“Oh, that would be rich,” Finn laughed as Bastian wrestled him from the room and down a darkened servant’s hallway, “if the place went up in flames around us.”
“Shut up. Would you rather deal with Humphrey? I can arrange that.” He released Finn at the bottom of the stairs, taking them two at a time and expecting the boy to damn well follow. Once again, he could look forward to his transgressions being featured in tomorrow’s broadsheets. While Finn was accustomed to publicity, Bastian was not. If he didn’t consider the man to be the younger brother he’d never had, he would kick his arse from here to Westminster.
When they reached the landing, Finn brushed around him and, using a key procured from his waistcoat pocket, opened the door to his suite, his movements steadier than his behavior below would forecast. “Are you coming in, or was this simply an escort? A bit hypocritical, your disapproval,” he added with an indignant side-glance. “How did Angelica react to the news of your betrothal, by the way?”
Bastian gestured to the chamber. Insolent pup. He wasn’t going to get angry when that was unquestionably what Finn wanted right now, another purgative brawl when the fight would be most inequitable, and they both knew it. “I think you and I should have a little chat.”
Finn peeled himself off the doorframe and strolled inside, only a rapidly ticking jaw muscle revealing his temper. The man hid his true nature better than anyone Bastian had ever seen.
With a groan, Bastian collapsed on the sofa, giving in to the urge to let his exhaustion show. The boy was poised as all hell, he would give him that, while Bastian felt as if he’d been shoved through a crack in a windowpane. Blast, did those seven years difference in age feel like seven hundred. He was getting too damned old for this business.
“A wise man once recommended going to Scotland for occasions such as these.” Striding to the sideboard, Finn splashed whiskey in two tumblers, took a fast sip from one, then delivered the other to Ashcroft. “When you leave, how do you know I won’t go down and find that willing creature? Do everything I was thinking of doing before you so heroically popped by. You’ve only given me time to sober up, more the enjoyment for her.”
Bastian took a thoughtful drink, let the excellent Scotch skate down his throat and warm his belly. This heartfelt camaraderie with those who knew what he was, is why he’d joined the League in the first place—and why he feared it in no minor measure. “Because if you do, she won’t forgive you.” He eyed Finn over the crystal rim. “And you won’t forgive yourself.”
Finn cursed soundly, threw himself in a leather beast of a chair, and drained his glass, as sufficient a reply as any to being in love, Bastian supposed. As he’d told Lady Hamilton, men weren’t comfortable expressing emotion. Finn, even with the tender heart he hid from the world, was no better. Why he’d been placed in the role of matchmaker, Bastian couldn’t say. Sometimes one had to roll with life’s little detours.
At least he wasn’t setting the building aflame.
“I offered,” Bastian murmured, watching closely enough to see Finn’s fingers tighten around the tumbler. “I’m guessing it was your intervention that had Rossby graciously stepping aside.”
After a charged moment of silence, Finn whispered so softly Bastian had to strain to hear, “A courteous overture after Hester’s blunder, and I thank you for it. I brought Victoria to the attention of the League, but that doesn’t mean I own her, despite how possessive I may feel. After all, what man wants to lose not only the woman of his dreams but the one in them?”
Bastian shook his head, having no reply as he’d never desired a woman in this manner.
“I understand the situation. An irresolvable societal dilemma for a baseborn man. Perhaps even a trite one, falling for a woman above your station.”
“There are ways around any dilemma. Or rather, ways to soften the impact.”
Sliding low in the chair, Finn’s posture was uncaring, but his gaze alert. “I can’t protect her. A gift this powerful won’t be concealed for long. Our enemies are as desperate for relief from their mystical abilities as we are, they’re just willing to injure to obtain it. It’s a slight difference but a critical one. She needs you when I’ll do nothing but destroy her. In more ways than one.” He rotated the tumbler in a gradual circle on his belly, the gaslight bouncing off the facets and throwing silver slashes along the floor. “I hope you didn’t foster hope that there’s another choice. Why your actions this eve are almost fraternal.”
“Therein lies the issue, because she didn’t accept. And I’m not even sure how solid I was on the offer.”
Finn jerked to a sit, blinked, raised the glass to his lips only to find it empty. “Didn’t accept,” he echoed as if this possibility had never occurred to him.
“Let me set the record straight for all men given an unenthusiastic rejoinder to a sincere but loveless proposal. She thought she did, but she did not.” Bastian took a delaying sip set to extend Finn’s discomfort, beginning to enjoy this. He deserved every bit of pleasure he could wring from this quixotic venture. “Claims she’s in love with you.”
Ah, that got through as the whiskey had not.
Finn’s gaze heated to a fierce, concentrated blue. No wonder women dropped like flies when the boy looked at them; Bastian had trouble looking away. “She told you that?”
Bastian sighed, nodded, praying he never loved someone enough to sit there looking poleaxed by an admission of love. Horrifying thought. “She said she wanted to be honest. What woman in the ton, in the world, wants to be honest? No wonder the girl never seemed to fit in. All this time, swimming with scrupulous intent in a sea of sharks.”
Finn rocked forward, placing his glass with great care on the table at his side. “I would be the end of her. She’d be shunned in every shop, on every street corner. Invitations to events would immediately terminate, except for the events where we were unknowingly part of the entertainment. And there’s nothing I can do, that love would do, to change that.”
Victoria Hamilton didn’t care about being shunned on bloody street corners. This was Bastian’s verdict after witnessing the feral emotion in her eyes. So he addressed the problem he could solve. “We’ll increase security, as we did with Piper. Wherever you chose to live, a private detail will be attached. It’s a simple arrangement. She goes, they follow.” Ashcroft began compiling a list in his mind. As a former soldier, protection was second nature. Fires were, unfortunately, first. “It will cost you, but I have the men. Returning soldiers who need employment. Very loyal, to the death loyal. And you have the resources, or am I mistaken?”
Finn nodded absently. “Money’s not the issue, has never been the issue.”
“Does she know that?”
Finn glanced up, dazed as if he’d arrived at the conversation after fighting his way through a river of pea soup. “Victoria?”
“If there was any hint of resignation in her reply, it was in her ability to save her family. She’s sacrificing her love for you by doing her duty to them. The threat to her person is not a real concern for her yet. That will come with more understanding of the League.”