Free How to Entice an Earl by Manda Collins Page B

an occasional drunkard, but he would never do something so reprehensible. Never.”
    “Easy,” Gresham said, his voice soothing. “I know you love your brother. It does you both credit. But I must tell you that this is a more complicated matter than it appears on the surface. And until the authorities can learn just why Tinker was killed, you must prepare yourself for the cloud of suspicion to hover over your brother for a bit. If he is innocent, as you claim, then it will just as quickly move on to implicate the real killer.”
    “I don’t understand,” Maddie said, frustrated by his lack of candor. What did Gresham know of the matter anyway? And why did he suddenly appear so grave? It was unlike him, she realized. He was always given to joking and laughing. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him as serious as he’d been these past two days.
    “I cannot tell you the full story,” Gresham said, rubbing the back of his neck. “But your brother is involved with some very bad characters. Men who would think nothing of killing a man for any number of reasons.”
    “Then they are the ones who killed Mr. Tinker,” Maddie said with what she hoped was convincing authority. “Not Linton.”
    “It’s too early to say,” Gresham admitted, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs. Maddie couldn’t help but notice how the shift in position displayed his muscles beneath the fabric of his evening coat. “What I do know is that you are well out of the business. And I would suggest that when next you speak to your brother that you caution him against the company he keeps.”
    “As if that would make a difference,” she said before she could stop herself. Feeling disloyal, she went on, “That is not to say that James is stubborn, my lord.”
    Gresham laughed softly. “I’m afraid you won’t fool me on that score. I know all too well that stubbornness runs in your family.”
    Since it was true, Maddie couldn’t be too angry over the assessment. Even so, she wondered whether he was serious about her brother’s intimates. “Do you really think that one of Linton’s friends might have something to do with Tinker’s death?”
    “I do, indeed,” Gresham said seriously. “And I would be pleased if you could find some way to keep out of the company of your brother and his friends until this matter is settled.”
    Christian watched as Maddie’s brow furrowed with concern for her blackguard of a brother.
    “Are you quite serious?” she asked, her color rising in her agitation. Feeling like a lecher for wondering, he speculated about whether the blush extended farther down than the bodice of her gown revealed. He hadn’t even allowed himself to entertain those kinds of thoughts for Maddie in the past, but once the barrier in his mind against them had crumbled at the Wexford ball, he’d had the devil of a time controlling them.
    “I cannot simply abandon Linton to whatever it is that these people mean to do to him,” Maddie went on. “He’s my brother!”
    Which was the trouble, Christian thought. She was loyal to a fault and it was unlikely that she’d consider her own safety as a reason for keeping out of the killer’s way. Whoever he might turn out to be.
    In an effort to smooth things over, and to remind her where his own loyalties lay, he said, “I do not mean that you should abandon him, Lady Madeline. I only wish for you to protect yourself. Your brother is a grown man and can fend for himself should it come to that, but you are—”
    But that was clearly the wrong tactic, Christian thought with an inward curse. If she’d shouted at him he’d have been less afraid than he was at hearing her softly angry tones.
    “I am what?” Maddie asked with deceptive calm. “I am a weakling because I had the misfortune to be born a woman instead of a man? Is that what you’re saying?”
    “No, damn it!” Christian said, unable to keep the harassed tone, and the expletive, from his response. How did he