Read Willoughby 03 - A Rogue's Deadly Redemption for Free Online

I’ll see to it myself.” He stood and snatched the letter off the tray. He stalked to the front entry way, where a young footman stood tall and still.
    Robert waved the note in front of his face. “I have the note. You may leave now.”
    “I’m afraid I cannot, sir. I was given strict instructions. But I would be happy to wait out in the carriage until the appropriate time.”
    Robert frowned. “Time for what? He wishes a response? He’ll get a response when I feel like giving him one.”
    The footman shifted his weight. “It is not a simple response I am to wait upon, sir.”
    “Then what?”
    When the footman didn’t reply, Robert muttered, “For God’s sake, what now?” He tore the envelope open, dropped it and opened up the short letter. The words were sparse, but each one added to the anger that had begun to boil inside. “You are to escort me to him at precisely one-thirty this afternoon ?” Robert’s words were slow, building in volume and clipped off at the ends. “What the hell am I, a child? Are you to sit and attend to my nappies as well?”
    He didn’t expect either housekeeper or footman to respond, but instead he tossed the letter on the ground. “He can go to hell. I will not come to heel now or any other day, and you can bloody well report that to him. Get out of my house.”
    The footman stared with wide eyes. “As you wish. I shall wait in the carriage until this afternoon.”
    “No, you will not.” Robert’s fists clenched at his sides. “You will return to your master , and tell him precisely where he can place his request.”
    The footman bowed and as he exited the house, Robert took the petty pleasure in slamming the door behind him.
    Who the hell did Marcus think he was? Ordering him about like he had any say in Robert’s life? As if he was any part of his life, period?
    “If you don’t mind my saying so,” Edwin intruded as he walked into the foyer, “but I don’t envision the young lad leaving. You’ve left him quivering in the carriage but he’ll stay until he’s fulfilled his lordship’s request.”
    “Why can’t I have a servant who obeys?” Robert snorted. “He’ll have a long wait, for I have no intention of being escorted anywhere.”
    “You have a meeting at one this afternoon, in any case, my lord.”
    So he did.
    Robert enjoyed the irony that he was elevating his position within the organization while his brother sat upon his heels and awaited his fancy.
    Should Robert’s activities get about, it would envelope the respectable, circumspect Marquess in a black void of scandal.
    Of course, Robert preferred his own neck out of the hangman’s noose and wouldn’t be inclined to give up what life he did have just to destroy his brothers—neither the ‘heir’ Marcus nor the spare, Cary. But the thought of it held some merit.
    Robert peered out the window past the lace covering. Thick fingers of fog curled above the ground, making it difficult to make out his brother’s tell-tale coach. The shiny black, the silver embellishments, the excellent horseflesh leading it.
    There it stood. Waiting.
    Robert could imagine his neighbors peering out their windows at the carriage. Not that he knew them or gave a whit about what they thought, yet somehow the notion that they might perceive him under his brother’s thumb needled. The longer he stood there, watching the gray mist further envelope the world outside, the more he felt like he was doing exactly as his brother expected. Staring out the window, focused on what his brother wanted.
    Marcus expected him to show. And he’d expect Robert to show late.
    A cold grin curved Robert’s lips. He wasn’t going to wait. No, indeed.
    He had a meeting to attend, and he was going to use his brother’s carriage to get there.
    ***
    Edwin opened the door to the carriage, and Robert jumped up to the highboard, startling the footman who sat atop with the driver. “Sir! What are you doing?”
    “Getting in. We’re going