A Suitable Replacement (16 page)

Max rolled his eyes. "I swear I was not trying to find you. I am, however, quite happy to have done so anyway, since it's your fault I am here at all. Because of you and your damnable Lord Ridley, the crown attempted to force me to marry his princess. So I am on the run, as it were."

"He's my damnable Lord Honeysett now, don't be a twat. Why would anyone want you to marry a princess? You would cause an international disaster inside of a week."

"Better than inside of a day," Max retorted.

Mavin laughed and raised her cup to him before taking a sip. She reached for a flaky chocolate pastry and broke it into pieces on her plate. "So you are flitting about the country until the matter is otherwise resolved? If they find you, they can still drag you back and force you to marry the girl. I do not think that is any way to handle the situation, but governments have never been known for their shining intelligence, only their glaring stupidity."

"If they find me anytime soon, they will still be able to annul my marriage and drag me to the altar."

"Your—" Mavin dropped the bit of pastry she had just picked up. "Who in the name—oh my god. You bastard, you bloody bastard." She grinned and smacked the table, cackling loud enough to draw scowls from the few other patrons in the room. Oblivious to them, she leaned over the table, practically putting her bosom in the teapot, and cackled. "You married Kelcey, didn't you? You brilliant, thieving bugger!"

"Behave!" Max hissed.

She settled back in her seat, giggling. "I cannot believe you married Kelcey! Is he good in bed? He looked like he would be."

"I think you've gotten
worse
in the three years I was absent," Max groused. "You could be a little bit sorry for the mess you have made of my life without even asking me first. Stop asking such grossly inappropriate questions; you know damn good and well I will not answer them."

"As if I don't know how you look when someone is fucking you properly," she said with a toss of curls. She hooked her right arm over the back corner of her seat, picked up her teacup and smirked at him over the rim before taking another sip.

Max could feel a headache forming, even as his lips twitched with an urge to smile. "I do not know why I thought I missed you."

She scoffed at him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "I would have thought you'd be a good deal farther away by this point."

Setting the teacup down, she leaned back in her seat, arm still hooked over the corner of it, breasts near to falling out of her bodice. It was the only way, Mavin firmly believed, to wear a dress, and in her defense Max had seldom heard anyone disagree. He thought it looked uncomfortable, but what did he know? "We were, but Gerard wants to explore portions of the north, and it's not as though I have any plans. I never anticipated I would be taking such a journey, nevermind under such mad circumstances."

"You have never planned anything in your life past which poor soul you were going to seduce next, who you are next going to fleece, or which room in your latest dollhouse you will fill," Max replied. "I cannot wait to meet this man you stole from a princess and eloped with."

She cast him a quelling look—but then broke into the brightest smile he had ever seen on her. It was dazzling. Max blinked.

Mavin leapt to her feet and held her hands out as a man reached them. Max slowly rose, setting his napkin aside.

Whatever he had expected, it was not the man before him. He had assumed Lord Ridley to be one of the handsome, flashy, towering sort his sister usually chose for her dalliances. He had not expected a short, pretty, chubby figure with a cheerful but quiet countenance. But there was no mistaking the adoring look on his face as Mavin leaned down to kiss him, a look she returned with such fierceness that Max could not regret a single thing he had been forced to do since returning home.

"Gerard, this is my brother Maximilian. Max, this is my husband, Gerard."

"My lord," Max greeted, shaking his hand when Gerard offered it. "An honor to make your acquaintance."

"The honor is mine, Lord Maximilian. I am sorry that your sister was not present to welcome you home. She greatly regretted it. I am astonished you have found us, though pleasantly so, of course."

Max motioned Gerard to take a seat as he and Mavin resumed their own. Mavin grinned. "You will never believe how Max has chanced to come upon us." Before Max could explain, she gleefully told the story herself, almost laughing too hard to manage it. Max wished they were not in public so he could throw things at her.

When she was finished, Gerard shook his head, smiling. "I see a penchant for bold, brash behavior is one of the traits you share. Mav led me to believe you were the well-behaved one."

"Well-behaved is entirely relative," Max replied. "When one person runs about naked, the one who is only half-naked seems quite modest."

Mavin sniffed. "I only ran about naked the once."

"Dare I ask?" Gerard looked between them, laughing but slightly wary.

"After two carafes of wine and a glass of father's punch," Max added. "It's absurdly easy to dare her to do anything when she ceases to be sober."

"Be quiet or I will remove your tongue," Mavin hissed, leaning over the table as though that would make her glare worse.

Gerard coughed. "Beloved, your, uh … have a care for the cream."

Casting him an amused look, Max turned to his sister and said, "Remove your breasts from the table before you knock the cream over. Honestly, it's entirely too early in the morning to be looking at that much of you."

She sniffed at him. "My husband would not agree with you."

"Your husband gets to enjoy them in a way the rest of us do not, and his opinion therefore is invalid."

"His is the only valid one."

"Remove your bosom before I dump tea down it."

Snickering, she leaned back, hooking her right arm over the chair again, extending her left to Gerard, who kissed the back of it.

Gods have mercy; he had never thought he would see his sister
besotted
. He was going to tease her mercilessly for it. Max poured more tea and tried to decide the best way to begin his attack.

He was distracted when she stopped in the middle of saying something to Gerard, staring at something over Max's shoulder. "My, oh, my, I had forgotten what a
presence
he had. It's like reading one of my erotic books." Pulling a fan from somewhere that Max did not want to know, Mavin began to fan herself. It was only when she smirked at him that her words registered.

Twisting about in his seat, Max watched Kelcey stride toward them—tall, broad, beautiful, oblivious to the way he turned every head. Max stood as Kelcey reached them. "Look who found me this morning."

"I cannot even pretend to be surprised," Kelcey replied, eyes going past Max to land on Mavin. "Your grace."

Mavin stood up in a rush of silk and hibiscus-orange perfume. "You and I need to talk," she said quietly, lighting touching Gerard's shoulder before looping around him to offer her arm to Kelcey, who took it and let her lead him from the room.

It was stupid to feel hurt. Of course it must be hard to see Mavin after all that had happened—and not happened—between them. But he would have thought Kelcey could spare him a good morning, a hello, a bloody
glance
before he let Mavin whisk him away.

He drained his teacup and set it down with a hard clack, then looked at Gerard. Mustering a smile, he said, "I confess I am curious as to how you and my sister became so well-acquainted."

"I'm sure that is a question we will get asked a lot," Gerard said wryly, toying with his own teacup. "But you are the only one who deserves answers. I refused to argue with her. She seemed in a … not a bad mood, exactly, but certainly restless, the night we met. We got into a discussion on a law of my homeland that has long been a source of contention overseas, and I would not let her turn it into an argument. She got so frustrated she finally stormed off. A few days later she invited me for tea."

Max snorted, because there was only one reason his sister invited anyone over for 'tea'. From the sheepish look that flickered across Gerard's face, he knew what Max was thinking. "Well, even I have never been able to resist getting into a scrape when she's intent upon one. You have my admiration."

"Thank you, my lord," Gerard said. "She speaks of you often; from what she's told me of your earlier years … well, it's obvious that you're very close, and I would never do something to harm that bond. I confess I have been anxious you would hate me."

"If Mav does not hate you, there's not much chance I will," Max said. He poured more tea, then finally succumbed to the urge to look toward the patio where Mavin and Kelcey stood by the railing. Framed by the mountains and sky, they made a handsome, even majestic, couple. They looked like a queen and king. Max might be Mavin's twin, but he never looked that stunning next to anyone. People were usually grateful that he managed to look acceptable.

Somehow in the past two weeks he had completely forgotten that he was just a replacement. Not even that. Their marriage was just a way to escape something worse. Kelcey had been doing him a favor, technically.

"You look troubled, Lord Maximilian."

"Max is fine," Max said absently, stirring sugar into his tea, barely resisting the urge to throw his teaspoon and follow it up with the rest of the tea set. "No one calls me Maximilian save for my parents and a few stiff-necked professors. You are my brother-in-law; there's no reason to call me 'Lord'."

Gerard nodded. "You should feel free to call me Gerard, then. I hope we will get on well."

"I cannot imagine we won't." Max tried not to stare as Mavin and Kelcey headed back toward them. He toyed with his teacup, kept firmly to his seat, did not surrender to the urge to stand up and make a scene by kissing Kelcey quite soundly right there in the middle of the dining room.

But only because Mavin would know why he did it, and he was not in the mood for her teasing. Kelcey took the remaining seat at their table, smiled at him, though it was a bit distracted. A too-familiar dread settled like lead weights in Max's stomach. Having them side by side, was Kelcey drawing a comparison that found Max wanting? "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" he asked, nudging Kelcey's foot under the table.

It dredged up another distracted smile. "Yes, my lord, you know very well I did."

"Oh, la la," Mavin said, leering at Max and waggling her eyebrows. "Do tell."

Max glared. "Behave or there are plenty of stories about you I am happy to tell. Running about naked is the least of your crimes."

"As though you've any room to talk," Mavin retorted. "Or did you want to discuss your twentieth birthday?"

Face flushing hot, Max hissed, "Do it, and I swear I will bring up our coming of age ball."

"I already told Gerard that story, so there," Mavin said, grinning in that evil, feline way of hers. "He found it … entertaining."

Kelcey looked between them. "Part of me wants to know these tales, but I do not want to die because I heard them."

Gerard laughed. "I do not think they would actually kill us. That would deprive them of an audience."

"And we know how much Max enjoys attention," Mavin added triumphantly, rapping her fan on the table.

Face burning hotter than ever, Max leaned over the table, jabbing a finger at her. "Still your tongue, wench. You've no room to talk anyway. Your amorous adventures far outstrip mine."

"I think in some ways, yes," Mavin replied, tapping her fan thoughtfully against her cheek. "But I did not think you would actually be brave enough to enjoy
both
of the
presents
I purchased for your birthday."

Kelcey's mouth dropped open, Gerard choked on his tea and collapsed into a coughing fit, Mavin crossed her arms over her breasts and smirked, and Max tried to decide if it would be easier to throttle her or pitch her over the balcony. "I detest you."

"You love me, especially when I buy you whores for your birthday," Mavin said.

Max stood, grabbed his book, and stormed out of the dining room.

Bad enough Kelcey had barely looked at or spoken directly to him since he had joined them, bad enough Max was obviously falling short when put next to his sister … what must Kelcey think of him now? It was not his fault that his parents' rigid upbringing has driven him and Mavin to rather the opposite end of the spectrum. They'd had no one but each other to rely on as they learned and explored. It had made them open with each other in a way he suspected most siblings were not, though he had never been close enough with anyone to ask.

He stomped into his suite and threw his book on the bed before continuing straight on to the balcony, leaving the paned-glass doors open behind him. He gripped the railing tightly, glared down at the mountains below. They were so high up it near made him dizzy. The waterfall added a fresh, clean smell to the air, so very different from the grimy, smoky city they had left behind.

The sound of the door opening was soft, but may as well have been as loud as the waterfall. Max tensed as he heard Kelcey step out onto the balcony, startled slightly when a large hand rested lightly at the small of his back. "Are you all right?"

"Three years has dulled my ability to endure my sister when she is in the mood for some relentless teasing," Max said with a sigh. "I am sorry she was so … herself. I hope she has not made you uncomfortable."

"I'm used to her—as used to her as anyone can be," Kelcey replied, hand falling away as he stepped forward to join Max at the railing. "You were the one who seemed most upset by her words."

Max made a face, still not quite able to bring himself to look at Kelcey. "I'm not certain how else I should react when she goes blathering about some of the stupid things we have done—generally, the stupid things she instigates that I wind up tangled in."

"I think there is much worse to receive for one's birthday," Kelcey replied. Max finally looked up, scowling when he saw Kelcey was trying not to laugh. "My twentieth birthday was spent getting stitched up by a drunk sawbones after a mugger sliced my arm open with a knife. Most of my birthdays were not much better than that. In bed with two whores that someone else paid for sounds like a much better birthday to me."