Ethan: Lord of Scandals Read Online Free PDF

at him, but she’ll be wroth with me.”
    “Whining, Mr. Grey?” Miss Portman offered him another one of the dazzling, heart-stopping smiles.
    “Absolutely.” Ethan stood up. “Can you manage?” He glanced down at the blanket meaningfully. When she only frowned, he offered his arm and got her settled on the blanket before pulling his shirt over his head and striding off for the water.
    “Stand down, Wee Nick,” Ethan bellowed. “I’ll not have you terrorizing the peasants.”
    “We’re not peasants,” John said. “We’re tars.”
    “Them either.” Ethan winked at John, whom he hadn’t said two words to in the previous three weeks. “Prepare to meet your doom, Wicked Nick.”
    Nick grinned an evil, piratical grin and dove for his brother. The water was only about two feet deep, perfect for making a huge ruckus without any risk of harm. The little boys squealed and hopped around, calling encouragement to their pirate of choice; the big boys bellowed and splashed and dunked each other repeatedly, until Nick and Ethan were both sitting on a log downed in the shallows, panting and licking knuckles scraped on the bottom of the stream.
    “Now look what we’ve done,” Nick said as the smaller boys began to roughhouse in earnest. “The seven seas will never be safe again.”
    “True, but at least our breeches stayed on.”
    The boys had been wading in their smalls, and when waterlogged and held around slippery little bodies by only a drawstring, Joshua’s and John’s clothing was being dragged into the briny deep.
    “What on earth has Joshua done to his backside?”
    Ethan slogged across the water toward his son, his brain taking a moment to comprehend what his eyes insisted was fact. He discreetly pulled up Joshua’s sagging drawers and did the same for John before turning a thunderous expression on his brother.
    “Nicholas Haddonfield, did you beat my son?” He kept his voice down, while both hands curled into tight fists.
    “I did not,” Nick said, keeping his voice as low as Ethan’s. “He came to us like that, Ethan. Alice noticed it when she gave them a bath the first night, and brought it to my attention.”
    Nick’s disclosure made Ethan want to hit someone—something—all the more. “ That has been healing all this time? He never said a word.”
    Nick eyed Ethan’s hand. “I asked him if he fell. He said he was bad and he deserved it.”
    “He’s five,” Ethan shot back. “How could he deserve a hiding like that?”
    “So you didn’t do it.”
    “You thought…” Ethan dropped Nick’s gaze, his eyes going to his youngest son. “It had to hurt like hell, Nick.”
    “If you didn’t do it, then who did?”
    “I am ashamed to say I do not know.” Ethan watched as Joshua’s backside peeked into view again. “I suspect it was Mr. Harold, their tutor, but until I talk to Joshua, I can’t say. I feel sick.”
    “I feel relieved,” Nick said. “A man’s children are his own business, but to think you might have done that to your son did not sit well with me or my countess. They’re good boys, Ethan. If anything, they’re too good.”
    Ethan wasn’t listening. A muscle worked in his jaw, and he could feel the vein just beyond his hairline throbbing. His eyes were fixed on his sons, sturdy little men having a grand time on a summer day. To appearances, all was well with them, but Ethan still felt the urge to kill whoever had hurt one of his boys.
    “Come on.” Nick prodded him with an elbow. “I brought spare breeches, and you can borrow a pair. Into the bushes with us. Beware the savages, as we’re fair game for attack.”
    When they’d changed their clothes, they returned to the blankets to find the boys still cavorting in the water—though their lips were blue and their teeth were chattering.
    “Joshua and Jeremiah, out!” Ethan barked. “Now!”
    They came right out of the water and presented their shivering little selves to their father, while John and Ford