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“What is it?” she asked.
“Your eyes grow lifeless when you are sad,” he replied. “Always have, since you were a little girl. I have always been able to see it—I have always hated it with a passion.”
“How unnerving,” Jo murmured, sliding her body closer to his. Laurie lifted an eloquent eyebrow in question. “To be so seen.”
Her husband leaned down and kissed her on the lips. “Nothing unnerving about it, love,” he said. “I have always seen you. Since the very first moment. Now show that degenerate brother of yours in, and let me decide on sight whether he shall be allowed to live or not.”
Right that moment, Justin walked in, and Laurie immediately ran and fell on his neck, enveloping him in a bone-crushing embrace, as if Justin were the prodigal son returned from the death.So much for all his threats.
“You look disgustingly happy, sister,” Justin said, his voice coming muffled from inside Teddy’s almost violent embrace, with a smirk that still held a shadow of his old self. Other than that, he was a completely different man. He was a man who had come home from the war, Jo realized all over again.He was a man who could very well have never come home at all, as so many others didn’t.
She ran and fell on top of the both of them, hugging them as fiercely as they hugged her.
“That’s it,” Jo murmured wetly against her brother’s neck. “I’m not letting you go back to the front.”
“The war is over, m’dear, don’t you know,” Justin said with that strange, grown-up, manly voice of his.
“Stop calling me ‘your dear’ in that odious manner,” Jo said. Suddenly, it wasn’t so hard to let go of him. “I see war has not improved your manners.”
“The opposite rather,” Justin was smiling as if he considered himself slightly superior to everyone in the world. It made her furious.
It took Laurie and him the better part of an hour to stop smiling to each other like the pair of idiots they were. Finally, they were settled in the powder blue salon, where they were served tea, even though it was well past midnight.
Justin told them his news.
Jo could tell that most if not all of what he was recounting were lies. But she nodded along, wondering what horrific truths her brother was shielding them from. He wasn’t known for being considerate of the feelings of others, especially where she was concerned; thus, she surmised, the lies he told were not out of solicitude. They were out of necessity.
And she was in no mood to discover the horrors they concealed.
“So, here I am, back to civilized society,” her brother concluded. “Hide the women.”
Laurie laughed so hard he nearly fell out of his chair.
“’Tis no laughing matter, Teddy, old boy,” Justin said, looking much more terrified than he had during his fake recounting of the war. “I am already pursued by conniving females. And the mothers… A nightmare. My imbecilic friends and I are actually considering making a wager in order to keep each other safe. We are at the start of the season, after all.”
“What imbecilic friends?” Jo asked with sudden alarm.
Justin waved a disinterested hand in the air. “Ashton, Ingram, and that pirate, Darlington,” he said. Jo’s heart sank. Ingram was that Adonis of a marquis, and Ashton was a duke and also, she suspected, a murderer at heart. “You know, the worst scoundrels and rakes society has to offer.” He glanced at his pocket-watch. “We have an appointment at White’s tomorrow.”
“And what wager will that be, pray tell?” Laurie asked.
“Never to marry,” Justin replied simply, looking immensely satisfied with himself.
Laurie let out a whistle. “That is a wager that’s begging to be lost,” he chuckled softly, his eyes drifting to Jo.
“Not everyone is as fortunate as you,” Justin told him, “my deluded friend.”
Jo did not know if she had just been complimented, insulted or both. Probably both. Was it possible to hate this version of her brother more than the one he had been before the war.
“For once, you might be right,” Jo told her brother, “a rare occasion.” He sneered at her. “Better you lot should stay away from the marriage mart.”
“Indeed,” Justin agreed. “Women everywhere should be safe from those idiots, I think.”
“And you,” Jo added, never missing an opportunity to count her brother among idiots.
“Oh, I hardly think so.” Laurie was still laughing.Enjoying yourself, are you?Jo told him with her eyes. Laurie winked at her.Hugely. “Women everywhere would be safe from you idiots betting on not getting married. But I bet it is the idiots that will definitelynotbe safe fromthem.”
“Care for a wager?” Justin immediately said.
