William's father was his elder brother.
They didn't share the same surname, and almost no one knew of the connection. George was the bastard son of their father, born from a brief and disgraceful affair with a servant girl.
In elite society, such things were frowned upon, so the incident was buried quickly and thoroughly, and George had grown up in the shadows of a name he was never allowed to carry.
Still, blood was blood.
And when William enrolled, his brother had asked him personally, firmly, to keep an eye on his son, because even he was aware how troublesome the boy could be.
George had never refused.
Some might have argued that William's mistakes were his own to bear, that George had no obligation to clean up after him. But obligation had never been the point. This was family business, whether he liked it or not.
And that brother of his was actually the only member of that family who treated him kindly. So how could he not reciprocate?
