The Privileged and the Damned

by Kimberly Lang

  Ethan nodded. Campaign season was about to go into full swing, and their father was in a hell of a fight to keep his Senate seat. Personally, Ethan didn’t care if the current Senator Marshall kept his seat, but Granddad—whose Senate legacy was a plank in his son’s platform, and probably the only reason Douglas Marshall had won in the first place—cared very deeply. And while Brady’s sense of duty managed to outweigh his own feelings toward their father, Ethan’s didn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to help his father, but out of respect for Granddad he managed not to hinder either.

  But Brady, as one of the senior staffers, would be even more swamped than usual between now and the election. Ethan was actually surprised he’d gotten away today even for a short visit. Campaigns and politicking didn’t take Sundays off.

  Brady let his reins go slack, and Spider walked over to the side of the path to nibble on grass while Brady dealt with whatever the problem was. Tinker tugged on the reins, impatient to get going, but Ethan held him steady, waiting for Brady. He was home, finally, and happy just to be here. He wasn’t in a real rush to get anywhere right now.

  Over in the next paddock, he saw Lily leading Biscuit slowly by the halter. He hadn’t known Biscuit had been injured, but the white wrapping on her foreleg and the slow, even pace Lily kept were clear indications the horse was on the mend from something.

  Lily looked small standing next to Biscuit—he hadn’t been able to truly tell her height this morning from her position on Goose’s back. The dark green T-shirt with the “Marshall Stable” logo was a bit loose, almost camouflaging her curves, but she’d rolled the sleeves up over her shoulders, exposing nicely toned arms. The T-shirt was tucked into a pair of snug-fitting jeans that outlined the muscular thighs and calves he had noted earlier, before disappearing into the half-chaps.

  Lily seemed to be talking to Biscuit, the action causing her long black ponytail to sway slightly, and Biscuit bobbed her head occasionally like she agreed with whatever Lily was saying. As if she felt the weight of his stare, Lily suddenly turned and looked over her shoulder, those black eyebrows disappearing behind her bangs when she saw him watching her.

  Brady was still barking into his phone, and it sounded like he would be for at least a few more minutes, so Ethan turned Tinker in Lily’s direction. He could go ahead and get that apology out of the way.

  Surprisingly, Lily met him at the fence. She looked up, shading her eyes against the sun, and though her cheeks looked a little pink, the earlier fluster was gone. Maybe the flush was from the heat.

  “Is something wrong?” Concern showed in her big brown eyes as she looked over at Brady. “I thought y’all were going riding.”

  He dismounted. “We are. Brady’s dealing with some thing at work right this second, so I came to apologize.”

  “Apologize? For what?” She seemed genuinely confused.

  “For this morning—”

  Lily shook her head. “I think I’m the one who owes you an apology. I’m terribly embarrassed—”

  “So I gathered.”

  “I’d been trying to figure out how to apologize to you and then you walked in… Well, it caught me off guard.” Lily wasn’t quite meeting his eyes now.

  “Well—” He was cut off as Tinker bumped him aside and nuzzled Lily’s shoulder, catching her ponytail and tugging on it. “Hey!” He scolded the horse.

  Lily smiled as she scratched Tinker between his eyes—his favorite spot. She knew his horse well, it seemed. “It’s okay. You goofus,” she murmured affectionately to the horse, flipping her hair back over her shoulder out of Tinker’s reach.

  Brady had pegged Lily wrong. She wasn’t terribly shy, only quiet. Just like he thought. Since Brady hated to be wrong, Ethan couldn’t wait to rub that in. He relaxed into the conversation. “I thought you said he was rotten.”

  “Oh, he is. To the core.” Tinker was reveling in the attention, even butting Biscuit aside when she tried to horn in on Lily’s affection.

  “He certainly seems to like you. And Tinker doesn’t like many people.”

  “He knows I’m a sucker for a charming pretty boy. We got off to a bad start that day at the river, but he won me over, and we get along just fine now. Don’t we, boy?” she cooed at the horse.

  “Then there’s hope for me, too,” he teased.

  Lily froze for a second, then her brown eyes met his fully for the first time since that morning. A tug pulled at the corner of her mouth. “Are you comparing yourself to your horse?”

  Oh, no, Lily wasn’t shy, and that knowledge sparked something in him. He waggled his eyebrows in a leer. “In many ways.”

  Lily’s mouth fell open at the innuendo, but she recovered quickly. “So the rumors are true…”

  He cleared his throat, a tiny bit worried. “Rumors that…?”

  “That you’re a charming pretty boy, rotten to the core.”

  That caused him to smile. “Guilty as charged.”

  “At least you’re honest about it.”

  “Honesty is important, don’t you think?”

  She paused briefly. “Usually.”

  How strange. “Only usually? Not always?”

  The briefest of shadows crossed her face. He’d have missed it entirely if he weren’t so focused on her. “Life’s too complicated to draw lines like that. Sometimes a small lie is better than the truth.”

  “I’d have to disagree with you, Lily.”

  “Really?” She tilted her head sideways. “You believe in one-hundred percent honesty all the time?”

  “Yep.”

  She scoffed. “That’s not something I expected from you.”

  He stiffened automatically, but tried to keep his voice merely curious. “And why is that?”

  “You do know your family’s in politics, right?”

  His loud bark of laughter had both horses looking at him in as much surprise as Lily. “Ergo my extreme desire for honesty above all else.”

  She laughed as well. “Then I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Brady and Spider joined them at that moment. “Well, this is certainly an improvement from earlier.”

  Ethan could hear the tease in Brady’s voice, but Lily flushed and her voice dropped anyway. “Sorry about that, Mr. Marshall.” No wonder Brady thought she was painfully shy.

  “No worries, Lily.” Brady winked at her, and the spurt of anger Ethan felt surprised him. “I’m sure it was all Ethan’s fault.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  Brady shrugged. “Hey, the truth hurts sometimes.”

  Both he and Lily laughed, leaving Brady looking confused. Finally, he shook his head and gave up. “You ready, E?”

  “Yep.” He swung up on Tinker and adjusted the reins. “See you later, Lily.”

  “Have fun.” She waved as they left.

  Brady looked distracted as he kicked Spider into a trot.

  Tinker automatically adjusted his speed to catch up. “Everything okay?”

  Brady blew out his breath. “Just the usual messes. I’m going to have to head back tonight.”

  “Nana will be disappointed.”

  He shook his head. “Not as disappointed as she’ll be if I don’t go back to straighten this out and we lose this election.”

  “Maybe he needs to lose.”

  Brady sighed. “He’s a lousy father, and a sorry excuse for a human being most days, but amazingly enough he’s a damn good legislator. He learned that much from Granddad.”

  The contradiction didn’t sit well with him. “Still, I don’t know how you do it.”

  “I look at the bigger picture, Ethan.”

  “There’s a bigger picture?”

  “Yeah, it’s called the greater good. Dad isn’t afraid to champion the tough issues or stand up for the little guy. He’s doing good things, and I have to support that.”

  “I’ll have to take your word for it.”

  Brady smirked. “Does that mean we can count on your vote?”

  “Do you want the trut
h?”

  Brady answered without looking at him. “Not really.”

  “Then I’ll just keep my mouth shut.”

  “There’s a first time for everything.”

  “Wow.” Ethan put his hand on his chest in mock anguish. “Not feeling the love today.”

  “Like I said, there’s a first time for everything. And it didn’t look like it was from lack of trying, either.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Brady’s look was steady. “Lily,” he challenged.

  “You wanted me to apologize, and I did. End of story.”

  “If you say so.” Brady’s lips twitched. “You know, I never really noticed her before. She’s quite cute. Nice legs. Shame I have to go back to the city tonight…”

  Ethan knew when he was being needled, but it didn’t counter the sudden unpleasant and completely irrational need to knock Brady off his horse. Brady’s laugh only exacerbated that need. As if Brady read his mind, he dug his heels into Spider and the stallion leapt forward. Tinker reared up on his back legs, ready to go, and Ethan let him give chase.

  It was good to be home.

  Lily watched the two men banter as they rode away, the brotherly affection and annoyance obvious in equal parts. When Tinker took off in a gallop, her breath caught in her throat. Granted, the horse was beautiful, impressive, but the man on his back was far more so. Ethan looked like he’d been born in the saddle, moving easily with the horse and looking like some kind of centaur as he closed the gap between him and his brother easily. She could hear shouts and whinnies, and then the horses and their riders disappeared into the woods.

  Over the past three months she’d figured out most of the Marshalls. They were a big family, with plenty of the private drama that came from the sheer number of them. There was also plenty of public drama—not unexpected, considering their wealth and power. Something always seemed to be swirling, whether it gave the tabloids their headlines or the eleven o’clock news its lead item or just had one or more Marshalls closeted in the former senator’s study. They often fought amongst themselves, but they closed ranks and presented a unified front when attacked from the outside.

  It was nice, yet odd at the same time. She really had no frame of reference to help make sense of it, either.

  And now, just when she thought she was starting to figure it out, Ethan appeared on the scene, totally unlike what the rumors had led her to expect, and completely changing the energy she felt on the estate.

  Energy radiated off him and made her tingle in un usual ways. And, while it still flustered her a little to have those green eyes on her, she had to secretly confess that the fluster wasn’t all that bad a feeling. It made her feel… “Alive” wasn’t the right word, but it was close.

  Rumor had it that he would be staying on the estate for a while. Something about his place being refurbished and unable to be lived in. She’d probably be seeing more of him—she pushed back the mental image of the more she’d almost seen this morning—and the fact she didn’t mind at all felt like a big step forward.

  Too bad he had that whole thing about honesty.

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE growl of his stomach pulled Ethan’s attention from the reports his assistant, Joyce, had emailed last week. The ones he’d pretended not to get. A glance out showed the estate was fully awake now, from the gardeners in Nana’s roses under his window to the stable, where the horses were being turned out and the farrier’s truck was pulling in.

  Since the family as a whole and all its various members seemed to have remained financially solvent during his absence, nothing required his immediate intervention. He stretched, then closed the laptop and set it on the antique writing desk next to the window. The sun was shining—a very nice change from London’s seemingly constant overcast skies—and there was no way he was going to waste the day closed up in his room.

  The hall of the family wing was quiet now, but that could—and probably would—change at any moment. Hill Chase was the hub for their family, and everyone floated through here eventually. He’d even had an email from Finn this morning, claiming he’d fly in next week on his birthday for a visit now that Ethan was home. He’d wait to tell his grandparents, though, until his younger brother was actually in Virginia airspace, as there was a very good chance Finn would change his mind at the last minute.

  He could smell coffee and fresh bacon as he came down the stairs, but once in the foyer he saw the light on in Granddad’s study, and veered in that direction instead of the kitchen. The mahogany doors were open, and he could hear the clatter of a keyboard. Odd, since Granddad was practically a Luddite to begin with and, unless his arthritis had miraculously gotten better, typing at that speed was not possible for him.

  Still, it was a bit of a shock to see Lily behind his grandfather’s enormous desk, a pencil gripped in her teeth as she looked between the papers in front of her and the screen. Today, her hair hung in two braids down her back, and the effect made her look so innocent he was hit by a twinge of discomfort at the starring role she’d had in one of his dreams last night.

  “Good morning,” she said, the words a little distorted by the pencil. “I’m almost finished with these…” Another clatter and a click of the mouse and the printer hummed to life.

  “Morning,” he answered, and Lily jumped, turning sharply and catching the pencil as she spit it out.

  “Ethan! I thought you were the Senator—I mean, your grandfather the Senator, not your father…”

  “Well, I’m neither of them.” He moved to the desk. “What are you doing?”

  “Reports.”

  “And you don’t have a computer in the stable office?”

  Lily started to roll her eyes but caught herself. He stifled a laugh. Seemed he’d hit a bone of contention without even trying.

  “Of course we do. It’s just that the Senator…” She paused and bit her lip, like she was searching for the proper phrase. “Well, he’s very particular in the way he likes certain things done.”

  “That’s a nice way to say it.”

  “It’s his stable. So I do it his way.” She smiled slightly. “It’s not that big of a hardship or anything.” Pulling the papers from the printer, she stapled them and put them in a folder in the center of the blotter. Then she started gathering up her things and pushed the chair back. “But I’m done now, if you need the computer…”

  “Nope. I just heard someone in here and came to see.”

  “Are you planning on taking Tinker out today? He’s due to get new shoes, but I can make sure he’s ready when you are.”

  “Maybe later. Don’t worry about it, though.”

  “Okay. But call down to the stable if you change your mind.” With her stack of file folders and ledger books and those braids, she looked like a student heading to class.

  “How old are you?”

  Her eyes widened. “I’m sorry, what?”

  Nice move. “Never mind.” He pointed to her coffee cup. “Need a refill? I’m headed to the kitchen myself.”

  “Um, okay. Thanks.” She didn’t move, though, and he must have looked at her oddly. “I’ll have to follow you. I don’t know how to get to the kitchen from here.”

  “Still learning your way around?” he asked as she fell into step beside him into the foyer.

  “Kind of. I’ve only gone to the kitchen through the garden. Never from…” She trailed off and stopped, staring wide-eyed, and he looked around to see what the problem was. He didn’t see anything.

  “Lily?”

  “Sorry, I’ve just never seen anything like it.” Amazement filled her voice.

  “Like what?”

  “That staircase.”

  He looked, but all he saw was the marble staircase winding its way up like it always did. “Yes. It goes to the second floor.”

  She shot an exasperated look his way. “It’s like something from a fairy-tale castle.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Like Ci
nderella could appear at any moment.” She sounded so reverent he felt a little bad for teasing her.

  He leaned closer. Lily smelled like fresh citrus, a clean scent that seemed to fit her perfectly. He inhaled again to enjoy it before he whispered, “Don’t tell Nana, but right after those banisters get waxed you can pick up some real speed on the last turn.”

  “I bet—” the statement started out light, but became thicker as she turned her head toward him “—you c-can.” She cleared her throat and stepped incrementally away, but not before he saw her eyes darken. Her tongue slipped out to moisten her bottom lip, and an arrow of heat shot through his stomach. She took another small step back and pasted a weak smile on her face. “Sorry for the delay. Lead on.”

  Right. He gave himself a strong mental shake, and they covered the rest of the distance to the kitchen in mildly uncomfortable silence.

  As they got to the door, Lily picked up speed, pushing through with a chipper “Morning, Gloria. I bring you someone in need of feeding.”

  “Ethan! I was wondering when you’d come down.” Gloria wrapped him in a hug that smelled like cinnamon and coffee before kissing him soundly on the cheek. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here yesterday to welcome you home.”

  Gloria had ruled the kitchens at Hill Chase for as long as he could remember. She looked him over with a critical eye. “You’ve lost weight. Is there no food in London?”

  “None like yours.” Behind Gloria, he could see Lily refilling her mug from the carafe, smirking as Gloria clucked over him.

  “Of course not,” she said, preening. “Go sit and I’ll fix you a plate.” Without even looking over her shoulder, she added, “You too, Lily.”

  Lily froze in her attempted escape. “I’ve eaten already, Gloria. I just came for the coffee.” She held up her mug and moved to the door. “So I’m going back to the stable now and will see everyone later.”

  Gloria sighed as she set an overflowing plate in front of him and filled his cup. “I swear, Lily’s nothing but skin and bones.”

  As someone very appreciative of Lily’s curves, Ethan would disagree with that statement. Silently, of course.

  “That child doesn’t eat enough to keep a cat alive,” Gloria clucked.