Read Online Emerald Garden by Andrea Kane - Free Book Online

sideboard to pour himself a drink.
    “Is Brandi all right?” Quentin demanded in response to his brother’s obvious agitation.
    The question seemed to intensify Desmond’s annoyance. “Yes. Brandice is fine.” He tossed off the contents of his glass. “However, you and I need to have a talk.”
    “Do we?” With a measured look, Quentin altered his tactics, sensing that some of his answers were about to find him. He leaned back in his chair, casually crossing one leg over the other, his posture deceptively relaxed. “I assume this talk pertains to whatever was plaguing you in Hendrick’s office.”
    “Indeed it does.”
    “Does it concern the terms of Father’s will?”
    In the midst of refilling his glass, Desmond sloshed a bit of brandy onto the sideboard. “Father’s will? Why would you suppose that?”
    “Because it’s a logical assumption. What else could possibly have upset you?” Quentin baited, convinced that the real cause for his brother’s unsettled state had only to do with Brandi.
    His suspicions were heightened by Desmond’s terse response.
    “I’m not distressed over Father’s will.” His hand now steadied, Desmond faced Quentin, shoulders squared with purpose. “I’m distressed over Brandice.”
    “Brandi?” Quentin’s brows rose in apparent surprise. “Why? Has she done something to anger you?”
    “Hardly. ’Tis her future that worries me.”
    “Her future?”
    “Yes. ’Tis now my responsibility to shape it—as her legal guardian.”
    Quentin’s eyes narrowed on Desmond’s face. “Not to shape it, Desmond; to oversee it.”
    “I see little, difference between the two.” Desmond set down his glass, slapping his palm on the tabletop and leaning forward to regard his brother. “But the point is a moot one.”
    “Is it?”
    “Yes. The significant factor here is that, as a result of the accident, Brandice feels very much alone. Just as fate has robbed us of our father, so it has done to her.”
    “My mother died in that carriage as well,” Quentin added icily. “Perhaps that detail is of negligible importance to you. But not to me. And not to Brandi, who adored Mother as if she were her own. So I think it’s safe to assume that Brandi is also mourning that loss.”
    “I apologize for the oversight. Yes, Pamela’s death is an equally devastating blow—for you and, perhaps even more so, for Brandice. Which only escalates my concern. The impact of this disaster has left Brandice vulnerable and in shock.”
    “I’ve noticed.”
    “I would hate for anything …” A pregnant pause. “Or anyone to intensify that shock and thwart her recovery.”
    That did it.
    Like a lion prodded by a stick, Quentin lurched forward in his chair. “Are you implying that I would do anything to hinder Brandi’s healing?”
    “Not intentionally, no.” Visibly startled by his brother’s uncharacteristic outburst, Desmond softened his approach. “Quentin, you’ve been away for over four years.”
    “I’m well aware of that.”
    “Things have changed since you left.”
    “For example?”
    “For example, Brandice has grown up. She’s no longer the worshipful child you bid goodbye, nor is she the reckless young girl who galloped wildly through the woods by your side and raced barefoot through the stream at Emerald Manor. She’s twenty years old now, very much a woman grown.”
    “I have eyes, Desmond. I can see precisely what Brandi is—and what she is not.” Quentin’s jaw set. “Can you?”
    “Very clearly.”
    “I wonder.”
    “Would you like to know what I see?” Desmond demanded. “I see a frightened, abandoned young woman who needs someone to lean on, someone she’s certain will remain by her side.”
    “And, if I view this brotherly chat in light of what I’ve witnessed these past few days, am I to presume that someone is you?”
    Desmond’s mouth tightened into a grim line. “I’ve never left her. As the duke of the manor, I’m committed to Colverton