“Uh-oh. Why?” I eyed him suspiciously, imagining some super embarrassing talk about being “safe” and “using protection” while staying at Brompton Park.
“Clearly not for the reasons you’re thinking. It’s just something between him and me, Violet. I’d really appreciate it if you’d respect that.”
“You’re making this awfully difficult, you know that?” I let out a sigh. “Fine. I’ll go get him. You want to wait in the living room? I’ve got to run over to Patsy’s apartment to pick up some stuff anyway. I’ll give you guys some privacy.”
“Thanks,” he said, lifting the messenger bag’s strap over his head.
“Okay, I’ll see you later, then.” I paused at the bottom of the stairs, one hand resting on the end of the curved banister. Something was keeping me there, watching him, as if I were trying to solve a riddle.
But it was no use. His consciousness was closed off to me, his face entirely unreadable. I turned and started up the stairs.
“Hey, Violet?” he called out, and I stopped short, turning toward him expectantly. There was a pregnant pause, our gazes locked. “You’re a remarkable Sâbbat,” he said at last. “And an even more remarkable young woman. You’re everything I hoped you’d be. Thank you.”
My heart soared at the compliment. “You’re not so bad yourself,” I said with a smile. “Go on. I’ll send Aidan right down.”
32 ~ Prodigal Son
I glanced up at the portrait on the wall and then back to Aidan, who was standing beside me. The boy in the portrait was wearing tight beige pants with a ruffly shirt and a cravat, a striped vest, and a dark blue coat. Tall, shiny boots came up to his knees. The boy beside me wore only faded jeans and a simple white T-shirt, his feet bare.
Their wildly different attire hinted at the centuries that separated them. And yet somehow, inexplicably, they were one and the same.
“This is so surreal,” I said, shaking my head. “You know that, right?”
He shrugged. “Imagine how it feels for me. I still can’t believe you’re here. It’s like . . . my two existences have merged or something.”
“In a good way?” I asked hopefully.
“Of course. Though I’m fairly certain you wouldn’t have liked me very much if you’d known me then. I was an arrogant ass.”
I took a step toward the portrait, studying his likeness more closely now. “You look pretty cocky, don’t you? Like you owned the world. Like you were too good for everything and everyone.”
“I think you pretty much nailed it. I sat for this one on my seventeenth birthday. I vaguely remember being annoyed.”
“I like the outfit, though. What are those, breeches?”
“God, no,” he said, sniffing derisively. “They’re pantaloons. Far more fashionable than breeches.”
“Well, maybe you could put on your pantaloons later and parade around a bit.” I waggled my brows suggestively. “Who knows? You might get lucky. Dressed like that, who could resist you?”
“I do miss having a valet,” he said, sounding wistful.
“Really?” I asked, surprised.
“No,” he answered with a laugh. “I’m kidding. But you should feel free to help me dress for bed, if you’d like. You know, to make your visit to Brompton Park more authentic.”
“Yeah, because a girl valet is so authentic. Nice try, though.”
“Hey,” Tyler called out from the bottom of the stairs. “Will you two stop gawking at the pictures of his lordship and get your asses down here? Max and Joshua are back with the beer and chips!”
“Beer and chips in the dining room at Brompton Park?” Aidan asked, shaking his head. “What has this world come to? Old Chiffers must be rolling over in his grave.”
“Chiffers?”
“He was our butler, a fine old chap. Come. Let’s go raise a glass of ale with our peers.”
Laughing, I grabbed his hand and pulled him along beside me, down the wide, marble staircase and across the enormous great hall.
“I’ll go see if they need any help in the kitchen,” Aidan said, releasing my hand. “I don’t want them breaking anything.”
Cece looked up when I walked into the dining room. “Hey, where were you and Aidan?”
“Up in the minstrels’ gallery,” I said, pulling out a heavy chair and taking a seat. “There’re some portraits of Aidan up there. You should go see them.”
“You mean besides the one we saw online? The one with his sisters?”
“Yeah, a few more. There’s one from his seventeenth birthday where he looks exactly the same as now. You know that mark on his face, just below his right eye?”
Cece nodded. “Yeah, that little scar.”
“It’s there in the portrait. He says he got it the day before his birthday, fencing with his sister. Without a helmet,” I added. “Isn’t that creepy?”
“Well, only because it was, like, a hundred years ago.”
“Yeah, and he still has it now.”
“Hey, guys,” Marissa said, striding in. “Where’s everybody else? I thought I heard Tyler squawking that Max and Joshua were back with the food.”
“They are; they’re about to bring it in.” Cece hurried over to the door that opened out onto the great hall. “Sophie!” she called out, then turned back toward us. “She said she was going to the morning room. Isn’t that just across the hall?”
“You’re asking me?” Marissa answered. “I’m going to need a map to find my way around.”
“Food!” Joshua bellowed, bursting into the room with Tyler and Max trailing behind him. “Get it while it’s hot.”
“And even better, beer!” Tyler added. “We’re actually legal here in jolly old England. Can you believe that shit?”
“Kind of takes the fun out of it,” Sophie said, wandering in just in time. “It’s going to make our twenty-first birthdays so anticlimactic.”
“Oh, I’ll make sure it’s climactic for you, baby,” Tyler said, wrapping his arms around Sophie from behind.
Marissa wrinkled her nose. “Eww, you did not just say that.”
Aidan came through the door carrying a stack of plates and silverware. “Careful with this stuff,” he warned. “It’s my grandmother’s china.”
“Your grandma’s china?” Cece shrieked. “Are you crazy—it’s got to be ancient! We can’t eat on that. How’d you get it, anyway? You’d think it’d be locked up or something.”
“Oh, it was.” Aidan nodded gravely. “But I know the china safe’s combination. Anyway, who better to use it than us? And besides, this is a special occasion.”
“Hear, hear,” Max said, raising a bottle of beer.
“Everyone gather ’round,” Tyler ordered while Joshua handed out the beers. “A toast,” he continued. “And then we eat, because I’m fucking starving here.”
Max nodded his agreement, an arm wrapped possessively around Marissa’s waist. “Nicely said, Ty. Nicely said.”
“To us,” I said, raising my bottle.
“To us,” Cece echoed. “The Winterhaven Warriors.”
Marissa raised her bottle. “To Sophie, our valedictorian.”
“Smartest chick I ever met,” Tyler added enthusiastically. “To my roomdog Max and his band—what is it you call yourselves?—who finally got themselves a real gig.”
“The Screamers,” Max answered with a grin. “Next month at the Mercury Lounge.”
“To our elegant host, the Viscount Brompton,” Sophie called out. “And his grandma’s china.”
Laughing, I glanced over at Aidan—who looked marvelously inelegant in his rumpled jeans and T-shirt. “To Matthew Byrne,” he joined in, catching me by surprise. My heart twisted a little bit with regret. “Otherwise known as Dr. Hottie,” he continued, “who wishes he could be here with us tonight.”