Read Online The Earl of Brass (The Ingenious Mechanical Devices Book 1) by Kara Jorgensen - Free Book Online

back seat when the front door opened and Millicent Sorrell burst forth as quickly as her skirts and mutton sleeves would allow.
    “Oh, my boy, I am so happy to see—” Eilian’s mother stood before the steamer with open arms, looking back and forth for her eldest son. “Sinclair, where is Eilian?”
    Patrick craned his neck down the street. “Here he is now, Lady Dorset. He was taking a ride through the park.”
    “Taking a ride?”
    Rounding the corner of the Grosvenor Square lawn was the future Earl of Dorset on a bicycle. His open tweed Norfolk jacket fluttered as he leisurely rode down the pavement toward the house. As he spotted his mother’s rapidly widening green eyes, he rang the trilling brass bell on the handlebars and smiled at her maternal apprehension. Eilian had been happy to find that no one in the park seemed to notice that the right sleeve of his jacket had been pinned beneath his armpit, never reaching the handle, yet the moment he was within eye-shot, his mother’s eyes locked onto his tweed stump. He smoothly dismounted, resting his bicycle against the steamer before wrapping his arm around her.
    “Mother, you look beautiful as always,” he said with a wide grin.
    He stared down into his mother’s face, which mirrored his own but with slightly upturned features. Since he had seen her several months before, it seemed to him that she had a few more creases around her eyes and white strands in her once brown hair. Unlike his mother and brother who were both petite and delicate, he shared his father’s burly physique and grey eyes. His love of the outdoors and lands outside of England on the other hand were still a mystery to his family.
    “You are too kind, but you are the one who looks so well again.” She stepped back to take him in, nimbly avoiding his deformity as her eyes ran discriminately from his wool cap down to his Wellington boots. “But, dear, what are you wearing? Do young people go hunting on bicycles now? Leave the bicycle to Sinclair and come inside before someone sees you.”
    As she guided him through the door and into the foyer, he recognized the same floral tapestries and classical paintings that had hung on the walls since his childhood. Despite his love for the city, the house was a constant reminder of seasons filled with perpetual balls and parties. Every piece of furniture recalled hours spent hiding from the young ladies his mother would force him to dance with in hopes of tying the two families together. At the same time, his fondest memories were of food plentifully piled high and sitting in the drawing room talking with gentlemen who had journeyed to the far corners of the earth. As an adolescent, he gluttonously devoured their tales of savages, exotic creatures, and ancient wonders. Did his father realize that his after-dinner discussions were what inspired him to abandon his duties to the earldom and travel as a common man?
    “Once you get settled in your old room, dear, you should change for dinner. It will be served at six.” Lady Dorset began to walk down the hall when she turned. “Oh, Eilian dear, can you wear your prosthetic arm? Your father and I would like to see it.”
    Eilian smiled stiffly. “Of course. Mother, will Dylan be at dinner as well?”
    “Yes, and Constance. Dylan was so pleased to hear that you were coming home. I didn’t realize he had not seen you since before your accident.”
    As he mounted the steps, following the carpet runner to his old room, a grin crept across his face. It had been years since his brother had actually looked forward to seeing him. Maybe he realized what it would be like if I was gone . While outsiders regarded their relationship as sibling rivalry, Eilian knew there was no reason for animosity when they both knew who the winner was. It wasn’t Dylan’s fault that their father loved him best and wished he had been the first born. Eilian had chosen to stray from the path of peerage and had lost what little