Free The King's Falcon (Roundheads & Cavaliers Book 3) by Stella Riley

by the empty hearth.   ‘I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble.   And it would probably take more than you have in your cellar to mend our differences.’
    ‘If you’re still bearing a grudge against me for marrying Elizabeth --’
    ‘I don’t bear grudges, James.’   Ashley impaled him on a very direct stare.   ‘And I haven’t come here to quarrel with you – about Lizzie or anything else.   I said what I had to say at our last meeting – as did you.   But we are left with the inescapable fact that we’re poles apart.   What I call a principle, you call stupidity; and where I see something worth fighting for, you see only a lost cause.   You don’t care for having a brother flirting with the Council of State’s black-list – and I can’t reconcile myself to having one who’s a trimmer.   In short, the only thing we have in common is a desire not to be tarred with the same brush.’
    ‘True.’   James sat down, crossing one leg tidily over the other.   ‘I’m glad we understand each other that well at least.   So what do you want?’
    ‘My inheritance,’ said Ashley simply.   And, when his brother’s hands clenched on the carved arms of his chair, ‘It’s all right.   There’s no need to have an apoplexy.   I’m not asking for money.   I don’t even want a hundred acres and a cow.   But I feel fairly sure that Father’s will must have made provision for me … and I want to claim some form of it now.   What you might call a once-and-for-all payment.’
    ‘So what,’ asked James slowly, ‘did you have in mind?’
    ‘Father’s collection of firearms.’
    ‘ What? ’
    ‘You heard me.   He had over thirty different pieces, as I recall.   I also want all the pistols and muskets you reclaimed from the troop he raised for the King, along with every bag of shot and barrel of powder that we amassed in the event of Milcombe ever being besieged.’   Ashley leaned back and smiled. ‘I’m sure you still have it all.   You’re not the man to dispose of things without turning a coin on the transaction.   But the New Model has its own suppliers … and selling arms to the side you’d just deserted would have been a bit tricky, wouldn’t it?’
    ‘I was never actively Royalist,’ snapped James.   ‘I never fought.’
    ‘I know.   But that’s something best not discussed, don’t you think?   And it’s beside the point, anyway.   We were talking about arms and ammunition.’
    ‘ You were.   I was wondering at your colossal nerve.’
    ‘I’m sure you were.’   Once again, the barb was delicately placed. ‘Let’s put it this way.   So long as my way of life continues to be an embarrassment to you, you would prefer me to remain both distant and discreet.’
    ‘ Discreet?   You’ve never been discreet!’
    ‘No?   Think about it.   You haven’t seen or heard from me in six years.   Not, if you will excuse me from pointing it out, since I came back waving an olive branch and found you had married Lizzie.’
    ‘Elizabeth was free to make her choice,’ came the swift, defensive reply. ‘There was no contract between the two of you.’
    ‘No formal contract, perhaps.’   Ashley’s smile was hard-edged and controlled.   ‘However, it hardly signifies now.   As to the matter of my discretion … have the authorities ever been here asking about me?’
    James hunched one shoulder.   ‘No.   What of it?’
    ‘Simply that, if I were as careless as you imply, you’d have had Thomas Scot camping on your doorstep,’ returned Ashley smoothly.   And then, when his brother looked blank, ‘He runs the intelligence service – rather efficiently, too.   I don’t think you’d like him as a house-guest.’
    This time the point hit home and James erupted from his chair.
    ‘Are you threatening me?’
    ‘Not at all.   I’m merely pointing out how much worse things might be.’   Ashley also rose and held the furious grey gaze with a cool one of