“Nothing, Father,” Evan said in that automatic singsong of his.
“Nothing! But what—? You don’t intend to tell me, do you?” He looked pointedly from one son to the other. “I thought not. Everything has to be a conspiracy against me. Well, I should be used to it by now. I don’t know why I worry…” Lord Mountjoy stomped out of the stable and toward the house, talking to himself.
Evan chuckled first. “Does he often do that?”
Terry snickered. “More and more of late.” He wiped his eyes on his sleeve. Evan went to him and put his arm about his shoulder, causing Terry to wince a little. “I hurt you, didn’t I? I’m sorry. Just tell me when you want to borrow the colt. You’re more important to me than him.”
“Do you mean it?”
“Of course I do. You’re my brother.”
“No, I meant the part about borrowing your horse.”
“Yes, I mean it. Let’s get you cleaned up and to bed. You will look rank at breakfast if you don’t get an hour or two of sleep.”
“I am a mess.”
“You should have seen me at your age.”
Judith encountered the unlikely pair on the stairs and gave them a wide berth. “I shall be a bit late,” Evan warned.
“Take your time,” she said with amusement, wrinkling her nose at the stench they were carrying in with them.
“A madhouse!” Lord Mountjoy shouted, coming out of the library. “I live in a madhouse! Oh, Judith, where is yesterday’s paper? I’ve searched the entire library.”
“I put it under the blotter on your desk so no one else could get at it.”
“Bless you, my dear. You’re the only one, the only one who cares about me at all.” The force of this was somewhat lost on Judith, since it was bellowed up the stairway for the benefit of his sons.
“What the devil is all the racket?” Ralph complained, coming out of his room with his robe askew.
“Racket, is it? Back to bed with you, you ungrateful whelp,” Lord Mountjoy shouted.
Ralph’s face disappeared, and Angel only peeked over the banister before disappearing again. Judith thought perhaps she should go check on Helen, but sat on the stairs instead, listening to both the ranting of Lord Mountjoy in the library and the rumblings from Terry’s room. Evan finally tramped down the stairs and lifted her to her feet.
“What’s the matter, Judith?”
“Our lives were sadly dull before you came to Meremont.”
“God grant we may enjoy some dullness when I am safely ensconced in Gram’s house.”
Lady Mountjoy, far from being asleep upstairs, whirled out of the breakfast parlor. “You! I thought I told you no more riding alone with this—this soldier. It is highly improper for you to go unescorted in his company.”
“But—”
“She is right, Judith,” Evan agreed.
“What?” demanded Judith and Helen in unison.
“I have been giving it some thought, and as we are not related by blood, I think we do need a chaperon to protect your reputation, especially since I am a soldier. So nip upstairs and get Angel into her riding habit. Run along. Taurus will be rested enough to ride by then.”
“But—but will she come?” Judith asked uncertainly as she groped her way up the stairs, not at all sure of Evan’s sincerity in wanting Angel to join them.
“She has been wanting to learn to ride. Of course she will come.”
“You think you have got around me with this trick, but I won’t countenance your attentions to either of my sisters,” Helen said.
“Even a soldier could hardly seduce both of them at once.”
“Watch your mouth, young man, or I will do as I said.”
Lady Mountjoy exited just as her husband came into the hall. “What is going on out here? I cannot even read in peace.”
“Nothing, Father,” Evan said innocently.
“Nothing, is it again? If I hear that from you one more time I’ll strangle you with your own stock. What are you doing standing in the hall?”
“Just waiting to take the girls riding.”
“The girls? Both of them?”
“That’s right.”
“I won’t have that Angel on one of my horses, do you hear me?” Lord Mountjoy pointed an accusing finger.
“She may ride my gelding.”
“We haven’t had a moment’s peace since you returned. It’s a madhouse, a madhouse!” He slammed the library door after himself.
Bose peeked around the door frame.
“The coast is clear for the moment,” Evan said with a vague smile.
“Have you any idea what that sounds like from below?”
“No, are we vastly entertaining?”
“Don’t give me that innocent look. What have you been up to?”
“Other than a brawl with my brother and a shouting match with Father and Helen, nothing. Make us something fortifying for breakfast, will you? I shall need it after Angel’s riding lesson.”
Bose went grumbling down the back stairs to the kitchen, Judith reappeared with an excited Angel and Evan stared only momentarily at the concoction on the child’s head.
True to form, Angel lost her hat at the slightest hint of a canter and clutched the saddle so desperately she made no pretense of reining her horse. That was a mercy, since she could not then jab the animal in the mouth. He and Judith had a tolerable time laughing at Angel.
Breakfast was strangely quiet after the commotion of the morning, each of them avoiding the prospect of another argument. Lord Mountjoy stared hard from one to the other of his strange family, almost daring them to break the peace. He did not do so himself except to adjure Ralph to mend his dress with some shirt points he could see over. To this end the algebra lesson was cut short and the poetry skipped altogether in favor of Ralph going shopping.
Evan found Judith in the garden beside the house, fitting Thomas with a new jacket. Thomas was talking quite volubly to her about his puppy, which he was leading by a piece of rope thick enough to tether a bull. Evan laughed at this arrangement and wrestled with the pup with one hand, as Thomas looked on proudly.
“Aunt Judith, are you sure you have taken all the pins out this time?” Thomas asked cautiously in his high, light voice.
“I thought I had. Why? Is one sticking you?”
“No, I just hoped you had made sure.”
“It’s a wonder you trust me at all, Thomas, as many times as you have been stuck,” she said, and smoothed the fabric along his arm with a loving touch.
“It doesn’t hurt. It’s only a bit of a surprise.”
“Like falling off a horse, then?” Evan asked. “You usually don’t get hurt, you’re just taken aback to be suddenly on the ground.”
“I have seen your horses,” Thomas said, round eyed. “They are tall but not as fat as Father’s.”
“They will be if they keep eating their heads off in his stable.”
“I shall have a pony next year, but I would rather have a horse.”