Page 23 of The Duke In My Bed (The Heirs’ Club of Scoundrels #1)

Short time seems long in sorrow’s sharp sustaining.

—The Rape of Lucrece

Bray and Harrison rode in silence as they had for most of their three-day journey. It was damned cold, and a light mist fell across the foggy landscape. Bray had hated swirling fog ever since Prim’s death.

Already, Bray was wishing they’d stayed by the dry warm fire in Adam’s cottage.

Chilling wind blew moisture down the back of his neck, and even with his woolen gloves and socks, his fingers and toes were growing numb.

Adam’s housekeeper, a gentle old woman, had invited them to wait inside for his return.

Bray and Harrison didn’t have the patience for that, so they had asked her where she thought Adam might be and went looking for him.

About half an hour away from the cottage, Harrison broke the silence and said, “I’ve been away from London almost two years, and nothing has changed, my friend. The gossip is still all about you.”

“It’s a talent I’m not likely to outgrow,” Bray answered, seeing faint traces of bruises on his friend’s face from his fight a couple of weeks ago.

“One of the many good things about being a duke is that people are often afraid to repeat the gossip to me, with the exception of you and Seaton, of course.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were all but betrothed to Miss Prim when we talked the other night?”

Hellfire, he should have known it was only a matter of time before Harrison got around to mentioning her to him.

He had hoped that getting away with Harrison would help him forget about Miss Prim and the feel of her warm supple body so willingly locked in his arms, but so far it hadn’t.

It certainly wouldn’t help to talk about her.

“Because I’m not,” he answered without bothering to look at Harrison.

“So the gossip’s not true,” Harrison said with surprise lacing his voice.

The corners of Bray’s lips lifted in a sly grin. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but according to the ton, gossip is always true.”

“Well, hell—are you engaged or not?” Harrison grumbled.

Harrison usually had the good sense not to ask for answers Bray didn’t want to give. He supposed their three-day journey on horseback was wearing on both of them.

“No.”

“Everyone I’ve spoken to seems to think you’re a devilish brute and the worst sort of scoundrel for not keeping your word to her dying brother and making her your bride.”

“That’s right.”

“But most feel you’ll live up to your oath in the end and do the suitable thing and marry her.”

Bray grunted and shifted in his saddle. “You’ve been back less than two weeks and you were laid up with a cracked rib for most of that time. How many people have you talked to?”

“I’ve been out to White’s a few times.”

Bray grunted again ruefully. “You did say something earlier about it looking as if nothing had changed in London while you were away.”

They crested a knoll and saw the man they were looking for standing along the edge of a cliff with his horse hobbled nearby.

They reined in their mounts and stopped.

Adam wasn’t hard to recognize even in the commoners’ clothing and workers’ hat he was wearing.

His six-foot-four height and broad-shouldered frame towered over most men.

For a split second, Bray had the awful feeling Adam might be thinking about the possibility of ending his pain.

Bray remained silent as Harrison threw him a questioning look. “You don’t think he’s considering—”

“No,” Bray cut in before Harrison could voice what Bray had just thought. “He’s looking over the cliff at something below.”

“Do you think he’ll know why we’re here?” Harrison asked.

“Wouldn’t you?”

Harrison nodded. “Right now I’m wondering if we should have intruded on his mourning. Maybe we should have given him longer.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little late to have second thoughts about that, now that we’ve traveled for three days to get here?”

“Blast it, Bray, what are we supposed to say to Adam?”

“We don’t have to say anything about why we’re here. He’ll know. He’ll understand we just wanted to check on him and see how he’s doing. He won’t want to talk about it. In fact, I’m sure he fights like hell every day to forget it.”

“That might take a while. I heard she suffered for days.”

Bray knew. He’d been there every agonizing hour with him.

Bray stared at the lonely-looking figure standing on the edge of the cliff and wondered how in the hell anyone could blame Adam if he did decide to jump.

“It’s been over three months,” Bray said. “I think he’ll know we’re not here to intrude but to remind him we’re around whenever he’s ready to come back to London.”

A cold wind whipped rain against the side of Bray’s face.

The night Nathan Prim died flashed through Bray’s mind, and his hands tightened on the reins.

It had been a cold misty night. He would never forget how desperately he’d wanted to help the man and how helpless he’d felt when he realized he couldn’t do a damn thing to save Prim.

And Bray didn’t have to imagine what a man went through when all he could do was stand by and watch his wife die. He’d seen Adam do it.

Bray swallowed the lump in his throat. Lessons learned from childhood came to his aid. The best way to forget about something bad was to think about something that was good.

Miss Prim’s lovely face flashed in his mind again.

Now, she was something good. Damn, but he wanted to see her again.

He wanted to hold her and kiss her as he had that afternoon a couple of weeks ago.

No, not as he had then. He wanted to kiss her without the blindfold.

He wanted to look into her gorgeous blue eyes and see the wonder, the surprise, and the pleasure on her face when he taught her all about desire.

He’d thought about coming up with an excuse to go to her house just so he could see her, but every time he thought about it, he’d think again.

He didn’t need to kiss Miss Prim no matter how much he wanted to.

She was an innocent, and he stayed away from innocents.

He couldn’t have her changing that any more than she already had.

But really, how could he not let her touch him?

“What do you think he’s doing?” Harrison asked.

“I don’t know,” Bray answered, shoving Miss Prim to the back of his mind as he did several times a day since he and Harrison had begun their journey. “We might as well ride down and find out. It doesn’t look as if this weather is going to get any better.”

But thoughts of Miss Prim had made him feel warmer.

Bray and Harrison nudged their horses and headed down the slope. Adam heard them riding up and turned away from the edge of the cliff. Bray saw a flash of disbelief on Adam’s face when he first saw them, but he just stood motionless and watched them ride up and stop their horses in front of him.

Adam pushed his wide-brimmed hat up his forehead. “This is Yorkshire, gentlemen, in case you’re lost?”

“We know exactly where we are,” Bray said, giving a passing glance to the wet, grassy plain on either side of them. “We thought you might have lost your way, so we came looking for you.”

“I’m not lost either.”

“You’re a long way from London,” Harrison said.

Adam shrugged. “Last I heard, you were nowhere near London either.”

“It was a hell of an adventure,” Harrison said, and then cut his eyes over to Bray. “But as I was recently reminded, there’s no place like England.”

“This valley is home for me now,” Adam said.

“I don’t mind finding my way up here once or twice a year, do you, Bray?”

“I guess not. It’s probably nice country when it’s not cold, drizzling, and foggy.”

A touch of a grin twitched the corners of Adam’s mouth. “It’s always raining here. The fog and the rain suit me.”

Bray heard something that sounded like a sheep bleating and looked around. “Where’s that sound coming from?”

“A ewe fell over the edge,” Adam said, pointing behind him. “I was thinking about tying a rope to my horse and scaling down after her.”

Bray and Harrison kicked free of their stirrups and dismounted.

They walked to the edge and looked over.

Bray saw a sheep standing on a small ledge about thirty or forty feet down with at least another fifty-foot drop to the bottom.

The ewe looked unharmed. Even with its thick wool coat to cushion the fall, Bray didn’t know how the sheep had made it past all the jagged and sharp rocks without getting killed or breaking a leg.

“Are you tending sheep now?” Harrison asked in a teasing tone.

“It keeps me from drinking all day and all night, too,” Adam answered with no emotion in his voice.

Bray looked down again, and the sheep looked up at him with big black eyes and bleated. “I think you should count that one as lost,” Bray said. “Those rocks look slippery and dangerous.”

“When have I ever not done something just because it was dangerous?”

“You probably haven’t,” Harrison said, “but I agree with Bray. Even if you make it down without breaking your leg or your neck, you’ll never get back up with that blasted sheep.

She’s not a little lamb you can just tuck under the crook of your arm and hold while you climb up the rope. She looks to be a full adult ewe.”

“She is, but I can handle her. I’ll tie her feet together and then strap her to my neck and shoulders and climb up. I can’t leave her down there to starve.”

Harrison and Bray looked at each other, and Bray knew they were thinking the same thing. Their childhood friend didn’t care if he lived or died.

“How often are you risking your life for sheep?”

Adam shrugged. “I’ve risked my life for less.”

“We all have,” Harrison said quietly.

Bray saw a faraway look in Harrison’s eyes and couldn’t help but think his friend was remembering something specific and not just the many times the trio had thrown caution to the wind and risked their lives in fool stunts over simple dares.

Since their first year at Eton, the three friends had known they all had their strengths and weaknesses.

In their younger years, there were times rivalries had surfaced between them, when one would try to best the others in shooting, racing, fencing, or the attention of a young miss, but they never forgot they were friends.

“Where’s the damn rope?” Bray said. “I’ll do it.”

“Then you’ll have to fight me for the chance,” Harrison said. “If you’ll remember, I’m better at climbing on rocks than either one of you.”

Adam blew out a rueful breath as rain fell on his dark brown work coat.

“Neither one of you is doing it. You’re both dressed like dandies.

And look at your fancy knee boots. You wouldn’t make it down the first rock before you slipped and broke your necks.

What the hell are you two devils doing here anyway? ”

“We told you. We came to see how you’re doing,” Harrison said.

“And it sounds as if we didn’t get here a minute too soon,” Bray added. “If you are going to try to kill yourself, you’re not going to do it without our help.”

Harrison clapped Adam on the shoulder and said, “Now, if you’ve set your mind to getting that ewe off that ledge, let’s get it done and go have a drink. It’s damn near freezing out here.”