Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,72
room and had the door unlocked and open as his sister appeared with a maid bearing a tray overflowing with sweet treats.
“Here we are!” Sara announced, giving no outward indication that she was aware of the tension simmering in the parlor.
As the maid dipped a curtsy and took her leave so that Faye was alone with brother and sister, the wrongness of her being here truly registered. She was an interloper. Yes, Finn had sent her, but it had never been her place to visit Tynan’s household, a place he neither wanted her to enter nor know about.
Faye cleared her throat. “I thank you for the offer of refreshments, but I have already taken enough of your time. I must be leaving,” she murmured. “There was a matter of…” She glanced Tynan’s way and found his gaze on her. “Business I had to discuss with your brother, and we’ve had a moment to speak on it.”
“Nonsense! And allow Tynan to keep all the pastries for himself?” the younger woman teased, fiddling with her brother’s lapels. She looked to Faye. “He is unfailingly generous.” She paused. “Except when it comes to sharing sweets.”
“I’m not,” he mumbled and shifted back and forth on his feet like a boy who’d just been called out for pilfering a treat.
“Oh, you are. Unfailingly generous, but stingy with his treats.” Sara waggled her golden eyebrows. “You mustn’t let him tell you otherwise about either.”
Another becoming blush stained Tynan’s cheeks, and Faye stared on, observing brother and sister as they proceeded to banter. And as they did, with Faye standing there, an outsider to that exchange, she felt a fresh well of tenderness rise within her. That dynamic—teasing sister and overindulgent brother—was a gift, and it was also one Faye had been blessed to know.
She knew another man who cared so for his sister and not only went out of his way to protect her from the world, but also was not the ruthless figure the world had made him out to be.
“Please, stay,” the other woman said, her teasing gone and a serious set to her eyes. “It is ever so nice to have company.”
Faye looked to Tynan, letting the decision belong to him, as she’d already taken so many from him by making demands and having expectations that exceeded what he wanted or was willing to give.
He hesitated, and then, ever so slowly, he gave an almost imperceptible nod.
“I would like that very much,” Faye said. “Just so that I might thwart Tynan’s conquering of all the sweets.” She gentled that teasing rebuke with a smile.
“What manner of business do you have with one another?” Sara asked, her focus on the tea she now poured.
Faye started. “I…” Her mind raced. What exactly did the young woman know about her brother’s role at Newgate and his subsequent time spent as a prisoner in that jail?
The young woman glanced up, and Faye’s brain remained blank.
Tynan stepped in. “I know Miss Poplar from my work with the prison. She is interested in reforms.”
A wry smile turned Faye’s lips up in a reflexive smile. Yes, well, reforms was one way of looking at it.
“Ah,” Sara said and handed the first teacup over to Faye.
With a word of thanks, Faye accepted that offering.
“As I said, always helping,” Sara said, then she began preparing another cup.
“The most benevolent of men, I am,” he drawled. Over the top of his sister’s head, he caught Faye’s eye and winked. That subtle, but quick, up-and-down sweep of his thick black lashes caused a wild flutter in her belly.
For as droll as he was, and as self-deprecating as his tone and words were, the truth was he’d proven himself to be generous. At numerous turns.
Tynan accepted the next cup from his sister, and while the other woman continued serving, Faye’s gaze was again drawn to the man seated across from her.
The world saw the man who’d bribed the most powerful and made himself rich at the expense of those who’d committed criminal acts. What they didn’t see was the man Faye had come to know. A man who cared for orphaned children and who loved and protected his sister.
At last, Sara finished pouring. “Tynan was reading aloud to me just before you arrived. Why don’t you continue, Brother?”
Faye braced for another one of his blushes and refusals, but instead, he picked up that small, worn book he’d hastily tossed inside the cupboard just yesterday morn and proceeded to read.