Regency 09 - Redemption by Jaimey Grant Page B

you.”
    Miles didn’t deign to
reply.
    Dare released a bitter
laugh. “I suppose this is the price we all pay for my sins.
Astounding that I could have so much effect on the world at large,
is it not?”
    Again, Miles said
nothing.
    Dare uttered an oath that
made Miles’s earlier one seem tame in comparison. His fingers
tightened alarmingly around his glass, the knuckles turning white.
He was tempted to dash the thing against the hearth, but refrained.
Barely. He carefully set the receptacle on the desk.
    In a movement as agitated
as his thoughts, he pushed his hand through his hair ripping the
riband out to drop forlornly to the carpet. “Why do you calmly
accept things the way they are?” he raged. He fisted his hands on
his hips, dark hair wildly askew. “You don’t want to marry her any
more than, I’ll warrant, she wants you. And anyone with half a
brain can see you want Gwen. Why the devil do you sit there on your
hands?”
    Miles stood up halfway
through this tirade. His hands were braced on the desk as if he
would leap it and go for Dare’s throat.
    Somehow managing to
maintain calm despite his fury, Miles explained in a clipped voice,
“Do you not think one wastrel in the family is quite enough? If I
do not obey Society’s strictures, our entire family will be
shamed.”
    “Who bloody well cares for
Society, anyway!”
    “I do!” Miles paused,
swallowing. “Jenny and Gwen do as well.”
    Dare sighed. “Miles, you
don’t really care and you know it. Jenny and Gwen find the Season
tedious and dull and you know that, too. How can you throw away
your happiness for my miserable mistake?”
    Miles slumped back into his
chair. “It’s just not that simple, Dare.”
    “Tell me.”
    A sigh of deep weariness
escaped Miles’s throat. “Do you know what it’s like,” he began
softly, staring into his brother’s eyes, “to be related to
you?”
    “A constant trial, I’ve
little doubt.”
    Miles lips tipped up
slightly at the corners. “True,” he murmured. “A constant trial.
Always doing whatever you want; never stopping to consider the
consequences; forever landing yourself in more trouble with each
passing day than the one previous. And everyone looking to me to
fix it. Always. And still, at eight-and-twenty years old, you
manage to land yourself in the biggest pickle yet: you seduced and
impregnated a duke’s daughter. For the sanity and well-being of all
those involved, I beg you to not interfere.”
    “I can’t just pretend like
nothing happened. I can’t just pretend I never…knew her.” He hated
the tone of defeat in his voice but was powerless to eliminate it.
“Break the betrothal, Miles.”
    Miles shook his head almost
regretfully. “I cannot, Dare. It’s just not done. Do not try to
convince me otherwise.”
    Dare studied his twin
closely. He was confused and irritated by all he’d just been told.
Then there was the fact that Jenny was having his child and instead
of being the father, he would only be an uncle. The mere thought
was galling.
    Dare escaped to his room
for a precious few minutes of blessed peace. He wondered where
Bri’s sharp tongue was and thanked God for its absence. She was
either so livid she couldn’t control her murderous impulses or she
was actually gone from home.
    Throwing clothes in every
conceivable direction as he went, Dare walked into the water closet
off his room and turned the water on to fill the tub. He thanked
God for such a convenience and Adam for being freethinking enough
to have it installed despite Society’s odd feelings on bathing.
Sinking down into the steaming water, he laid his head back and
closed his eyes. He felt grimy and…old.
    A bone-weary sigh pushed up
his windpipe to escape in what a less compassionate person might
call a sob. He managed to stifle the next one despite the
overwhelming urge he had to break down and snivel like an
infant.
    It was several minutes
later that Dare again opened his eyes. He realized a