The Inheritance Games, #4
The Brothers Hawthorne
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
CHAPTER 34: JAMESON
Overview
On the quiet canal ride away from Devil’s Mercy, Avery tells Jameson that she has been offered entrance to the Game, while Jameson has not. The revelation strains Jameson’s pride and sense of worth, even as his bond with Avery remains intense and intimate.
Avery then gives Jameson a crucial piece of information: Branford is actually Simon Johnstone-Jameson, Viscount Branford, heir to the Earl of Wycliffe. The reveal turns Jameson’s whist opponent from an arrogant club member into a potentially important figure tied to the larger mystery.
Summary
After leaving Devil’s Mercy, Jameson and Avery ride back through the underground canal in an unmanned boat. Jameson poles the boat while Avery sits silently, and Jameson reads Avery’s expression well enough to know something significant has happened.
Jameson prompts Avery with their private shorthand, and Avery reveals that the Proprietor has offered Avery entrance to the Game. Jameson immediately asks Avery to say that she accepted and did not try to make the Proprietor include Jameson too. Avery admits that Avery did ask, and that the request failed.
Jameson snaps at Avery, then hates his own reaction because Avery’s victory feels like Jameson’s loss. Wanting to stop resenting Avery’s success, Jameson moves close to her, touches her gently, and the tension between them turns into an urgent kiss. Even while kissing Avery, Jameson cannot silence the thought that he has failed again and is ordinary.
Avery pulls back enough to tell Jameson there is more he needs to know about the man Jameson played whist against. Jameson identifies the man as Branford, and Avery explains that Branford is not a name but a courtesy title.
Avery tells Jameson that, according to the Proprietor, Branford is the eldest son and heir of the Earl of Wycliffe. The revelation reframes Jameson’s opponent as Simon Johnstone-Jameson, Viscount Branford, connecting the whist game to a titled figure whose surname pointedly includes Jameson.
Who Appears
- Jameson HawthornePoles the canal boat, struggles with exclusion from the Game, and learns Branford’s identity.
- Avery Kylie GrambsReveals her invitation to the Game and identifies Branford as Viscount Branford.
- Branford / Simon Johnstone-Jameson, Viscount BranfordJameson’s whist opponent, revealed as heir to the Earl of Wycliffe.
- The ProprietorOffered Avery entrance to the Game and supplied information about Branford’s title.