A Family Affair by Jennifer Wenn

his mouthful of scone.
    “Did you have a good time?” George asked his younger brothers.
    “Indeed we did,” Jamie said jovially as he sat down beside Fanny and grabbed a cup of tea with a lemon twist. “But not as good as Fanny had.”
    “Me?”
    “Yes, you, Lady Francesca. You met Hereford again. If my memory serves me right, you were head over heels in love with him the last time you saw him.”
    Fanny looked at him with scorn.
    “I was five years old. I didn’t know better.”
    “But still…”
    “What? There is nothing to it. We met and agreed it had been a while, we danced, and then we said goodbye.”
    “That’s it?” Sin let out, aghast. “You mean we had to live with you all that time while you were moping around, mourning the loss of your Prince Charming, and now, when you finally meet him again as an adult, you think of it as nothing?”
    “That’s right.” Fanny met her mother’s probing gaze. “It was nice to have some kind of closure in meeting him again, but that’s it.”
    “Of course,” Caroline said in a very I-don’t-believe-a-word-but-to-avoid-war-we’ll-let-it-be kind of way. She stood and gave her family a contented smile. “Thank you, my dears, for this evening. It was good of you to accompany us to Fanny’s first outing as a debutante. Now I will retire to my chambers, to get some sleep before the picnic tomorrow.”
    George gave Fanny a kiss on the forehead before he followed his wife out of the room.
    The remaining five sipped quietly on their tea for a while, enjoying the silence of the night. Jamie put his arm around Fanny, and she gave him a sleepy smile as she laid her head against his shoulder.
    The four men sat silently as they watched her fall asleep. No one said anything until they were sure she was sleeping soundly, and then Rake looked gravely at Sin.
    “So what do we know happened?”
    Sin shrugged. “I’m not sure. When she went to the restroom, I kind of lost her. Mother more or less forced me to ask Penelope to dance with me, so I had to leave my watch.”
    When Sebastian gave him an accusing gaze, Sin hissed, “You, better than anyone, should know Mother’s not-so-subtle way of taking care of business.”
    Sebastian winced at the truth of his brother’s words, having the Miss Archer situation too fresh in mind, and gave his brother an apologetic shrug.
    “Well, I met them just inside the balcony doors,” Rake said slowly, “And I can bet my life I caught them only minutes after they entered the ballroom from the balcony.”
    “What?” the three other Darlings exclaimed, making Fanny stir in her sleep, and they had to wait until she was calm again.
    They were all too aware of what could happen with a young girl out on the balcony, as they had all been there, and they had all enjoyed the darkness.
    A lot.
    “When I think about it,” Rake mused. “Fanny was blushing, and Devlin was drooling all over her. I didn’t think so much of it then, as I was happy to meet Devlin again after all this time.”
    “Where has he been?” Jamie asked curiously.
    “As far as I know, he’s been on the continent for many years now, in the military, and I think it’s high time he did return, as I have missed him profoundly.”
    “A couple of years is an extraordinarily long time for a high-born nobleman to remain as a foot soldier on enemy soil. I can’t think the French like our aristocracy more than their own.”
    “I don’t know more than you do, as I only met him for a second or two, and then his attention was on Fanny.”
    “There is something between them, anyone could tell, and we have to guard Fanny harder, so she won’t slip through our net again. We don’t want her alone with a womanizer like Devlin,” Sin said as he unwrapped his long legs and stood up.
    Jamie and Sebastian agreed. Only Rake remained silent, with a strange look on his face.
    “You know,” he said slowly, “I think I wouldn’t mind if Fanny ends up marrying him. Devlin is a