Page 28 of A Scandal In July

Gryff had disappeared from view around the back of the island.

“Go!” Harriet shouted to Morgan, gesturing frantically into the trees toward the center if the island. “Don’t wait for me.”

Morgan started off through the undergrowth, and Harriet sent Lenore a laughing glance as their boat slid onto the same stretch of beach. “Afternoon!”

Rhys didn’t even wait for the boat to come to a complete stop. He threw down the oars and jumped out after Morgan in hot pursuit, careless of his expensive boots splashing in the water.

Harriet obviously planned to stay with their boat, but Lenore decided that two sets of eyes were better than one. She hitched her skirts up to her waist, tucked the excess fabric into her waistband, climbed out of the boat, and dragged it higher up the beach so it wouldn’t float away.

Then she set off after Rhys and Morgan.

The trees and grasses were incredibly overgrown, but she pushed ahead, uphill, batting branches out of the way and stepping over fallen logs. The sound of snapping twigs indicated that someone was up ahead, and then the peace was shattered by a cacophony of male shouting.

“Got you!”

She rounded a large pine just in time to see Rhys running towards Morgan’s retreating back. He launched himself at his brother and tackled him with arms around his chest, and the two of them tumbled to the ground in a blur of limbs.

“Oi! Get off, you bugger!” Morgan rolled and tried to push him off, but Rhys clung to him like a barnacle, and the two of them rolled over and over through the mud and leaves, scrambling in the most undignified manner.

Morgan managed to get one arm free and grabbed Rhys’s hair, which he gave a brutal tug.

“Owww!” Rhys howled. “Not the hair!”

He retaliated by elbowing Morgan in the stomach.

Morgan grabbed the waistband of Rhys’s breeches and gave a sharp tug, and Lenore winced as he heard the rip of fabric.

Since both men were of a similar size and weight, they were evenly matched, and they’d clearly been scrapping like this since they were boys. They obviously hadn’t lost the relish for it now that they were in their twenties. Lenore almost rolled her eyes.

Rhys had just pulled his right arm back to punch Morgan in the face when Harriet’s scolding tones carried clearly through the trees.

“No punching, Davies boys!”

Both Rhys and Morgan stilled, and Lenore turned in surprise to see Harriet pushing through the greenery to her left.

Harriet sent the two men a look of withering disappointment that made Lenore suppress a chuckle. She’d clearly witnessed such chaotic scenes from the Davies siblings before.

“Rhys Davies, don’t you dare give my husband a black eye. We have to go to Lady Pilton’s garden party next week and I won’t have him looking like a pirate.”

She turned to her husband. “And you. Have you forgotten he was boxing champion at Cambridge for three years in a row? Why on earth would you get into a scrap with him?”

“Just helping him stay on top form,” Morgan grinned.

Rhys sent Morgan a gloating look for Harriet’s apparent admiration of his boxing acumen, but it faded with her next comment.

“He’s probably received so many blows to the head that his brain’s stopped working properly.”

“Hey!” Rhys objected. “My brain works perfectly well, I’ll have you know.”

Morgan sent his wife a laughing glance. “And if I remember correctly, there have been times when you’ve quitelikedmelooking like a pirate.” He waggled his brows and sent her a comically suggestive leer.

Harriet’s cheeks turned pink, and she sent him an embarrassed glare. “Oh, hush, you!”

Lenore caught Rhys’s eye and gave her head an almost imperceptible tilt toward the center of the island to indicate that she was going to make a run for the temple while he detained Morgan. He understood her intent immediately.

“Lenore, go!” he shouted, just as he grabbed Morgan’s shirt collar and gave it a yank backwards.

Morgan let out a howl as there was more ripping of fabric. “I paid ten shillings for this jacket, you arse!”