“Is everything all right?”
He heaved a sigh. “It will be.”
Sophia looked toward Robin, and he nodded his head at her. “I’ll leave you two alone,” she said.
“Thank you.” Finn tugged at his cravat.
“What’s the matter, Finn?” Robin asked as he sat down in the chair behind his desk.
“Claire is expecting my child,” Finn blurted. God, he was an idiot. He could have done that so much more smoothly.
Robin jumped to his feet. “What?” he yelled.
“Claire is increasing and it’s mine.”
Robin jerked Finn from the chair he was sitting in by the lapels of his coat. “Tell me you’re jesting.”
“Would I make light of such a thing?” Finn asked. He pried Robin’s hands from his clothing and set him back. It had been a long time since he’d tussled with his older brother, but he wasn’t above it. And he might even win.
Robin looked at him and growled. He sank back into the chair he’d vacated and dropped his face in his hands. “At least you’re already marrying her. In nine months, you’ll have an heir to your fortune.”
“It won’t actually be nine months,” Finn murmured.
Robin looked confused.
Finn rushed on. “Do you remember when you asked me to take care of her for you when you went to the land of the fae?”
“Yes,” Robin replied slowly, stretching the word out like a hiss through his teeth.
“We both had a little too much to drink that night, and… well… we were intimate.”
“You were.” Robin’s voice was monotone. And quiet. Much too quiet.
“Then when I woke up, she was gone.” He held up a hand to thwart Robin’s next complaint. “I scoured the roads between here and Bedfordshire. As she explained to me, she took the wind back to the land of the fae that night because her grandfather died.” He still didn’t understand that part. “Some kind of special transportation they have. They sent the wind to pick her up while I was sleeping.”
“Go on.”
“I looked everywhere for her, and then in one of your notes, you said that she was back in the land of the fae with her family. I couldn’t tell you about her, because, well, she’s your sister-in-law.”
“Yes, she is.”
“Then suddenly, she was here one night. She tumbled directly into my bedchamber.”
“Tumbled.”
“Tumbled. Right into my bedchamber.”
“And?”
A grin tugged at the corners of Finn’s lips. “And I was damned happy to see her.”
“Happy.”
Finn jumped to his feet. “Damn it, Robin, can you say something else and just stop repeating after me?”
“You don’t want to hear what I have to say.”
“Oh, I do.”