Tea For Two Read Online Free

footsteps.
    Instantly Shannah thought of her
interrogation with the viscount the next morning, and shivered. She
had to put on a convincing performance for Lord Brendan or
everything she’d worked so hard for would end.

CHAPTER 6
     
    The hour had grown quite late, but still
Brendan tossed and turned in his comfortable bed. He stared at the
underside of the canopy because every time he closed his eyes,
images of a caramel-skinned minx danced through his mind. Shannah
would be quickly followed by the children, last of all the
littlest, who would stick in his brain.
    He hadn’t been close enough to get a good
look at the child, let alone determine the child’s gender. But boy
or girl, where did the child come from?
    Brendan groaned and lit a candle. A year ago,
he wouldn't have had to worry about Shannah. A year ago, his father
had been alive, and young Brendan was enlisted in the king's army.
He didn't even know Shannah then. But then, he'd gotten a missive
from his mother about the fever, about his father’s sudden death,
and how he had to return and run their vast estates. He
couldn’t—wouldn’t—escape the responsibility, but he also couldn’t
dismiss the mystery of that small child.
    He’d heard the accounts of the fever, how
many it had killed, how few infants had survived. He’d read his
father’s journal, faithfully kept until that final illness. There
simply weren’t that many two-year-old-sized children left in their
little corner of Brundidge.
    Brendan supposed the child could have been
born after the fever had swept the area. He wasn’t exactly
the most skilled at guessing a child’s age, and the younger they
were, the harder that became.
    Brendan snatched up a brocaded robe and
shrugged it over his naked shoulders. Tying the rope belt, he went
downstairs to the kitchen. Since he didn't remember the house well,
he always carried a lighted candle at night. Christopher was in the
kitchen, stuffing thick slices of ham into a roll from dinner.
    "Hello, old man," Chris greeted when he saw
his older brother. "Responsibilities of estate life keeping you up
nights?" His grin, so similar to Brendan’s, flashed in the
darkness. The two had always looked more alike than brothers should
without being twins, but their personalities contrasted
sharply.
    “Not really.” Brendan placed his candle on
the table and slid into a chair.
    "A woman, perhaps?"
    Brendan inwardly sighed. So far, Chris had
been right on both counts. Shannah was both an estate
responsibility and a woman. "It's nothing important."
    The younger man looked at his brother.
"Right," he drawled. "Now try telling me the truth."
    Brendan decided it was worth a try. Chris had
always been good with advice. "Do you know the Marshall girl?"
    Christopher's brown eyes darkened noticeably.
"What do you want to know?"
    Surprised by the frostiness of his brother’s
tone, Brendan studied Chris a moment before replying. "Do you know
Shannah?"
    "Shannah?" Chris relaxed. "Sorry, Bren. I
thought we were speaking of Garnette."
    "Garnette?" Brendan asked.
    Chris almost laughed at his brother's
surprised expression. "Yes. Garnette is, I mean was, Shannah's
older sister."
    Brendan leaned forward and folded his arms
across the table top. "Tell me about her.”
    "Well, I imagine someone has to," his brother
agreed. "It all began three years ago. You were in battle at the
time, so you never heard the tale. Garnette was an upstairs maid
here then. She was sixteen, I think. This was before Father imposed
his rule about house servants, and so...."
    "You fell for the girl," Brendan
supplied.
    “Yes.” Christopher’s mouth thinned, and he
paused before continuing. "One could say we both fell quite
thoroughly. I loved her with all my being. We made plans to marry,
but when I went to Mother and Father, everything fell apart.” He
sighed and shook his head. “I’ve never seen Mother so apoplectic. I
thought she’d have a stroke.”
    “I can’t imagine Father was