Chapter 64

“Thanks, Uncle A.”

“What matters is he’s here now,” a woman said with a faint smile at Bryn.

Elizabeth dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “That’s true. Sometimes all we can hope for is betterment in the future.” She sniffed. “Your room is prepared. I’ll have one done up for your valet, though I do hope he knows to be better dressed now that the travel’s done.”

It took Ellis a second to realize she meant him.

“This isn’t my valet, Mother,” Bryn said. “This is Ellis. He’s my boyfriend.”

Ellis’s neck popped, the turn of his head was so sharp. Saying the B word to Marella, who seemed to like Bryn, was one thing, but to tell his mother was another.

Elizabeth flinched as through struck. “We are good Christians in this house, Bryndon Deacon. And good Christians do not speak this way.” All eyes in three rooms were on them.

“I ain’t no Christian, Mama,” Bryn drawled in a scary impression of Elizabeth’s accent. “He isn’t either. It’s one of the reasons we’re boyfriends.”