I’m happy to write this apology on your behalf for a sum certain.”Īsh had an instinct for business-he had read law-but he lacked the cunning Cam had in abundance. “At length, or go for the pithy, sincere approach? Headmaster says no blots, no crossing out, no misspellings. “Shall you apologize to Lady Shakespeare or to Effington’s knees?” Ash asked. He ceased his dramatics and perched beside Cam on the desk. Ash, having attained his majority, occasionally impersonated a responsible adult. Nature had intended that puppies of any species be very dear, for they were an endless lot of bother. “A puppy?” Cam asked, opening a drawer into which he had no business poking his nose. “If you want to attract the interest of the ladies at the fashionable hour, I suggest you either polish your limited stores of charm or take in a stray puppy.” “Neither of you will take Georgette to the park until further notice,” Will said. Will snatched the leash from Cam’s hand, and smacked Cam with it once, gently, for violence upset Georgette and was repellent to Will’s instincts as a trainer of dumb beasts. He had the Dorning dark hair, and the infamous Dorning gentian eyes, though.Īlso the Dorning penchant for mischief. “I’m to apologize on behalf of your dog?! I didn’t piss on anybody.”Īt seventeen years of age, Cam will still growing into his height, still a collection of long limbs and restless movement that hadn’t resolved itself into manly grace. “An apology!” Cam sputtered, seating himself on the earl’s desk. No blots, no crossing out, no misspellings.” “I will review your epistle before you seal it. “Sycamore you have two hours to draft a note of apology to the lady,” Will said.

More aggravation, for they’d been blighting the family escutcheon and the family exchequer since birth, the lot of them. “Perhaps we ought to get you a pretty parasol to distract from your many unfortunate shortcomings.”Ĭasriel would be back from his meeting with the solicitors by supper, and the last thing the earl needed was aggravation from the lower primates masquerading as his younger siblings. “Stinking, like you,” Ash said, sashaying around the study with one hand on his hip and the other pinching his nose. “A trifle damp and odiferous, if you know what I mean.” Georgette’s tail went still, for the quieter Will became, the harder he was struggling not to kill his younger brothers, and Georgette was a perceptive creature. Wellington could have used you at Waterloo, His Majesty’s one-man foul miasma, and the French would still be-” You’re a farting prodigy, Sycamore Dorning.

“You do fart during grace,” Ash observed. “There I was, a devoted brother trying to be considerate of your dog, when the smallest mishap occurs, and you scowl at me as if I farted during grace.” “I thought I’d let her gambol about a bit,” Cam said. She was big, even for a mastiff, and prone to lifting her leg in the fashion of a male dog when annoyed or worried. “I should let Georgette use the pair of you as a canine convenience,” Will muttered, stroking a hand over her silky, brindle head. Cam had to retaliate by shoving at his older brother, which of course necessitated reciprocal shoving from Ash, which caused the dog to whine fretfully. Nearly got him, too, which is probably what the man deserves for carrying a parasol in public.”Īcross the earl’s study, Ash dissolved into whoops that became pantomimes of a dog raising her leg on various articles of furniture in the earl of Casriel’s London abode.

I swear Georgette was sniffing the bushes one moment and aiming for Effington’s knee the next. “She was taking the air with her sister and Viscount Effington, and his lordship was carrying the lady’s parasol-being gallant, or eccentric. “Lady Susannah wasn’t on a leash,” Cam shot back. “Georgette did not insult Lady Susannah’s parasol all on her own initiative,” Will Dorning retorted, for he knew Lady Susannah Haddonfield was adept at avoiding all notice. The culprit sat in the middle of the room, silent and stoic, tail thumping gently against the carpet. “Just another pleasant stroll in the pleasant park on a pleasant spring morning, until George pissed on her ladyship’s parasol.” “We were having a perfectly well-behaved outing,” Cam said, though Cam Dorning and perfect behavior enjoyed only a distant acquaintance.

Susannah flood legs and feet