Read Online Elementary by Mercedes Lackey - Free Book Online Page B

pained expression, he raised his hands in a helpless gesture. “These violent bouts of drunken melancholia frighten them. They frighten
me
. So you will come home, bathe, change, reassure Lottie and Lizzie that you’re all right, and then have breakfast in that order. After which, I’ll have Tom take you to Thames Street if you must go.”
    â€œI must. I’m meeting someone.” Christopher shook his head as his words evoked a worried frown. “Your senior East India Company agent, Teddy,” he explained in a tone of exaggerated patience. “Who’d you think it was, some doxy out of Southwark?”
    Edward shifted again. “No, of course not. It’s just . . .”
    â€œJust . . . what?”
    â€œNothing. Never mind.” As the coachman maneuvered them out of the city proper and onto High Holborn Street, Edward made to speak, thought the better of it, tried again, then sat rubbing the thumb and index finger of his left hand together, his expression increasingly distressed.
    Finally Christopher reached over to cup a hand over his. “Stop that,” he ordered. “If you set your coach alight, you’ll have the devil of a time explaining it to your stable master.”
    Edward smiled. “I’ll tell him I dropped a cheroot.”
    â€œYou don’t smoke cheroots.”
    â€œI’ll tell him you dropped it, then.”
    â€œI don’t smoke cheroots, either; I can’t keep the damned things lit.”
    â€œThat’s because the undines don’t like smoke.”
    â€œThe
undines
leave me to do as I please.”
    Both men fell into an uncomfortable silence, but as the coach turned onto Oxford Street, Edward glanced over with a hesitant expression. “So what happened this time?” he asked.
    Christopher stared out the window, watching the estates of England’s minor nobility pass by before giving a brief shrug. “I called on Philippa,” he answered, his casual tone of voice belied by the angry set of his jaw.
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œAnd I was told by her father’s butler”—Christopher spat out the words—“that she would no longer see me. Apparently, she’s suddenly engaged.”
    Edward chewed the inside of his cheek. “To whom?” he asked finally.
    â€œDoes it matter? To a man whose parents were married. To each other.”
    â€œI’m sure that has nothing to do with it, brother.”
    â€œAnd I’m sure that has everything to do with it,
half
-brother.”
    Edward gave him a reproachful look. “That distinction matters to no one except yourself,” he chided.
    â€œMyself,” Christopher agreed bitterly, “the whole of London society, and Philippa Torrington, apparently.”
    Edward sighed. “If you’d let me, I could introduce you to any number of Henrietta’s friends who would be thrilled to marry such a
talented Water Mage
, regardless of his parentage.”
    Christopher bared his teeth. “No, thank you,” he grated. “I don’t need you or your intended to matchmake for me, and I don’t need to find a woman thrilled to marry me because I’m a talented Water Mage.”
    â€œBetter that than trying to make a life with someone who doesn’t know; we’ve both seen how hard that’s been on Becky.”
    â€œBecky’s a Fire Mage with our father’s temper . . .”
    â€œMade that much more difficult to control because she’s married to a . . .”
    â€œPompous ass.”
    â€œKit . . .”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œOh, nothing. You’re right. He is a pompous ass. She never would have accepted his proposal if . . .” Edward broke off, his expression distressed once again.
    â€œIf Father’d been alive,” Christopher finished for him. “Everything went wrong after Father died,” he added in a hoarse