Page 4 of Reforming Lord Neil

“Gladly. Come, Mother. Olivia.” Neil took his mother’s arm and turned to leave the room.

“You misunderstand,” the marquess said, voice hardly more than a whisper. “I never want to see you again. You are to remove yourself from my sight, my house, my lands. You are to take nothing that belongs to me or to the family with you. No horses, no dogs, no funds. You have a quarter of an hour. If you are still here, I will make certain you regret it.”

Neil whirled around, shock turning his blood to ice. “You cannot be serious. I have done nothing—”

“Precisely,” his father said, a snarl in that single word. “Nothing. You are useless. You are nothing to me. I will spend no more effort, no more of the family money, on such a poor investment as you have proven to be.” He pulled a watch from his waistcoat and flicked open the cover. “Fourteen minutes.”

“Alderton, you cannot—”

“Father, please, not Neil—”

The pleas of his mother and sister would not be heard. His father’s behavior had been volatile before. He’d once whipped an eleven-year-old Neil with a riding crop for naught more than a minor infraction.

Neil stormed out of the room, the women following behind him.

Olivia’s shrill voice called after Neil. “You cannot leave—”

“I must. But the two of you should lock yourselves in your chambers, Mother. He is in a mood.”

“I would call it more than a mood,” his mother muttered. They stopped at the top of the stairs. “Where will you go?” she asked. “You must send me word. I will keep in contact and tell you when he’s ready to forgive you. This has to be some sort of plan, turning you into a prodigal.”

“Perhaps.” Neil did not have time to think over his father’s scheme, but the marquess never acted hastily. That thought alone reassured Neil when his mind wanted to give way to anxiety. The marquess had set everything up, before they had even walked into dinner that night. Neil would bet on it, if he gambled the way his eldest brother did. “Keep yourselves safe. I will send word when I have found some place to weather his displeasure.”

“Take this.” His mother took off the necklace she wore. It was studded with rubies. Then she pulled off her earbobs and put all of it in his hand. “They are mine, not the family’s.”

Olivia’s worried expression changed into a scowl. “And he wonders why I will never marry. Bah. Giving another man that sort of power over my life.” She jerked her chin upward. “Come, Mother. My room has strong bolts.”

Their mother shook her head. “He will not harm us, Olivia. This was all done for Neil, though I cannot guess why. Retire to your room. I will go to my own.”

Olivia glowered at Neil. “You had better fix this.” She turned on her heel and stormed down the corridor toward the family wing.

Neil looked down at his mother, her green eyes full of sorrow. “I will be fine, Mother. There will be a friend with a spare room somewhere. I will be away only until he comes to his senses.”

“I have been married to that man for forty years. He is playing a game. Though I do not know what it is. Be careful where you go. He has spies everywhere, and too many powerful people who owe him favors.” She put her hand on Neil’s cheek, her brow pinched. “Neil. I will say this once and only once, and you will never repeat it to your sister. But you are not that man’s son.”

Neil pulled away from her, nearly dropping the jewels she had given him in his shock. “Mother, what do you mean?”

“There is nothing, absolutely no reason, why you must be like him or why you cannot escape him,” she whispered harshly, her expression fierce. “Go. Before he turns your own precious dogs against you.”

She turned and went away, too fast for Neil to even attempt to grab her wrist, to stop her and demand an explanation.

His time was nearly up. And the last thing Neil wanted was for his father to turn the dogs on him. Despite his care for the animals, they were well trained to do as the kennel master commanded. Being chased off the property by the animals he loved would prove the greatest humiliation.

Neil stuffed the jewels into his coat pocket and fled the house, out the front door, and away from the only family he had ever known.

Chapter Three

Three days of being turned out of houses and away at doors by those he had considered friends had altered Neil’s perspective on how easy it would be to wait out the marquess’s wrath. Once he had shared his story, the noblemen and gentry had politely rescinded their hospitality.

Whether they declined him as a guest due to fear of the marquess’s displeasure or disgust that Neil no longer had full pockets, they did not say. He wandered up the coastline, his hope waning as his list of friendly acquaintances thinned.

He’d traded one of his mother’s earrings at one house for a horse and a bag of coin, but that was all the help he’d had. The horse wasn’t a particularly fine specimen, either, but it hadn’t seemed to mind wandering down the road.

Soon, he would need to turn westward. The next gentleman he meant to try was a third son, like himself, who lived near Saxmundham. At least, that’s where Neil thought the man said one could find him.

He dismounted the gelding and walked upon the road, giving his legs a much-needed stretch. His first instinct upon leaving his father’s house had been to seek out Lady Annesbury or Lady Fox. But he could not step foot upon the first lady’s lands without angering her husband, and the second lady was not at home. Having recently married, she and her irritating husband had gone on a wedding trip.

The knowledge that his immediate plans had been to run to women with whom he shared naught more than friendship stung his pride. There was no lover to seek. No gentleman who thought highly enough of him to risk his father’s wrath by offering shelter. The men who owed him favors were few, and not exactly near neighbors.