Wild Lily (Those Notorious Americans Book 1)(23)

“Precisely. I warned you years ago. You went on your merry way. Even if, madam, we had means, your addiction to the tables has ruined us.”

“Only my addiction?” She fixed him with slitted eyes. “What of yours?”

The old man’s nostrils flared wider.

Elanna feel back into her chair. Julian fought not to do the same.

His father sagged. “My amusements have long since ceased, Charlotte.”

She raised her fan, the snap of the sticks the sign of her outrage. “Do not insult me with lies.”

Elanna pressed her lips together. If she understood the implications of the amusements their mother indicated, his sister did not flinch.

“My interests in such pastimes ended last year. I could not afford them then, either in coin or affection.”

“Last year’s fancy has not given way to a new one?” His mother whipped up the air with her fan.

“No. If you took time away from the card tables long enough, you might have learned that from your so-called friends.”

“I doubt it.”

“What? You think they’d tell you any tidbit that might paint me in a good light?”

“As if you could stand in any good light.”

Children. They were such frightful children.

“I will ignore that, dear gel. We have much to decide. Now…” He strolled to his desk and picked up a sheaf of papers. Thin rag. Invoices, they were.

“These,” he said, holding aloft a few, “are yours, madam. I will pay what I can of them from your monthly allowance.”

“George!” She gained her feet. “I—I need that money.”

He stared at her with sad eyes that offered only pity. Then he picked up another stack, thinner, but still, quite a few. “These, dear Elanna, are yours.”

“For gowns,” said his mother, “for the Season. She must have them, George. Must!”

“Have them. Wear them. These I will endeavor to cover completely. But know, my sweet child, that they are to get you a man who can pay for any future frocks.”

Julian ached for his sister.

She looked at her hands in her lap and nodded. “Sir, thank you. I understand.”

“Well, sadly, girl, that is not all. We are in such a state that if you do not snare a suitor by June’s end and marry by July, you must retire to Broadmore.”

“Papa!”

“Permanently.”

Julian hated to picture Elanna with a man who would not cherish her. From the dejected look of her, she hadn’t, either. But time was short for her to find a mate.

“Seton,” his mother was atwitter, “this is outrageous. She’ll be a laughing stock. People will think she’s on the shelf or that there’s something hideously wrong with her. And you know what they’ll say…” Her eyes widened with suggestions of impropriety.

“What, dear Charlotte? What will they say? That she’s committed a faux pas? Hmm?”

“Worse. Well, you know it.”

“Oh, yes. That some man assumed too many liberties with her.”

“Stop that.”

“That she had her chance and she chose once, chose badly, chose too quickly. That we’d hide her away for—”

“Enough, Seton.” His mother fretted with the edge of her fan, now dormant in her lap. Her lips quivered, a sign of the onset of tears. “You torment me.”

“The way you did me?”

“You know I hate discussion of money.” She fished a lace handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes.

“Would that you would hate pissing it away, as well,” his father mourned.

“Oh, you are a cruel man. Cruel,” she said, sniveling, real tears in her china-blue eyes.

Julian groaned.

This old argument between them was infuriating. They never openly stated their grievances in front of Julian and Elanna, but they could wheedle and cajole, criticize and affront with careful precision. The gist of it, which Julian had learned bit by agonizing bit, was some indiscretion that the two of them had committed when they first met. Each held the other responsible for the fault. Yet to hear them tell it, in the beginning each had loved the other with a searing passion. For more than a decade, they had turned to each other and burned with a sensuality that conceived his own life, as well as Elanna’s. Then, at once, the flames had died. In the ruins, they tore at each other’s dignity. He in company with disreputable women, she in company with feckless gamblers. Why and how they could not lay down their arms escaped Julian. Their feud taught Elanna and him a marital lesson to befriend others with caution. Intimacy was a folly meant for fools.

Julian had had enough of their bickering for today. “If you two can insult each other more profoundly, please do it quickly.”

“You presume to order me, boy?” The old man pointed at him with a shaky hand.

Concern for his father’s health coiled inside him. “Never. But this serves no purpose, Father. I’ve heard this tirade for decades and I’m quite tired of it. Tell us rather more about the finances, please.”

“Very well. I have cut the staff. At Broadmore, two of the maids, one of the footmen. Here, I’ll relieve the seasonal staff at the end of June. Four of them. Two upstairs maids, the second scullery maid and the new footman.”