Page 41 (1/2)

Prologue

Longlands, Northamptonshire

September 1826

The Duke of Ainswood’s fareed that the fainated in Norland in the twelfth century

According to etyists, the name meant unhappy or unlucky In the Duke of Ainswood’s family history, however, the name meant Trouble, with a capital “T” So, and some had lived short, but all had lived hard because that was their nature They were hellions, born that way, notorious for it

But tie and quiet with the times The fourth duke, a wicked old rip who’d died a decade earlier, had been the last of his generation Those he’d left behind were a new breed of Mallory, more civilized, even virtuous

Except for the only son of the fourth duke’s youngest brother

Vere Aylwin Mallory was the last Mallory hellion At well over six feet, he was the tallest of them all and, some said, the handsomest as well as the wildest He had his father’s thick chestnut hair, and in his eyes—the darker green of earlier generations—glinted centuries of wickedness and the saenerations of women At nearly two and thirty years old, he’d done

At present, he was lands estate, the country home of the Duke of Ainswood Vere’s destination was the Hare and Pigeon public house in the nearby village

In a lican funeral service to the tune of a bawdy ballad

He had heard the burial service so often in the last decade that he had it by heart, fro “I am the resurrection and the life” to the final “Amen”

“Forasreat mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother…”

At “brother,” his voice broke He paused, his broad shoulders stiffening against the treainst a tree trunk, he gritted his teeth and shut his eyes tight and willed the wracking grief to subside

He’d done enough grieving in the last decade, Vere told hih tears in the seven days since his first cousin Charlie, the fifth Duke of Ainswood, had breathed his last

He lay in the hty God had “pleased to take” in the last ten years The endless succession of funerals had commenced with that of the fourth duke, who had been like a father to Vere, his own parents having died when he was nine Since then, death had clai with their sons and wives, several girls, and Charlie’s wife and eldest son

This latest funeral, despite years of practice, had been the hardest to bear, for Charlie was not only dearest to Vere of all his Mallory cousins, but one of the three men in the world Vere looked upon as brothers

The other tere Roger Barnes, the Viscount Wardell, and Sebastian Ballister, the fourth Marquess of Dain The latter, a dark giant arded as a hideous stain upon the Ballister family escutcheon He and Wardell had been Vere’s partners in crime since Eton But Wardell had been killed in a drunken brawl in a stable yard six years ago, and Dain, who had departed for the Continent some months later, seemed to be settled in Paris permanently

There was no one left who mattered Of the main branch of the Mallorys, only one male reest, now sixth Duke of Ainswood

Charlie had left two daughters as well—if one cared to count females, which Vere didn’t—and in his will nauardian Not that this guardian need have anything to do with theht dictate tolerance of the Mallorys’ last hellion—uardians—no one, not even Charlie, could be so blindly loyal as to believe Vere suited to the task of bringing up three innocent children One of Charlie’s married sisters would do it

The guardian position, in other words, was purely nominal, which was just as well, for Vere hadn’t spared his wards a thought since he’d arrived a week earlier—in time to watch Charlie depart for the hereafter

It was all, horribly, exactly as his uncle had predicted ten years earlier, when Vere sat by his deathbed

“I sahen they were gathered aboutin and out Unlucky ones ‘He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower’ Two ofbefore you were born Then your sire And today I saw the man’s fancy? ‘He fleeth as it were a shadow’ I saw them, shadows all What will ye do then, lad?”

At the tiht the old man’s wits had failed He knew better now

Shadows all

“Got that right, by Lucifer,” he muttered as he pushed away from the tree “A bloody prophet you turned out to be, Uncle”

He took up the service where he’d left off, singing the sole a defiant grin heavenward

Those who knew him best, could they but observe hihty as he’d so often goaded his fellowfor trouble

, as usual, and this tiht with Jehovah Himself

It didn’t work The troublemaker neared the end of the service without Providence offering so much as a thunderclap of disapproval Vere was about to launch into the Collect when he heard twigs snapping behind hi ahost

It wasn’t truly a ghost, of course, but near enough It was Robin, so painfully like his father—fair and slight, with the sareen eyes—that Vere couldn’t bear to look at hied not to for this last week

The boy was running toward hi, either, the sharp tug of grief—and yes, rage as well, to Vere’s sha that the child lived and the father was gone

Jaw set, Vere stared at the boy It was not a welco look, and it made Robin stop short a few paces away Then the boy’s face reddened, and his eyes flashed, and he hurtled at Vere head foreuardian in the stomach

Though Vere’s abdomen was about as soft as an and-iron—like the rest of hi Oblivious to their vast disparity in age, size, and weight, the young duke pounded away at his cousin, ato fell Goliath

None of the civilized new breed of Mallorys would have knohat to ed attack But Vere was not civilized He understood, couldn’t help it

He stood and let Robin rain ineffectual blows upon hirandfather, the fourth duke, had stood once, ed, newly orphaned Vere pounded away He hadn’t knohat else to do except cry, which at the time was for some reason absolutely out of the question

As Vere had done, Robin kept on, fighting an un pillar of adult round

Vere tried to ree and resentment of moments before He tried to wish the child to the devil, tried not to care, but it didn’t work

This was Charlie’s boy, and a desperate boy he uard and brave a dark wood, alone, to find his dissolute cousin

Vere wasn’t sure what the child was desperate for It was clear enough, though, that Robin expected Vere to provide it, whatever it was

He waited until Robin’s panting subsided to more normal respiration, then hauled the boy to his feet “You shouldn’t come within a mile of me, you know,” Vere said “I’m a bad influence Ask anyone Ask your aunts”