Barbara Metzger by The Duel Read Free Book Online Page B

viscountess made no effort to win anyone’s affections, certainly not her younger, prettier sister-in-law’s. The staff at Maddox House were eager to please, and obviously adored their generous, easygoing master. As Athena told her brother, one could tell a great deal about a gentleman by his servants.
    Speaking of Spartacus and Veronica was too dreary, so Athena described for her brother the grandeurs of Maddox House that she had glimpsed. Why, the guest suite assigned to the Renslows was almost as large as the entire bedroom floor at their uncle’s house, and all tastefully done in soft blues and greens.
    Troy groaned. Of course. What boy was interested in household furnishings? So Athena told him tales of their mother, stories secretly gleaned from the servants when she and Troy were children. Their half-brother, Spartacus, had disliked his frivolous young stepmother, blaming her for his father’s death of heart failure, and never wished her name spoken in his household. No matter to him that his orphaned, heartbroken little sister had cherished each memory of her beloved mama.
    Later, the tales were often repeated in their nursery to comfort a poor, sickly, motherless boy. Athena told them again now, about the pretty woman Troy had never known.
    “She wanted you so badly,” Athena told her brother as he drifted in and out of consciousness. “Even though the doctors warned her of the danger after she lost two infants before. She wanted to make our father happy—as if anything could. He was just like Spartacus, you know.” The former Viscount Rensdale had followed his second wife to the grave within two years, two years of never looking at his infant son.
    “Mama was beautiful, you know. She had the same color eyes we have.”
    Troy mumbled something. Athena leaned closer to hear.
    “I can…see them.”
    “No! No, you cannot! You see mine, Troy, my eyes, not Mama’s. She is in heaven. You have to stay here, with me. And Roma. We need you, dearest! You cannot join our mother. She would be wretched if you went to her now. Besides, our father might be there, too. I doubt it, but you would not wish to encounter him. Believe me, dearest, our father would not be pleased that you have not finished your studies, not taken up a career, not provided heirs to his title, if Spartacus fails.”
    “Hurts.”
    “I know. But you are strong.”
    Troy tried to smile and Athena’s heart almost broke into tiny pieces.
    “Not…strong,” he whispered.
    She raised his head and held a glass of cool water to his lips. “You will be. I know it. Look how far you rode today.”
    “Not like Marden.”
    “Pooh. He is an ox,” Athena lied for her brother’s sake. The earl was a fine figure of a man, not a clumsy giant, but she said, “You would not want to be so big. Why, you’d hit your head constantly on the kitchen door. And you could never visit Uncle Barnaby on his ship. You know how low the ceilings are onboard. And…and we do not own a horse strong enough to carry that immense weight.”
    “Marden must. Neck or nothing rider, you know. Mad Dog Marden.”
    “No, he was not terribly angry when Roma scratched his boots.”
    “What they call him, silly.” Troy’s brow was starting to furrow as the pain washed over him. “That’s…why I went to see.”
    Since she was already telling bouncers, Athena saw no reason not to tell a bigger one. “The earl offered us free use of his stables.” He meant she could send riders and messengers, she understood, but Troy did not have to know that. “I am certain he would be grateful if you helped exercise his cattle when you recover. He might even take you to Tattersall’s with him.”
    Troy lay back, a smile on his face. Athena went back to singing.
    *
    Enough. Ian was no nursemaid, and had no idea of what to do in a sickroom. He had never been sick a day in his life, and had been away at school when his sister contracted the smallpox. His father had broken his neck in a horse