a magnificent turkey, but though the bird could have fed twenty, none of them seemed to have an appetite. Trevor was into his third glass of whiskey, and Alana was nervously admiring her finished needlework, a picture of Queen Victoria’s pet spaniel, clearly regretting the speed with which she had completed it. Mara was just about to go to the piano and stir them up by playing a bawdy Irish tune Eagan had illicitly taught her when the devil himself walked in.

Eagan entered the drawing room with as much disturbance as possible. He tossed his top hat onto the sofa next to Alana, startling her into looking at the door. Then he sauntered into the room, his gait none too steady, for it was a good train ride from Manhattan and when he had started out, the Pullman’s decanters were full. The smile on his face was dazzling, and Alana couldn’t help but return it.

“Sweet sister-in-law, how I’ve missed you!” He pulled her to her feet and bussed her soundly on the cheek. Embarrassed, Alana blushed and looked at Trevor. He stood and, white-knuckled, clutched his cane.

“What are you doing here, Eagan?” he said, his voice low and full of disapproval.

“Mara, me love, how foin it is to see yer luvely face agin,” Eagan announced, mimicking street Irish.

“What are you doing here?” Trevor asked, losing patience.

“Me own dear brother!” Eagan took the glass from Trevor’s hand and kicked back the entire contents. Finished, he put his hand on his chest and stumbled back, a grimace on his boyish face. He could barely speak. “I swear, Brother, ye be drinkin’ th’ bloody fires of hell. Thas stuff could kill the divil hisself!”

Trevor was not amused by his brother’s antics. Sternly he asked, “Why did you come here? Don’t

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