Free Two Sinful Secrets by Laurel McKee

bad—considering Lily’s husband wrote it,” Dominic answered as he wiped the
     sweat from his brow. “I think it will suit the French tastes very well. Romantic,
     funny, cynical.”
    “Not to mention it will give the ladies a chance to see you as a romantic hero, instead
     of the glowering Shakespearean villains you like so well.”
    “Glowering villains suit me.”
    “Lately they certainly do. Ever since…” Brendan suddenly broke off and shook his head.
    “Since Jane died, you mean?” Dominic said. His family had been unsure of his match
     with her when she wasalive, hinting that perhaps they were not entirely suited. They only seemed more unsure
     once she was gone.
    “It’s understandable that you would grieve,” Brendan said quietly. “When you care
     about someone that way…”
    “Based on your vast experience of caring?” Dominic snapped, then immediately felt
     a pang of remorse when something flashed in Brendan’s eyes. As far as any of the St.
     Claires knew, Brendan had never been in love, but he was very private and quiet. An
     oddity in their drama-prone family. “Forgive me,” Dominic said, another rarity—a St.
     Claire apologizing. “It isn’t you I’m angry with, Brendan.”
    Brendan shrugged. “Whatever it is, you need to get it out of your system without injuring
     our actors. We open here in two days, and there is still work to be done.”
    Dominic nodded. Work he understood. Work was safe. “Speaking of that, where is James?
     He’s meant to be overseeing the finishing touches on the new sets and I haven’t seen
     him all morning.”
    “He said he had some errands. I think I heard him asking the concierge at the hotel
     about flower shops.” Brendan laughed. “Maybe he has fallen for the charms of a French
     woman.”
    Dominic laughed with him. “That was quick work, even for James.” Their younger brother
     always seemed to be falling in and out of love.
    “Indeed. It seems as if he wouldn’t have had time to meet anyone in Paris yet, it’s
     been so busy here at the theater.”
    Dominic picked up the scattered rapiers and put them away in the open props trunk.
     He couldn’t fight any more that day; he would hurt someone with all the emotionsswirling inside him. “You know James. He could have become smitten by a girl he passed
     in the street.”
    Brendan leaned back lazily against a crate of scenery. “Too true. Our poor brother.
     He should have some sense knocked into him, so that he can see the world is actually
not
filled with romantic wonder and all that nonsense. It might save him from heartbreak
     later.”
    Dominic looked at his brother in surprise. Those were the most words he had heard
     Brendan say together in a long time. Usually he was just silently watchful, taking
     in the antics of the other exuberantly emotional St. Claires without saying a word
     or giving away his own thoughts.
    But there was the bitter ring of conviction in those words.
    “I think James likes the heartache,” Dominic said slowly. “It seems to him to be all
     part of the glory of falling in love.”
    “It’s too bad he’s not much of an actor, then,” Brendan answered. “He could get all
     that nonsense out on stage as you do.”
    Dominic laughed ruefully. He thought of Mrs. Westman and how he felt when he just
     looked at her. Not
everything
was given to the stage. “I think James was born too late. He would have been a great
     Romantic poet in the Regency years, pouring out blood and anguish on the page and
     making the ladies swoon over how brooding and Byronic he is.”
    Much like Brendan himself, Dominic thought as he turned to look at his brother. Women
     always seemed to think they would be the one to touch his hidden heart, to coax out
     his rare smiles, but they never were in the end.
    “I’ve read some of his love letters,” Brendan said brusquely. “He could not have been
     a poet.”
    Dominic laughed again, and reached for his coat where it was