The Privileged and the Damned

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 truth?”

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 unusual 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 Cinderella 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.

Just the opening he needed. “Lily’s hardly a child. She’s what? Twenty-five?” he fished.

Gloria took the bait. “More like twenty-two or -three. She’s just so sweet, though, it makes her seem even younger. And don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, either.”

Ethan swallowed a mouthful of biscuit. “What?” he asked innocently.

“I’m wise to you. You leave Lily alone.”

Lily had a champion already. “You make it sound like I’m planning on doing something terrible to her.”

“Not on purpose, I know. But Lily’s a good girl and doesn’t need you messing with her head.” Gloria pursed her lips. “Or her anything else, for that matter.”

“I was simply curious as to how old Lily was. Now I know.” He vaguely wondered what Gloria knew that had her so protective of Lily. Even from him. “Is there more sausage?” he asked to change the subject.

Predictably, Gloria’s need to feed took over and she immediately went to the stove. “I’m afraid you’re on your own today. The Senator and Mrs. Marshall left early this morning to go to the Weatherlys’ to see the new foal Spider sired. It was planned before they knew you were coming, but they knew you’d probably have plenty to keep you occupied.”

He did have plenty to do: a ton of emails waiting for his attention, and a dozen phone calls he should make. But they’d waited this long; another day wasn’t going to make that much of a difference. A whole day of doing nothing important sounded very appealing. “No problem. I’m sure I can find something to amuse myself.”

Gloria slid the sausage onto his plate and frowned at him. “And never in your life has that sentence not equaled trouble.”

Lily knew the moment Ethan entered the stable. The energy felt different. It sounded just as silly today as it had yesterday, but she would swear it was true.

Maybe it was just because she happened to be mucking the stall next to Tinker’s when the horse perked up and started whinnying.

In twenty-four hours she’d managed to develop quite a crush on Ethan Marshall. It was silly, to be honest, but true nonetheless. After all, what wasn’t crush-worthy about the man? As long as she accepted it for exactly what it was, then there was no harm in it. She was a realist; she knew how the world worked and her place on the food chain. It was no different, really, than a crush on some movie star equally unobtainable.

Still, though, it felt rather nice; just another emotion she hadn’t let herself experience in a long time.

She heard Ethan greet his horse, and the way he talked to Tinker made her smile. These horses were family pets—not for competition or show—and as far as she knew there wasn’t a Marshall in the bloodline who wasn’t completely horse-crazy.

Screwing the lid back on the bottle of motor oil, she stepped out of Duke’s stall, drawing Ethan’s attention and a lazy smile of greeting that made her stomach flutter a little. Then the bottle caught his attention. “Duke’s cribbing again?”

“Yeah. I swear that horse needs therapy. Or antidepressants. Nothing we’re doing seems to help, so I’m trying to at least make his stall taste bad before he chews it to bits.”

“Finn says he’s coming out next weekend. Maybe that will help settle Duke down.”

Finn, she knew, was Ethan’s younger brother. The wild one who lived out in Los Angeles and produced movies—whatever that entailed. “Couldn’t hurt. Maybe Duke just misses him.” Tinker was butting against the stall door, wanting out. She patted his nose. “You are next for new shoes, so stay put.” Realizing that Ethan probably wanted to ride, she added, “Sorry. We’re a bit behind. Things are a little crazy around here today.”

“When are they not?”

“Very true.” She put the oil bottle on the ground and picked up the stall pick. Going back into Duke’s stall got Ethan out of her line of sight and let her stomach settle. She started spreading the clean bedding over the floor. “If you want, I can call up to the house when Tinker’s ready,” she said over her shoulder.

“It’s not a problem.”

Ethan spoke from right behind her, causing her to jump. She turned, surprised he’d followed her in, only to get confused when she saw the pitchfork in his hand. “Urn …” Surprise and confusion turned to complete jaw-dropping amazement when he started banking the bedding into the corners like a pro. “Um, what are you doing?”

Ethan looked at her like she was a little slow.

“I mean, I know what you’re doing. What I want know is why you’re doing it.” In here.

“You said things are crazy today, and I thought I’d help.”

Ethan Marshall. Mucking a stall. Two things that did not go nicely together in her head. “What if you get caught doing my job—”

“Honey, I’ve mucked these stalls thousands of times.”

“Really?” She was too distracted by the movement of his powerful shoulders as they forked another load of bedding to say much more.

“Yes, really.” He shot her a grin. “In fact, I’m probably better at it than you are.”

Like that was something Ethan would put on his résumé. “I’ll take your word for it, honestly.” Confusion reigned, and Lily struggled to make sense of the scene before her. “Look, if you’re waiting for Tinker—”

“It’ll do me some good. I spend too much time behind a desk these days. I’m getting soft.”

“Soft” was definitely not one of the many adjectives she’d choose to describe Ethan. Biceps strained against the fabric of his T-shirt as he worked, thigh muscles contracted and flexed under faded denim that hugged a really nice, tight … Lily moved to stand in front of the fan and closed her eyes as the air rushed over her face.

“You okay?” She looked over to see Ethan had stopped working and was now watching her, eyebrows pulled together in concern.

“I’m fine.” She poked at the bedding with her pick, moving it around aimlessly, unable to really focus.

“The summer I was fifteen, the stable manager’s niece came to work here. She might have been older than me, but she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.” He leaned on the pitchfork. “She knew it, too, and told me how impressed she was by my mucking technique. I mucked more stalls that summer …”

“To impress her?” Because good looks, charm and money weren’t enough? The girl had to be crazy. She couldn’t imagine a teenage Ethan would be lacking in any of those attributes any more than he was now.

He laughed ruefully. “She just wanted someone else to do the work, but, yeah, I thought I was impressing the hell out of her every day.”

Could she get fired for letting Ethan do her job? That was something she really couldn’t afford to risk. “If I tell you I’m impressed, will you stop?”

“You don’t want help?”

“Really not. I’d prefer to do it myself.”

Ethan looked at her strangely, but set the fork aside. “Then be my guest.”

Lily breathed a small sigh of relief. “Thank you.” Maybe her crush on Ethan wasn’t as good an idea as she’d convinced herself. She was making an utter ass of herself.

Instead of leaving, however, he leaned against the wall, like he had all the time in the world and no place better to go. She tried to pretend he wasn’t there and just finish up, but Ethan was simply impossible to ignore. Tinker stuck his head over the wall and nuzzled against his shoulder, and he lifted his hand to pat the horse absently. “So, where are you from?”

Damn. It was a perfectly innocent question, but she still hated it. It was a gateway to more questions. “Mississippi.”

“That explains your accent. What part?”

She tried to sound nonchalant, shrugging and falling back on practiced answers. “We moved around a lot, so nowhere particular.”

“What brought you to Virginia?”

It was as far as I could get before the money ran out. Swallowing against the curl of nausea, she struggled this time to keep her voice light. “A desire to see a different part of the country.”

“It must be tough to be so far from your family, though.”

She bit back the snort. He might see it that way. “Can’t be helped, so I’m dealing with it.”

“Gloria says you took the apartment over the office.”

Focus on what you’re doing. Maybe he’ll get the hint. “Uh-huh.”

“And do you like living here at Hill Chase?”

She could hear the teasing impatience in his voice at her distracted, vague answers, but she was getting impatient to end this conversation. “Not to be rude, but can I ask why you’re asking all these questions?”

His eyebrows went up in surprise, and she regretted the sharpness of the question. “Being friendly?”

There’s friendly and then there’s freaking me out. “Why?”

“Maybe I’m just a friendly guy. Is that a problem?”

Yeah. “I realize we got off to a weird start, but please don’t feel like you have to be nice to me or anything. I just work here.”

Ethan was silent for a moment. Maybe she’d gone a little too far. He finally nodded. “Then I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you.” Lily grabbed the empty wheelbarrow and rolled it away, feeling Ethan’s stare on her back as she left. Once outside, she parked the wheelbarrow by the wall and sagged against the building.

She’d just been horribly rude to her boss’s grandson, but she couldn’t help it. Why, exactly, she didn’t know. It wasn’t like no one had ever asked her those questions before. They were simple enough conversation, nothing really out of the ordinary, and until now she’d been able to fake her way through. There was something about having Ethan ask her, though, that made it harder.

Clarity arrived a little too late, and she banged her head against the wall gently. Her little crush wasn’t harmless at all.

Thank God Ethan wouldn’t be staying long at Hill Chase this time. She’d just have to make her way through it as best she could. And by his next visit she’d have it—hell, everything—better under control.

Ethan watched Lily turn the corner, the tension in her shoulders so fierce it had to be painful. She was acting like a few simple questions were the equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition. He looked at Tinker. “What is Lily’s deal?” The horse rolled his eyes. “You don’t know either, huh?”

However, anyone who thought Lily was shy was blind and possibly stupid. That much he knew for sure now. Lily simply didn’t want to talk, and that was a far cry from being shy. He fully understood the feeling; he’d just never been on the receiving end before.

The correct thing to do would be to leave Lily alone, respect her privacy, and forget the way those big brown eyes moved over him like a breeder evaluating a stud.

That last bit was unlikely, since just the memory was enough to make his skin burn. And that made the chance of him doing the other two “correct” things also rather slim.

More importantly, he didn’t want to. Something about Lily’s fresh-faced earthiness intrigued him. Unlike the over-polished women from the country club Nana kept pushing at him, Lily seemed real. And, unlike the women who wanted him for his name or his money or his status, Lily acted like those were marks against him. Lily was different and she posed a challenge—

two things he suddenly, and oddly, found irresistible.

His phone vibrated in his pocket as a text came in.

Need you to make an appearance at fundraiser Saturday. Black tie.

Not likely, he thought, and deleted the message.

As if Brady knew what he’d done, a second message appeared.

The Grands will kill you if you don’t show.

Boy, Brady was really pulling out the big guns. First some lecture on the “greater good” to appeal to his sense of reason, and when that didn’t work going back for the bigger ammunition of Nana and Granddad. He suddenly felt the need to visit Finn in California on Saturday. No one expected Finn to play nice, to put on the happy family face for the donors and the voters, and Ethan envied that. At the same time, things had been much harder for Finn: he’d been too young to understand what was really going on, and his and Brady’s attempts to shield Finn had only made things worse in the long run. As far as dirty laundry went, it wasn’t enough to derail the campaign in any way, so while it wouldn’t serve any purpose ever to air it, it still galled him to play along.