A Fiery Dalliance

XXVII

"I will always know when it is you. You killed your mother. I will never forget your face."

"I had hoped that in getting to know Master Edmund that I would be able to tell the difference between the boys by their temperaments. But I find them both to be clever, quick-witted, kind, young gentlemen. They are equally as amiable and as good as each other and are perhaps the definition of the word 'identical'. You have been blessed, Viscount, to have two such exemplary sons."

Adam spoke of the virtues of both Joe and Ed, but he looked directly at Joe as his delivered his message.

"I suppose there is one clear difference to assist you in telling them apart, Your Grace," John said sharply. "Only one of them is deaf."

"Joe is deaf in one ear, Father. He can hear perfectly well out of the other," Ed replied defensively.

Joe suddenly wished that he was seated on the right of the carriage instead of the left so that he would be spared from this conversation. He could hear so much more in his father's words than the simple physical difference. His voice was riddled with his condemnation of Joe's horrendous and humiliating failure. Joe's deafness was not a tenth of the everlasting punishment that he deserved according to their father.

"And yet, by the grace of God, Joe is still with you, with us," Adam interjected firmly. "Many others are not as fortunate and are struck down by what ails them. My father and the duchess' father were both lost to their sickbeds. What a gift you were given to have your child live. I do not know what I would do were it one of my children."

"Or your wife," John added coldly, and Joe knew that was said explicitly for him.

***

"Brother!"

Adam beamed as a tall, exceptionally dressed gentleman marched confidently across the luxuriously decorated smoking room at White's. Adam stood up from the emerald-coloured wingback chair and embraced the man, his brother, warmly.

"What an occasion to have you in my part of the country," Adam's brother teased. "I will have to bring out my best china and alert the town crier."

Adam laughed. "I will, of course, require a troubadour to follow my every move and serenade my momentous presence."

"He's waiting just outside with a fifteen-stanza poem describing your glittering smile. Shall I summon him?"

Adam embraced his brother once again, before muttering something quietly that sounded rather like, "I have missed you, Jack." He placed his arm around his brother's shoulders as he brought Jack before their small party, which up until that point had been a rather dim affair.

John's mood had improved remarkably after two generous glasses of whiskey and was quite happily smoking a pipe. Ed was far more gracious, perhaps was the word, when engaging in conversation, and that could have been a hint to the duke to help tell the twins apart. Joe supposed that Ed was used to rooms and clubs like this one at Cambridge. Even if their father was not there, and he had not reminded Joe of his place, he still doubted that he would have felt like he belonged in such an establishment with good people like Adam Beresford.

But in looking at the embrace of brothers, Joe saw a likeness between the Beresfords and the Parishes. There was a clear and unmistakable bond between Adam and Jack, and Joe knew that he shared such a bond with his own brother.

"Jack, may I introduce you to my guests. This is the Viscount Evesham. Viscount, meet my brother, Lord Jack Beresford."

"Delighted," Jack nodded as the Viscount stood up to make Jack's acquaintance.