The Brynthwaite Boys - Season One - Part Two Read online

  The Brynthwaite Boys: Season One

  Part Two

  Merry Farmer

  THE BRYNTHWAITE BOYS

  SEASON ONE

  VOLUME TWO

  Copyright ©2018 by Merry Farmer

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the retailer where it was purchased and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by Erin Dameron-Hill (the miracle-worker)

  The Brynthwaite Boys – Original Copyright ©2016

  Episode Five – A Woman’s Heart ©2016

  Episode Six – An Investigation of Motives ©2016

  Episode Seven – A Plan Gone Awry ©2016

  Episode Eight – A Life Interrupted ©2016

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Episode Five - A Woman’s Heart

  Untitled

  Episode Six - An Investigation of Motives

  Untitled

  Episode Seven - A Plan Gone Awry

  Untitled

  Episode Eight - A Life Interrupted

  Untitled

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Episode Five - A Woman’s Heart

  Flossie

  With a drawn-out sigh, Jason relaxed overtop of Flossie, the first buzz of his morning energy spent. Flossie hummed and closed her arms around him. He wouldn’t believe her. Every time for the last three weeks that she tried to tell him she enjoyed being with him, that she loved to feel the power surge through his body and then disperse with his completion, he refused to take her at her word. Perhaps he still thought of himself as an uncontrollable monster putting her through an unbearable torture. She couldn’t imagine why. He’d gained far more control of himself than he gave himself credit for far quicker than she would have guessed he would.

  “Ah, good morning,” he said, withdrawing from her and rolling to his side.

  “Good morning yourself,” she replied, breathless.

  He removed his protective device and set it aside. That done, he settled his head against his pillow and pulled her into his arms on top of him. He smiled. What a beautiful way to start the day.

  “You’re in a cheery mood this morning,” she commented. She shifted to prop her arms against his chest so that she could look down on his lazy smile. It was barely dawn and the light that filtered through Jason’s curtains was pale and delicate, but she knew his face so well now, knew every part of him with intimate familiarity, that she only needed a little light to see the whole story.

  “Why shouldn’t I be cheerful?” he asked, underscoring his mood. “I’ve been the talk of the town for the last two weeks since the hotel opening, every room is occupied with more bookings coming in daily, and I have a beautiful woman astride my hips.” He laughed at his last comment, shaking Flossie along with him.

  Her heart beat hard and fast in her chest with that laughter. As much as she enjoyed his touch and his thrusts, no matter how passionately he brought sighs of pleasure to her lips, nothing filled her with warmth quite like the sight of him relaxed and happy. If she wasn’t careful, she might actually lose her heart to this strange, broken man.

  “I’d say those are as good reasons as any,” she echoed his happiness, dipping forward to kiss his lips.

  He returned the kiss, spreading his hands across the small of her back. “I’m not sure I deserved that,” he said when she propped herself above him again.

  “Why not? You are the man of the hour, after all.” She started to move off of him.

  “No, stay.”

  “I’m not as light as you think,” she smiled. “I’ll crush you.”

  “Nonsense. Besides, I like the weight. It helps me think.”

  She shook her head and rested her weight on her forearms, crossed over his chest, as she studied him. He didn’t believe the words she said to praise him and he didn’t believe her body’s enthusiastic response, and now he liked her splayed on top of him, smothering him. She knew Jason Throckmorton in every way a woman could, more than he knew himself, it seemed, but she didn’t understand him.

  “The hour is passing,” he said, continuing to stroke her back. His face pinched into thought. “It’s time to think of the next hours.”

  “Well, sometime in the next hour I shall have to go downstairs to my room to wash and change,” she said, then added. “You remember, my room? The lodgings you assigned to me when you hired me?”

  He flickered an eyebrow, grin wicked, and tucked a lock of her loose, black hair behind her ear. “You should use my bathroom,” he said. “It has a tub big enough for two.”

  “Ha,” she teased him. “We tried that and it was a disaster, if you will remember.”

  “We filled it too full,” he replied, sunny with teasing.

  “I need to take a real bath.” She poked his chest. “Or at least wash up. So do you. You have a hotel to run.”

  He shifted and took in a breath, the light of endeavor in his eyes once more. “That’s precisely the point. We could coast on with the momentum we’ve already built, or we could come up with the next grand idea to dazzle the world.”

  “We?” Her heart fluttered and her head buzzed.

  He pushed his head back into his pillow and blinked at her. “Yes, of course. I rely on you to make this hotel work.”

  She arched a brow. “You own half a dozen other hotels.”

  “So? I need you for this one.”

  “Because the rest of the staff is afraid of you and prefers to take orders from me?”

  “Not all of them do,” he said with a touch of warning to his tone. It melted into a smile. “But you’re right about them being afraid of me. I don’t mind.”

  “Of course you don’t,” she ribbed him. “You encourage it. You like it.”

  “Besides,” he went on, smoothing his hands from her shoulders to her backside, “You abound with innovative ideas.”

  “Do I?”

  She sat up, resting her weight across the top of his hips. The bedcovers fell away, and Jason’s eyes strayed to her breasts. He smiled like a cat with cream and circled her waist with his hands. He did not, however, re-inflate, as it were. The fact that he could spend himself and not instantly fall into another cycle of lust was a major step forward for him. Flossie knew it, and though they never talked about it, she was certain Jason knew it too. The look in his eyes as he studied her body was one of appreciation, not torture.

  “You have a head for business, Flossie, make no mistake,” he said the way he would if they stood face to face in his office. “You understand the intensity of it and you grasp the importance of finesse.”

  “Is that so?” She grinned with pride. What a thing, to be complimented in such a way by such a man. If she wasn’t careful, it would go straight to her head.

  “It is. And that is why we must work together to devise the next great project for The Dragon’s Head,” he said. His hands slid up her sides until his thumbs brushed the underside of her breasts. “What do you think?”

  She leaned closer to him, stroking her fingertips across the muscles of his chest. “I think you’re quite charming fi
rst thing in the morning when you’ve had a descent night’s sleep.”

  “No, I mean about the hotel,” he corrected her.

  So they were talking seriously about business now. In their current position. Well, nothing would surprise her about Jason Throckmorton and the way his mind worked, not now.

  “What do hotels usually do to attract guests?” she asked, adjusting her frame of mind to the conversation.

  “Location,” he said. “Amenities. Reputation. We have all of those.”

  “Hotels host special events, don’t they?” Her mind began to whirl with ideas.

  “They do,” he nodded and sat up at last, moving her with him so that they sat chest to chest. “Which reminds me, I said I’d meet Lady Charlotte up at Huntingdon Hall today to discuss outings for her house party guests.”

  Warning bells sounded in Flossie’s head. She wasn’t sure Lady Charlotte could be trusted. She was even less sure if Jason had a clear head when it came to the doings of Huntington Hall and its residents. He made no secret whatsoever about his intentions toward Lady Elizabeth. Flossie would have toyed with the idea of being jealous if not for the fact that Lady Elizabeth made no secret of her lack of interest in Jason as a man. Where there would have been envy, Flossie only felt a deep anxiety.

  “What have you come up with for the party?” She asked, extricating herself from him at last and standing. Her uniform from the day before lay draped over the arm of Jason’s chair, her underthings folded beside it. She began to dress.

  “Tea, supper, a tour of the garden,” Jason said, getting up behind her and putting on a robe that hung by the side of his wardrobe. He frowned, the gears of his mind turning. “I can’t truly plan anything without Lady Charlotte’s consent.”

  “That must chafe,” Flossie chuckled.

  He arched a brow at her. “It does. I don’t like to be held back.”

  “No you don’t,” she said, half to herself. In anything. Although she’d known him long and well enough now to suspect that being held back was what kept him from charging headlong into disaster.

  She finished dressing and turned to strip Jason’s bed. Her lips twitched to a grin as she contemplated how quickly her morning chores started. She was still a maid at the hotel, she told herself, no matter what other interesting and varied tasks she performed for Jason.

  “What about some sort of sporting event?” she asked as she gathered the bedsheets in her arms.

  Jason was halfway out of the room, but he turned back. “A sporting event? At a hotel?”

  She followed him into the main room. “It couldn’t be cricket or football, but perhaps croquet? Or you could host some sort of equestrian event. I know you like riding.”

  He grinned as if she had made a lewd joke. “I do.” He veered over to give her a quick kiss, then continued on to his bathroom. “I like the idea of croquet in the garden. The ladies would enjoy it. We’ll talk more later.” With that he disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door.

  As Flossie continued through the main room, she heard the water go on in the tub. Lucky Jason. He could start his morning with a nice bath, but she had work to do and, she noted as she passed the clock on her way to the door, not much time to do it. They had stayed in bed ten minutes later than they should have, which was five minutes later than last week and another ten later than the week before. As delightful as it was for the two of them, it was a bad precedent.

  The hall was empty when she stepped out of Jason’s room, but the sounds of activity were clear all around her. She hugged the sheets tighter and carried them down the hall to the laundry chute. If they were anywhere other than a hotel, she would have washed Jason’s sheets herself to avoid anyone else having a chance to see the evidence of what they were up to, but the girls in the laundry had already treated her to stories of the kinds of things they saw every day. Flossie and Jason were not the only ones on the premises getting up to no good.

  With the sheets taken care of, Flossie hurried down the back stairs into the staff quarters. She could joke and make light of things all she wanted, but she did need a bath and the less time she spent in her own room, the more suspicious people would—

  “Flossie, you’re up early,” Dora said, stepping out of her room across the hall from Flossie’s.

  Dora wore a sweet, innocent smile. Her uniform was clean and pressed. She was the kind of employee any manager would love to have, and the kind of friend one could rely on for anything. Almost anything.

  “I was called up to a guest room before dawn,” Flossie lied. “An elderly woman. She wasn’t feeling well, poor thing. I’m afraid it was a bit of a mess. Now I need to wash and change.”

  Dora made a sympathetic sound. “Working in a hotel. It’s not as glamorous as they tell you.”

  Flossie grinned and reached for the door to her room. “Working in service isn’t any more glamorous. Some of the things I could tell you about the goings on of the family would make your eyes pop out of your head.”

  Dora laughed, then moved on. Flossie let out a breath that her friend hadn’t questioned a bit of her story, then headed into her room.

  Her room was as tidy and barren as any unoccupied guest room. She’d spent just over a week actually living there. The moment she’d become more deeply involved with Jason, she’d ended up spending all night every night in his bed. It wasn’t something she had expected or planned for, but once he had her there, he was reluctant to let her go. Not that she minded. His bed was far larger, warmer, and more interesting than the narrow things in the staff rooms. She still kept all of her clothes and belongings in her poor, abandoned staff room, but it didn’t feel like home.

  As quickly as she could, she washed and changed into a fresh uniform. She would have loved to take Jason up on his offer to use his bathtub. He wouldn’t even blink if she popped up there for a soak any hour of the day or night. He probably wouldn’t blink or question if she asked to move all of her belongings into his apartment, or if she wanted to host a tennis match in the garden or sing opera in the hallways. Oddest of all, she had the distinct feeling that if she asked him for more money than they’d already agreed to with their arrangement, he would give it to her, unreservedly. Something wasn’t quite right about the relationship they’d developed. He’d given her too much too fast. Unlike the unfortunate situation she’d found herself in at Crestmont Grange, with Jason she held all the power, and he’d given it to her deliberately.

  There wasn’t time to think about it more deeply. Work truly did need to be done. As soon as she was presentable, she marched back into the hall and out toward the lobby. If she really did have a head for business, as Jason insisted she did, then she needed to act like it and put her skills to use for the hotel.

  “Has the breakfast buffet been laid out?” she asked Kate, one of the younger maids, as she crossed through the lobby toward the dining room.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Kate answered, even adding a curtsy.

  “You’re not supposed to do that for her,” Samuel snapped from his place behind the front desk.

  “But…I….” Kate stammered.

  “She’s no different from you or I, Kate, she just thinks she is.”

  “Good morning, Samuel,” Flossie tweaked him by being cheery and polite as she continued into the dining room.

  A light breakfast was set out for guests every day on the long buffet tables, placed under the windows. The tablecloths covering the breakfast tables still bore the scars of her initial innovation when Lady Elizabeth came to tea. Two of the kitchen maids were busy bringing out the steaming, fragrant dishes. A lone guest had come down early and was already tucking in to sausage and eggs. Flossie’s stomach growled as she walked past him to the staff dining room. She didn’t have much time to eat, though. Ten minutes to gobble down her own breakfast and a cup of tea, then she headed back to the heart of the hotel.

  Jason had come down at some point while she was changing or eating. He walked out of his office as she passed on her
way to the housekeeping room, clean, shaved, combed, and dressed as if he would shortly be attending a formal lecture. His coat was buttoned up tight, though she was beginning to think he didn’t need it the way he used to.

  “Flossie,” he clipped at her as she passed. “Where is the invoice for the shipment from McPherson’s? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”

  “On the side table, on the second shelf down,” she answered without breaking step.

  “Which one of those little cubby things you set up?”

  “The right one.”

  Without another word, he turned and headed back into the office. Flossie continued down the hall opposite the staff quarters. A few of the less expensive guest rooms that faced the garden were on this hall, along with a room that had been converted to storage for the huge volume of linens the hotel used. It also served as a staging area for the various maids whose job was to clean, freshen, and monitor the rooms. They were there when Flossie arrived to check assignments for the day and direct them to their duties. She would clean a few rooms herself, but she always waited to set her daily schedule until she saw if Jason had need of her.

  Which he frequently did.

  “Flossie,” he caught her again as she carried an armful of clean towels through the lobby, heading upstairs. He stood at the front desk beside Samuel and barely glanced at her. “I need you to do something for me.”

  “Yes, sir?” she changed directions to walk up to the desk.

  “I need you to research local equestrian clubs,” he said, businesslike to the core.

  “Equestrian clubs, sir?” She forced herself not to smile, not to flush, not to giggle.