Page 5 of Enticing the Devil

“Not necessary.” Beynon tried to wave off the man’s earnest regret. Such sentiments were almost as distressing as the matchmaking.

“It is,” Roderick insisted. “But I promise there’ll be no further expectations of your stay. We all really just want you to enjoy yourself, Beynon, with the obvious hope you’ll continue coming to visit.”

Now it was Beynon’s turn for regret. He hadn’t meant for the conversation to end up on such sensitive ground. His acceptance of this new family Wright was trying to create had been a shaky one. He’d initially rejected the idea altogether until young Caillie had hunted him down and given him a good lecture. Only eleven years old at the time, his sister had possessed the insight and perspective he’d needed. But that didn’t mean his transition from simple Welsh farmer to bastard son of an English earl had been an easy one.

Hoping to shift the tone a bit, he responded gruffly, “You know, the roads go north, as well.”

Roderick’s eyes flickered, then he laughed and clapped Beynon on the back. “Is that an invitation? What a damned good idea. A visit to Wales might be just the thing young Owen needs.”

Max Owen was their youngest half brother at twenty-one years old. They’d only just managed to track the boy down a couple weeks ago after more than two years of searching. Though Owen seemed to welcome the news of being a bastard son of the prior Earl of Wright and gave no resistance to getting to know his brothers and sister, he’d made it very clear he enjoyed his life as the leader of a prolific criminal gang in one of London’s roughest neighborhoods just as it was.

“The lad is proving to be rather stubborn, isn’t he?” Beynon noted.

“No more than you, I’d say.”

Beynon grunted, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with that last comment. In his opinion, his own prior reluctance and that of his youngest brother were entirely different situations. Beynon’s loyalty had been to the family in which he’d been raised. Owen’s loyalty was to a gang of dangerous hoodlums.

“Regardless,” he grumbled, “I’m afraid there wouldn’t be enough room for the lot of you at Gwaynynog.”

“We’ll just visit you in rounds,” Roderick quickly assured with a wide grin. “You could have a different set of Londoners every month.”

Beynon gave a loud objective groan, not even bothering to hide his abject dismay at the thought. It seemed to be exactly the reaction Roderick had been goading for as the older man gave a hearty chuckle.

“No need to worry, brother. Emma and I won’t be taking any cross-country trips until the boys are both a bit older.”

Roderick and his wife had two sons, an infant barely a couple months old and a two-year-old, currently upstairs with their nurse. The couple rarely went anywhere without the boys in tow.

“Wright, on the other hand,” his brother continued with a grin, “might be a different story. You have been regaling Cailleach with stories of your home. If I were to casually suggest a visit to our young sister, there’s little chance she’d let up on the idea until the carriages were packed and headed north.”

Though he suspected Caillie—Roderick was the only one to call her by her full name— would love his home, there’s no way Colin or Ainsworth would allow the girl to travel so far without them, and Beynon just couldn’t imagine his very proper and lordly eldest brother finding any enjoyment in rural Denbighshire. But as he gave Roderick his fiercest glower, the man’s grin only widened further, reminding Beynon of just how much this brother enjoyed tormenting him for his own amusement.

He decided to give the man a taste of his own medicine.

“We should wait until our sister is at least fourteen,” he replied thoughtfully, “old enough to barter her hand to a local farmer for a nice fatted pig.”

Roderick’s humor fled in an instant. His expression turned as ferocious as Beynon had ever seen it. “The hell you say.”

Beynon held a straight face as long as he could manage before he noted thickly, “You really think I’d consider such a thing?”

Though he was well aware of the prejudices and speculation about his background that had been flying through the gossip mills, he’d truly hoped his brothers didn’t buy into any of it.

Shame flickered in Roderick’s blue eyes. “Of course not.”

“Glad to hear it,” Beynon said with a stiff scowl before he glanced away again as though it were the end of it. “I’d accept no less than a bull in his prime for our sister.”

Then he had to turn and vigorously pound on Roderick’s back as the other man choked on his champagne, which in and of itself was nearly as satisfying as catching his brother off guard for once.

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