Just to Have You (Blackwood & Friends #3)

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Ben: "Only eleven."

Griff: "Only? In the space of one year, you've acquired eleven new conquests! I shan't like to conceive of what number you'd have arrived at in a few more."

(B & G conversation on the topic of paramours 8 years prior)

"Darling, perhaps you had better see to your father before he runs through the house with the hunting rifle again and frightens the staff," Countess Arianna Hollingsworth, Oliver's mother, told him as he entered the library. She was standing to one side against the tall, paned window while feebly attempting to restrain one of Lord Lionel Hollingworth's massive, wiry-haired wolfhounds. The hound pulled adamantly against the lead, straining desperately to reach his owner.

Confused, Oliver glanced over at his father towards the other end of the library. The man was indeed cradling one of his prized rifles to his broad chest, his cheeks pinkened from either exertion or indulgence. "Do try not to make me sound half mad, dear," Lionel berated his wife playfully and then proceeded to leverage the hefty weapon to his shoulder and take aim.

"What in the-"

"There was a rat," Lionel said, distracted as he rested the butt against his shoulder. The barrel of the deadly weapon was levelled unnervingly close to Oliver's person and he wisely shifted out the way. "See, even the hounds know it. I am not mad, Arianna. I saw it and it must be defeated."

This was not the situation he had hoped to find when he had chosen to seek out Amy a short while after they had all returned to the townhouse after the tedious shopping excursion. Notably, his father was more vocal about remaining in the city for as long as they were, preferring the openness of his estate where he could idle his time outdoors on hunts or rides, but this was a profoundly new level of madness, even for the earl. Lionel Hollingsworth was an ostentatiously blustering man, regarded as somewhat eccentric in his old age with a huge greying moustache and hair that he grew wildly and mostly unkempt. Due to his often outrageous outbursts, and his insistence that his two massive wolfhounds accompany him everywhere- even into parliament- many of his peers were half-inclined to believe him slightly unstable, hence Oliver had begun to interfere on his sire's behalf when it came to important decisions that needed an undertaking of a more officious leader.

"Do stop him," Arianna said, aggrieved, while the wolfhound tugged relentlessly against its leash. Where the devil the other one was hiding was cause for some concern as it was probably careening around a parlour room, happily devouring furniture and wood as if it were its dinner. "I have my doubts about my capability to restrain this beast a moment longer."

"Father," Oliver said quickly, deciding on a route that would edge him around the chamber rather than in the direct path of the man before him, "perhaps you should allow-"

Lionel's green eyes darted suddenly to the ceiling, notably fixating on the gilded chandelier that held a costly number of pretty crystals dangling from its ornate structure. "Do you hear that?" he hissed under his breath. "They are in the ceiling!"

It occurred before any person would have had the speed or agility to interfere with Lionel's actions and though Oliver seriously doubted whether his father would intentionally aim that weapon at another person and inflict harm, he was still grateful that Lionel swung the nose of the gun so that it was directed above him and let off a resounding crack, plaster and debris raining down from the ceiling and onto the Aubusson rug and polished wood table underneath.

"What was that?" Amy said from beside him suddenly, entering a few moments after Oliver had and her eyes were wide on the scene unfolding before her.