It Takes Two to Tumble (Seducing the Sedgwicks, #1)

by Cat Sebastian

He had seen men go to the gallows with more dignity than he was going to his own damned home.

Ben rather admired the children’s single-minded perseverance, if not their methods.

Ben had no idea what to do with those children other than let them romp through the countryside like the misbegotten elf creatures they were.

He needed to get to work turning them into well-behaved, competent midshipmen. Children, he corrected himself. Yes, children.

Nor did vicars belong in trees at any time whatsoever.

There was nothing like a stickler for discipline to incite an armed rebellion, and those children were already on the verge of insurrection.

But the Dacre children were especially committed to not being tamed, and Ben didn’t see that it was his business

As far as he was concerned, he was serving his God by repairing fences and helping round up stray lambs.

Ben’s patron was off in London spending money he shouldn’t and doing whatever else young aristocrats did in town, and worrying about provincial vicars certainly did not number among his amusements.

if there are villains living next door, I do expect my children to stay far away from them.”

Now, lit only by the setting sun, Dacre was warm and human and a little bit sad.

The Crawfords had been fantastically normal: there was a sensible number of parents (two), a reasonable number of children (one), and, best of all, the desired number of those artistic hangers-on who seemed to colonize his father’s home (zero).

But comfort and ease suddenly seemed like pale and flimsy things.

He tended to think that when the Bible condemned something practically everyone did, whether it be tossing oneself off or eating pork, there was likely some nuance that had been lost either to history or to translation. And then he didn’t think about it anymore.

The children did not number sloth or idleness among their vices, it would seem.

And something more than duty, something like fondness combined with responsibility and multiplied by some arcane mathematical process that only Jamie would understand.

So even if I were inclined to raise your rent, which I am not, I couldn’t.”