Because of His Name (6 page)

So
is he joking or not?
 
Is he trying
to tell me he’s truly interested in me?

Grace was baffled.
 
When they finally arrived in the dining
room, she was horrified to see that it wasn’t just the two of them eating
breakfast.

Instead,
the long,
formal table was already occupied by five other people
and there were
servants waiting on them.

“Mister Houston,” an older butler said,
his white mustache perfectly groomed to cover his stiff upper lip.
 
“So glad to see you’re joining us this
morning.”

“Thanks, Reggie,” Liam said.
 
“Reggie, this is my friend Grace.
 
Grace, this is Reggie.”

“Reginald Harcourt at your service,
ma’am,” the butler said, bowing slightly toward her.

The other five people were staring at
them, and mostly at her.
 
Their
glances hardly felt approving, and Grace instantly wished she’d left and gone
home, as she’d threatened to do on multiple occasions.

“Come on, let’s sit,” Liam said,
escorting her down to one end of the table.
 
He sat at the head, and she sat next to
him.

The others were all at least one seat
away from her, staring.

“Hi,” the youngest boy said.
 
“I’m Michael.”
 
He was a curly-headed, brown haired boy
of about eleven.
 
And he was eating
some sort of pastry.

“Hi Michael,” Grace said, trying to smile
warmly.
 

The others were still staring at her, and
not trying to be particularly warm either, from what she could sense.

“Well,” Liam sighed, standing up, “I
suppose I should get introductions out of the way.
 
You’ve already met my youngest brother,
Michael.
 
And sitting next to him is
my other younger brother, Exley.”

Exley was much older, probably at least
eighteen or nineteen, with light blond hair, blue eyes, and a wiry frame.
 
He gave her a nod of his head and a tiny
smirk.
 
“This must be serious,” he
said.
 
“He’s never done this before,
eh Mother?”

But Liam ignored him and continued on
with the introductions.
 
“Across
from
Ex
is my sister, Vera.”

Vera gave a wave at Grace.
 
She was tall, gorgeous, with striking
green eyes and a large Cindy Crawford mole above her lip.
 

“Next to Vera,” Liam said, “is my Uncle
Duncan.”

Duncan was a large man with a potbelly
and a bulbous nose with broken blood vessels all over it.
 
His cheeks were red, too.
 
“What do I have to do to get a refill
around here?” he said to nobody in particular.

Liam turned to Grace with a sly
grin.
 
“Uncle Duncan loves his
Bloody Mary’s when he’s having breakfast.
 
Or anytime, for that matter.”

“Refill, Reginald!” Duncan shouted.

“And lastly,” Liam said, gesturing to the
opposite end of the table, “you’ll find my lovely mother, Anne.”

Anne smiled warmly and folded her hands
beneath her chin.
 
Anne was stunning—she
didn’t look a day over forty, and yet she had to be close to fifty or
fifty-five.
 
But her features were
strong, imposing—like a mix between the beauty of Vera and the strangeness
of Exley.
 
“So nice to have a friend
of Liam’s join us for family breakfast,” she said, her voice smooth and
cultured.

“I’m—I’m glad to be here too,”
Grace said, trying not to show her unease.

She took her seat and fiddled with her
silverware as a servant poured water, coffee, and asked if she wanted a pastry.

“Sure,” Grace said, trying to catch
Liam’s gaze.

But Liam was smiling proudly, as if he
was showing off his blue ribbon pumpkin to the rest of his family.
 

It was quite obvious to her that this was
an unusual occurrence in their family tradition, and she didn’t understand why
Liam had opted to put both of them in such an awkward position.

“Everyone, Liam said, “this is Grace.”

“Does Grace have a last name?” Exley
asked, staring at his older brother with a strange expression.
 

Liam’s cheeks turned red.

“I’m Grace Knowles,” she said, answering
before it became clear that he didn’t know it.

“Oh, are you related to Beyonce?” Michael
asked, and Vera snorted.

“I’m not,”
Grace
said, as she picked up her coffee and took a sip.
 
It was rich and dark and amazing
tasting.
 
Maybe the best coffee
she’d ever had.

“Grace was at the wedding yesterday,”
Liam said.
 
“Right?”

“Yeah,” she said, feeling like she was
walking through territory strewn with unseen landmines.
 
She didn’t want to say the wrong thing.

“Oh,” Anne exclaimed, suddenly more
interested.
 
“So you must be a
friend of Easton—or are you a friend of his wife, Kennedy?”

“Neither,” Grace admitted.
 

Anne’s expression grew puzzled.
 
“I don’t understand.
 
Are you a relative, then?”

“No, Mother.
 
She was with the wedding planner,” Liam
said.
 

Anne’s expression didn’t change, but
something in her eyes hardened.
 
It
was a subtle shift, and Grace thought perhaps she was just imagining it.
 
“It was a lovely wedding,” she offered,
before having a sip of her drink.

“That’s it, I’m getting the damn Bloody
Mary mix myself,” Liam’s uncle cried, standing up and then walking out of the
room.

“He’s already loaded and it’s not even
noon yet,” Vera said, rolling her eyes.

“I want to get loaded,” Michael replied.

Nobody responded, and they younger boy’s
words hung in the air.
 
Grace
started to tap her foot uncontrollably with nervous energy, as the silence grew
thicker.

“So, Grace,”
Vera
said, sitting up and fixing her beautiful eyes on her.
 
“Where did you go to school?”

“Oh, I went to regular old public
school,” she said.

Exley laughed.
 

Liam twirled his fork and looked at
her.
 
“I think my sister’s referring
to your post-high school education, Grace.”

“Oh.”
 
Grace swallowed.
 
“I, uh—I went to a two-year
school.”

She wasn’t sure what was worse.
 
Saying community college or saying
two-year college?
 
Either way, just
from the looks on their faces, she knew it wasn’t good.

But what did she care what these snobs
thought of her education anyway?

Vera nodded as if this all made
sense.
 
“I wish I could’ve gone to a
two-year school.
 
Instead, I went
overseas to Oxford and then I came back and did my graduate studies at
Harvard.”
 
She shook her head.
 
“It was all rubbish, really.
 
I always told Mother that I’d have been
better off apprenticing under someone really unique—for instance,
Christopher Hitchens.”

“Hitchens is dead,” Exley said.
 
“How dumb can you be?”

Vera glared at him.
 
“He is
now
.
 
But he wasn’t dead
when I was studying political science at Oxford or Harvard.
 
Or maybe Richard Dawkins.
 
I’d love to have a brilliant man like
Dawkins hanging around, trying to poke holes in all of my theories.”

Grace just nodded her head, as the
servants returned, bearing all manner of breakfast foods.
 
Everything from crepes, to eggs served
in different styles, quiche, salad, and various croissants and breads.

She decided to play it safe and just have
scrambled eggs and toast.
 
As she
was buttering her toast, a waiter stood beside her.
 
“Anything else I can get you, ma’am?”

“No,” Grace told him.
 
“This is all wonderful.”

The waiter left and Grace tried to focus
on acting like this was all normal to her.
 
But her mind continued to race.
 
Why on earth had Liam brought her to eat with his crazy family?

Speaking of crazy, Uncle Duncan returned
carrying a large pitcher with red liquid filling it to the brim, and a few
celery stalks sticking out the top.
 
“Now I don’t have to worry anymore,” he announced, sitting back down and
filling his glass from the pitcher.

“That dress is quite gorgeous,” Anne
said, as she cut into an omelet.
 
“Did you get it at one of the shops in the area?”

Grace shot Liam a frightened look and he
interjected.
 
“It’s supposed to be
really nice out today.
 
Are you
going riding, Mother?”

His mother looked at him.
 
“I’m not sure.
 
Maybe if Vera or Exley will finally come
with me.”

“Why can’t I go?” Michael whined.

“You can’t go riding again for another
week,” Anne told him sternly.

“It’s not my fault.
 
Duncan told me I could try jumping.”

“You know Duncan’s not to be asked about
anything of that sort,” Anne said.
 
“And now you’re punished.”

“So,” Exley said, looking at Anne, his
strange eyes boring into her.
 
“You
went to a two-year college.
 
What
did you study?”

She shrugged, feeling hot and sweaty now,
even in her sundress.
 
“Oh, just
general stuff.”

“And are you working in that field of
“general stuff” since graduating?” Exley said, smirking.

Vera snorted again.

“Pipe down,” Liam said to her.

“I’m currently not employed at the
moment,” Grace told Exley, meeting his gaze.

Exley smiled wider.
 
“Well Mother, I for one like her.”
 
He turned to his brother.
 
“Clearly, this is serious.
 
We should celebrate with a toast.”
 
Exley picked up his water glass and held
it aloft.
 

“Knock it off,” Liam said.

But everyone had suddenly followed suit.

Grace felt her lips tightening and tears
pricking her eyes, but she fought them off.

“To Liam and Grace,” Exley said.
 
“May this be the start of something
special, and may she continue to
grace
us with her presence at family breakfast for many years to come.”

Liam stared hard at his younger brother
as the family cheered the toast.

“Come on, Grace,” Exley said.
 
“Raise your glass.”

She picked up her glass and reluctantly
clinked with him.

“That wasn’t really necessary,” Liam
muttered at him.

Exley grinned.
 
“I think we need to be more welcoming to
guests,” he said.
 
“Don’t you agree,
Uncle?”

Duncan smacked his lips and nodded.
 
“I absolutely think so,” he said.
 

Grace was quite certain the man hadn’t
heard a word that had been said in the last ten minutes.
 
He was too busy ingesting tomato juice
like it was his lifeblood.

After the initial fanfare died down,
people began eating and side conversations sprang up, making things slightly
less awful.

Grace turned her attention to Liam, who
was picking at his crepe.
 

“Thanks so much for having me to
breakfast,” she said, attempting to shoot daggers at him with her eyes.

He nodded, seemingly oblivious of her
rage.
 
“It was my pleasure, Grace.”

“I wish you’d told me in advance so I
could’ve been more…prepared.”

He smiled.
 
“That would’ve spoiled the fun.”

As soon as breakfast was over, she got up
and excused herself.
 

But before she could exit the room, Exley
grabbed her hand and shook it firmly, looking into her eyes.
 
“I’m serious, you should come around
more often, Grace.
 
The family could
use some new blood.
 
We’re all
getting quite bored of one another.”