Page 2 of Hooked by a Hero (Tales from the Brotherhood #4)

The man was as invested in Elias’s escape as Elias was and gestured for one of the ship’s crewmen to come over and assist him. Once Elias was certain his trunk was in good hands, he turned back to Broxbourne and Hawthorne.

“This may be it,” he said, attempting to smile for his friends. “You know I will be forever grateful to you, Hawthorne, for this passage.”

“Who knows?” Hawthorne said, smiling and thumping Elias’s arms. “Someday we might make the journey ourselves to visit you.” He grinned up at Broxbourne.

“I would not be averse to that,” Broxbourne said. He reached for Elias’s hand. “Be safe, my friend. I will write to you.”

“Dr. Pettigrew!” Lady Sandridge’s shrill voice sailed over the bustle of the wharf. “Whatever are you doing here?”

“I must go,” Elias said, dread pooling in his stomach. “I pray it is not already too late.”

“We will distract them,” Hawthorne said. “You go.”

“Thank you once again,” Elias said, shaking his friends’ hands one last time before he had to dive behind a pallet of crates waiting to be loaded onto the Fortune in order to avoid Lady Sandridge’s searching gaze.

There were still enough people, vehicles, and cargo between Elias, Lady Sandridge, and Lady Eudora that the ladies lost sight of him.

They grew ever closer to the ship, however, so Elias had to hurry, ducking and dodging the dock workers and ship’s crew alike to make it to the gangplank where passengers for the voyage were boarding.

His flight was stopped when he found himself standing in a queue of passengers having their names checked on a list of those who had paid for the passage. The delay was the very last thing he needed.

“Hurry, hurry,” he hissed once more, feeling as though the word had become his mantra.

“Dr. Pettigrew! There you are!” Lady Eudora shouted as she spotted him. “Where are you going, my darling?”

“Do you know that woman?” the distinguished, older gentleman standing in front of him in the queue asked.

“I, er?—”

“Dr. Pettigrew! Whatever are you doing in that queue?” Lady Eudora called out again.

Elias glanced back over his shoulder at her and, unfortunately, met her gaze. Lady Eudora immediately burst into a wide smile and waved vigorously at him, as if he were just coming off the ship instead of attempting to board it.

“Good heavens,” the young woman standing beside the distinguished gentleman said. “She is certainly enthusiastic.”

“A bit too enthusiastic,” Elias said, then cleared his throat.

“Ah. Running away from marital bliss?” the older gentleman asked with a chuckle.

The conversation ended there as one of the ship’s officers approached them to confirm their passage.

Elias twisted this way and that, eager for the officer to give him leave to board the ship while also watching in horror as Lady Sandridge and Lady Eudora attempted to make their way around cargo and people to catch him.

Broxbourne and Hawthorne were doing their best to stop them, but they were gaining ground with every moment.

“Are you in danger?” a warm, melodious tenor voice asked close to Elias’s side.

Elias turned to find the most stunningly gorgeous man standing right near him.

His coloring was so pale it was nearly ethereal.

His hair was a whitish blond and his eyes were a bright, sea green that had Elias instantly wondering if the man suffered from albinism.

Although “suffer” was not the correct word when it made the man look as luminous as he did.

“I, um, that is….” Elias had never been stunned speechless by a man’s beauty before, but there was a first time for everything.

“Dr. Pettigrew! You must come back!” Lady Sandridge’s angry shout shook Elias out of his reverie.

Elias swallowed hard and turned back to the man. “Help me,” he whispered.

The stunning man laughed. The sound was like waves lapping on a pink, sandy shore. “Come along,” he said, reaching for Elias’s hand.

Elias had almost slipped his hand into the stranger’s before realizing it was not an action of endearment, the man was asking for proof of his passage.

Quickly, Elias cleared his throat and forced himself to show a modicum of sense before taking the note of passage Hawthorne had signed over into his name the week before.

“This will do, I expect,” the beautiful man said, then turned and handed the ticket to the ship’s officer.

Elias blinked. Was the beautiful man also a crew member?

It did not matter.

“Oh! Dr. Pettigrew! You cannot mean to board that ship, can you?” Lady Eudora shouted, nearly tripping over a coil of rope as she approached ever closer. “You cannot leave me! We are to be married.”

The officer checking Elias’s ticket chuckled. “Here you go, Dr. Pettigrew,” he said, handing the paper back. “You may go aboard.”

“Thank you,” Elias gasped, stuffing the paper back into his jacket pocket and lurching forward.

“Here,” the gorgeous man said, cupping Elias’s elbow and marching him to the bottom of the gangway. “Have a care. These bridges can be tricky if it’s your first time crossing them.”

Elias frowned slightly as he grasped the rope at the side of the gangplank and started up its steep incline.

He’d never heard a gangplank referred to as a bridge before.

He’d never heard the soft, complex accent the beautiful man spoke with either.

Was it some sort of Scandinavian dialect? That would explain the man’s coloring.

“Dr. Pettigrew, no!” Lady Eudora shouted from the dock. She could see him clearly now. Everyone could see him clearly as he climbed the steep upward slope to the ship’s deck. “You cannot leave me like this! We are to be married. I went through so much trouble to ensure it.”

Elias made a garbled sound and picked up his pace.

“Is she your betrothed?” the beautiful man asked, climbing easily over the gap in the railing where the gangplank met the ship, then turning to offer Elias his hand.

“She believes she is,” he answered cryptically, reaching for the man’s hand.

“And you do not?” the man asked, grasping Elias’s hand and helping him over the edge of the gangplank and onto the ship’s deck.

“No,” Elias said, gazing frankly into the man’s eyes.

God, he was perfection! It was more than just his pleasing face, unusual coloring, and well-formed body.

And as a physician and a man who intimately appreciated such things, he could tell that his new friend’s body was very well-formed indeed.

He had broad shoulders, muscled arms, a narrow waist, and delicious thighs.

Elias shook his head. He should not begin his months-long voyage to the other side of the world by having carnal thoughts about a man whom he would be trapped with for the duration without first being completely certain his new friend would not be grossly offended by his admiration.

And yet, there was something in the man’s eyes that told Elias he was the subject of the same sort of heated admiration that he felt.

“Stand aside,” a gruff man in a fine suit barked behind Elias.

The moment of attraction was broken as Elias jumped out of the way of the next passengers coming aboard. In doing so, he moved closer to the ship’s railing, though, into view of his pursuers.

“Dr. Pettigrew, you must come down from there at once!” Lady Sandridge shouted, looking furious. “What kind of a blackguard escapes his marital obligations in such an underhanded manner?”

A few of the passengers who had already boarded and one or two crewmen glanced to Elias and chuckled.

“As I informed you from the beginning,” Elias called down to the ladies, figuring he had nothing to lose, “I have no wish to marry, now or ever. You know full well that you entrapped me into the bond, despite my objections.”

“But you love me!” Lady Eudora called up to him.

“My lady, I am sorry, but I do not. I cannot,” Elias called down to her. “I wish you health and happiness, Lady Eudora, and hope that you find another man who could genuinely love you.”

With that, Elias backed away from the railing until he could no longer see Lady Sandridge and Lady Eudora and until they could not see him.

“Over here,” the beautiful man said, gesturing for Elias to follow him to the side of the ship that faced away from London. “My name is Caspian, by the way,” he said with a radiant smile.

“Elias,” Elias returned the introduction. “Er, Dr. Elias Pettigrew.”

“Pleased to meet you, Dr. Elias Pettigrew,” Caspian said.

“And I you, Caspian…” Elias lifted his voice as if to ask for the man’s surname, but Caspian merely smiled at him, as if he did not understand the implied question.

Elias’s heart beat fast in his chest, and for more reasons than escaping certain disaster. He thrilled to the idea that he had four entire months or more to spend in the company of the gorgeous and enigmatic Caspian.