Page 55 of Enlightened

Then he walked out of the room without another word.

Chapter Eighteen

The next morning dawned blustery and cold. Grey clouds scudded around the sky as David made his way to the Lennox residence and the wind buffeted him, forcing him to grab hold of his hat several times. March was coming in like a lion this year.

Will’s house was smaller and less grand than Murdo’s, a red-brick affair in a less salubrious, though still respectable, corner of London. David’s stomach gripped with nerves as he knocked at the door, wondering what reception he could expect.

“Sir William said you were to be brought straight to the study, sir,” the grim-faced butler told him. “If you’d care to follow me.”

He escorted David down a narrow hallway, stopping in front of one of the doors to lightly knock.

“Enter,” came the voice from within.

It was just one word, but unmistakably, it was Will. An aristocratic inflection to it, like Murdo’s, but Will’s accent was more obviously Scottish. The voice of a country gentleman who’d played with the local children when he was a boy and been tutored at home.

The butler opened the door, inviting David to precede him into the room with a sweeping gesture, and David crossed the threshold into a cosy study. Will had evidently been sitting behind his desk. He was already in the act of rising when David entered. They moved towards one another, coming to a mutual halt in the middle of a Turkish rug in front of the fireplace.

“Mr. Lauriston,” he said with a careful smile.

“Sir William.” David shook the offered hand as quickly as was decent before drawing his fingers free. Behind him, the click of the door signalled Will’s servant had withdrawn, and they were alone.

There was a long pause, then Will said, “I see you have a cane now?”

“It’s temporary,” David replied shortly.

“What happened?”

“Nothing much. An accident. I am all but recovered.” David forced himself to look at the other man, keeping his own expression determinedly blank.

“You certainly look well,” Will said at last, and his gaze travelled over David, up, then down. Not too obviously, but obvious enough, to men like them. Had he looked at his grenadier guard like that, David wondered, before he fucked him in front of an audience?

“So do you,” David said blandly, giving no hint of his thoughts. He added coolly, “Marriage must agree with you.”

Will didn’t respond to that, but his gaze, so very direct a moment ago, slid away.

“I hear you have a daughter,” David added, all polite interest.

“And a son now,” Will confirmed.

“My felicitations.”

Will nodded dismissively, apparently disinclined to discuss his children with David. “Would you like a nip of something?” he asked, gesturing at a decanter of something amber on his desk.

At ten o’clock in the morning?

“No, thank you,” David murmured. “But I wouldn’t mind sitting down.”

“Oh, of course,” Will replied, glancing at the cane in David’s hand. “I should have offered before.”

He should have, David thought. But then, Will had never been the most thoughtful of men.

It was an idle observation, but one that pulled him up oddly short. He’d cursed Will Lennox plenty of times over the last decade, but never for anything less dramatic than breaking David’s heart. The sheer banality of this reaction—disapproving of the man’s manners, for God’s sake—struck him as somewhat anticlimactic.

David busied himself, selecting a chair and easing himself carefully into it. The last few days and nights had taken a toll upon him, and he found himself leaning on his cane more than usual.

When he looked up, he caught Will watching him, a fact that made him feel uncomfortable and oddly resentful.

“So,” he said evenly, “I’ve never been involved in a matter like this before, but I understand we’re supposed to ascertain if the disagreement between our principals is capable of resolution before we make the arrangements, are we not?”