Choosing Love Over Honor [Agents of the Crown #2]

Chapter 8

Two weeks later
Avondale Estate

"It's good training, brother!"

Charlotte laughed as Pippa yelled at the retreating back of their brother, who was holding a squirming three year old little Alice who was avoiding her naptime like it was the plague. Their sister had came back for a visit while her husband was away on a job, bringing her firstborn daughter and newborn baby Brook. The youngest was coo-ing in Pippa's arms as the three siblings had chatted, but when it came time for Alice's naptime, she had darted all over the room until Fabian had managed to catch her, whisking a very reluctant young girl away to a room, he had designated for his young nieces anytime they visited

As the door closed, their laughter melted away, when her elder sister turned to her, bouncing the three month old on her lap. "And you? We've spent the whole morning listening to Fabian fretting over his wife giving birth soon. How have you been?"

"I've... been fine."

"Really?" Pippa asked, raising a brow. It's always been difficult to lie to her elder sister, with how perceptive she was.

She squirmed, averting her eyes. No matter how old she got, Pippa always manages to make her feel as if she was still ten years old. "Not... well, not entirely." she murmured. Of course, if Charlotte truly wanted to, she could get away with not telling Pippa a thing. Her sister lived pretty far from Avondale estates with her sword-for-hire husband, and while they loved each other to bits, Pippa found the need to shield her husband from the ire of the upper crust society and what they had deemed to be a lowered marriage, so they stayed away.

So in truth, Pippa wouldn't have heard of the fact that Charlotte's re-emergence in society came hand in hand with Lionel Chadwick's sudden appearance in many balls and dinner parties. But this was her sister she was talking about, before Elle came and after her long break from the Season due to various reasons, Pippa was all she had.

"I've... Leo's been around."

The elder Rothesay raised a brow, jiggling little Brook around despite her attention full focused on her younger sibling. "And?" she said, dragging out the syllable in a way that made Charlotte knew she expected more.

What was she supposed to tell her? That she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the dashing figure he cut, even after she repeatedly told herself that Lionel did not want her, so why should she keep hanging on his shirttails? Yet when he tenderly oversaw her wellbeing, was always protectively by her side, Charlie couldn't help the way her heart fluttered. Even when she had walked out on him two weeks earlier, she had watched from her window as he had got into his carriage and rode off.

She had remained in the countryside, saying she wanted to help Emery settle. But in truth, Charlie didn't think she could face Lionel in London again, not after she had more or less indirectly told him that she was still very much head over heels for him.

"And.... and I don't think I've ever stopped love him, Pips." Charlotte finished with a forlorn smile at her sister. Because really, what was she to say? She could lie to the world, even to Fabian (because let's face it, she loved her brother but he can be quite dense), but she could never lie to Pippa, and her sister would never let her lie to herself. "I don't know what to do."

---

He had returned to London... what, a week? Two? Three weeks ago? Leo had lost track. It had been a blur of ensuring the Museum was running fine, and bouts of drinking with Lucan whenever his friend could find the time. The Earl of Greystoke was kept busy with his duties both as an Earl and as an agent for the Crown, but due to the recent lull in the search for the Moonlighter, as well as the fact that their friend, the very enamoured Duke of Avondale being too busy with his wife and unborn child, he couldn't find it in him to turn Lionel away each time he asked him out for a drink, or happened to crash his townhouse to ransack his drink cabinet.