Character Showcase - Mr. Maxwell Bramley

Max Bramley is the sort of fellow who bumbles through his day with very few cares and seldom takes anything seriously. Unfortunately, he likes to give advice, whether it's desired or not, and even though his own life's choices leave much to be desired. He is a gentleman of leisure and pleasure. It puzzles him greatly that his dear cousin Harry prefers to live a solitary life in the country and won't even keep a valet on staff. Even worse, Harry appears to have sworn off the female gender. Well, good thing (or is it?) that Max is here to set all this straight and steer his cousin back into all the pursuits a gentleman ought to enjoy.

* * * *

In Max Bramley's eyes, there was nothing wrong with Harry. Nothing that a simple cure could not change. Max generally viewed life through the distorted glass at the bottom of a crystal goblet, of course, and although folk never went to him for advice, it did not stop the blurry-eyed fellow from giving it freely.

            "A woman could save you from yourself," he said. "You've already got one arm in a sling, old chap. But breaking one's fall is precisely what a woman is for."

 

            "Then why haven't you acquired one?"

            That caught his cousin off guard, but only briefly. "We are talking of you, dear coz, not of me. You were in the Navy, Harry, for pity's sake! This chaste life is not what I expect from a sailor."

 

* * * *

 

When Max gets it into his head to "help", it seldom turns out well, but he is just as determined to fix a crisis as his mama, Lady Bramley. Sometimes his methods are not exactly subtle and he ends up doing more damage than good, but, as poor Harry must constantly remind himself, his cousin "means well".

And Max is very fortunate that Miss Georgiana Hathaway strongly believes nobody is beyond saving.

 

Read more in "The Trouble with His Lordship's Trousers" OUT NOW.

 

Jayne

 

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(Image: Portrait of a Gentleman by Francois-Xavier Fabre)