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‘It’s two something.’ His brother passed it over as his ability to read time only extended to the small hand—which was a vast improvement on what he had been able to do before Rafe had taken over as his guardian.
‘It’s ten minutes to three!’ He hadn’t just missed the morning but most of the day! ‘I was expecting visitors.’ The second flurry of potential buyers after he had lost all the first to her blasted barricade.
‘Sophie told Walpole to send them all away because you needed your rest.’
‘Oh, I’ll just bet she did!’ In every cloud there was a silver lining, and his shoulder had inadvertently given her the perfect excuse to thwart his sale of Hockley Hall yet again. ‘Of course the witch sabotaged me while I slept!’
Archie’s face fell. ‘Sophie isn’t a witch. She’s kind and lovely and my friend.’ The wounded expression turned to one of admonishment, which was a rare thing indeed when his brother usually looked up to him in everything. ‘You are being mean, Rafe.’
The guilt was instant and perhaps not entirely misplaced this time. ‘I just want to sell this damned mausoleum, Archie. The quicker it’s gone, the quicker you and I can go and raise our horses somewhere miles from everyone. I didn’t mean to be mean about your friend.’ A friend who likely had more on her mind today than thwarting his sale.
‘It’s all right.’ His brother’s bad mood evaporated in a single smile. ‘Sophie warned me that you were bound to be as tetchy when you woke up as you were in the middle of the night.’
‘You were here in the middle of the night?’
‘Only for a little bit until Sophie sent me to bed when you started shouting in your sleep. But she stayed up to look after you and her aunt.’
Which meant Rafe hadn’t imagined her tender ministrations in his addled state and that made him feel even more guilty for his petulant outburst accusing her of sabotage. Guilty and more than a little uncomfortable that she had tended to him in his hour of need. He wasn’t used to being vulnerable in front of another or relying on anyone but himself. He certainly wasn’t used to being soothed back to sleep by a gentle pair of feminine hands.
Archie patted Rafe’s hand as if he were a child. ‘Sophie said people are always grumpy and unreasonable when they are in pain, and that you are bound to be just as unbearable for the next week because of your shoulder. Maybe longer if it hurts too much. She said I have to make allowances and remember that it is the pain talking—not you—and that if you snap at me I should count to ten and then forgive you instantly.’
Rafe would have folded his arms in belligerence if both of them had worked. Instead, he had to settle for a put-upon sniff. ‘Sophie has clearly had plenty to say about me while I have been sleeping. It’s a wonder I did not awaken with my ears burning. What other pearls of wisdom about me did she share with you while I was drugged up to my eyes?’
Incapable of keeping any secrets, Archie sat on the mattress and ticked off the list on his fingers. ‘She said that while you are an invalid I have to be the big brother and I have to look after you because you are going to need my help. That I have to keep a close eye on you but that I must be subtle about it because you are too proud and too stubborn to ask for anyone’s help—especially mine. That you are the best big brother in the world, a brave hero and too noble for your own good...’
‘She called me a hero?’ His brother nodded. ‘And noble?’
Archie nodded again. ‘And she said that because you always put me before yourself, you would feel bad about being incon-passinated...?’ He frowned over the mispronunciation.
‘Incapacitated?’
‘That’s the word!’ Archie slapped his thigh. ‘I knew that you would know it.’
‘What else did Sophie say?’ Suddenly Rafe needed to know everything. Especially as some of it sounded a great deal like praise and for some inexplicable reason he apparently craved hers.
‘Only that for my sake you would try to pretend that you were all right when you weren’t so I must make sure that you do not try to do too much. I must do as much as I can for you and to report any pig-headedness to her immediately so that she can tell you off.’ His brother sighed like a wise old sage as he patted Rafe’s hand again. ‘We are both expecting her to have to do that quite a lot in the next few days. For your own good, of course.’
‘Of course.’
‘Sophie says that sometimes some people are too stubborn and proud for their own good and that you are one of them.’ A door that swung both ways. ‘It is our job to save you from yourself and pick up the slack.’
Yet who was going to do the same for her? And why the blazes should he care when he had already gone above and beyond, and she wasn’t his responsibility?
But he did. Someone had to look after the witch in her hour of need and save her from herself. And the horror of searching through that smoking ruin down the lane.
The weight of the world once again resting on his lone good shoulder, Rafe ruffled his brother’s hair. ‘So...now that the tables are turned and you are under strict instruction to look after me for a change, you might as well get started. I am going to need a nice hot bowl of water, some soap and a flannel before you help me get dressed, then we are both going to organise a search party to find your new best friend’s damned cat.’
