An Aria Writ In Blood (The Underwood Mysteries Book 4) by Suzanne Downes Page A

embarrassing and avoided them assiduously.
    Gil, his face determinedly set, insisted that Trentham accompany himself and Cara into the earl’s library – the earl and countess were dining out with friends.  The boy did his best to resist, but Gil was accepting no excuses.  He was not quite as tall as his older brother, but rather more solidly built – Underwood tended towards the slender.  When Gil drew himself up to his full height, squared his shoulders and looked straight into the eyes of his chosen victim, he was rather more menacing than one could reasonably expect from a man of the cloth.  Cara felt a delightful thrill of excitement, tinged with a little fear, when she saw the grim expression on the face of her groom.  Trentham must have been behaving tiresomely indeed to have produced such a reaction from the usually calm vicar.
    She was exceedingly angry herself when she discovered just how tiresome.
    “Trent!  How could you have been so stupid – and offensive.  Uncle Peter dandled you on his knee.  It is bordering upon the disgusting to see you angling after his wife.  Besides which, Luisa could not have made it any clearer that she had no wish to encourage your pretensions.”
    Trentham looked sulkily mutinous, “That is merely for Peter’s benefit.  She is not happy with him – any fool can see that.”
    “Whether she is happy or not is entirely immaterial,” interjected Gil harshly, “It is not your place to judge.  You have no right to come between a man and his wife.  ‘Whom God has joined, let no man put asunder’.  Do those words mean nothing to you, boy?  And if you can be callous enough to destroy your uncle’s happiness, have you no thought for your sister?  Cara desires nothing more than to have her family gathered about her for our wedding.  She will be distraught if Peter leaves before the ceremony – and that is just what he is threatening to do.  And I for one cannot say I blame him.  I have always known you to be odiously spoiled, Trentham, but I never thought to hear you speak in such ribald terms to your uncle – and of your aunt.  Dear God!  Do you not see that what you are contemplating is incest?”
    Trentham had been growing steadily redder and more angry in the face of this double onslaught, but these last words drove the blood from his cheeks and he looked suddenly sickened, “Damn you!  She is not my aunt.”
    “In the eyes of God and the law, that is precisely what she is!”
    When his face crumpled in misery, Cara saw him once more as the loveable little mischief-maker who had so plagued her teenage years and her pity for him was almost overwhelming, “My dear, this has to stop.  I am begging you, for my sake if not your own, please try to banish these feelings for Luisa.  When my wedding day is over, she and Peter will go back to Italy and you need never see either of them again.  I know you think you are in love with Luisa, but I promise you the pain will end.  You will meet some charming girl your own age…”
    In his grief and anger he swung his arm as though to fend her off, “Oh, shut up!  Shut up, shut up!  You know nothing of how I feel.  Nothing of the torture I suffer every time I see Peter touch her, speak to her, even look at her – to know he takes her to his bed every night!”
    “That’s enough!” roared Gil, so loudly that Cara started and even Trentham was silenced, “I will not allow you to speak thus in the presence of my future wife.  There will be no further discussion.  Either you agree to behave with propriety, with a modicum of the dignity your position in society demands, or it will be you who is asked not to attend the ceremony – not your aunt and uncle.  Is that quite clear?”
    From the stunned expression on Trentham’s face this was the very last thing he had been expecting.  He turned a pathetic face to his sister, “Cara, you would not side with Peter against me?  You won’t let Gil do this to