AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Four
Henry couldn’t sleep at all that night.
He hadn’t been home to Angleside Court in four months, and though he was more than happy to be back in his comfortable bedchamber, he found himself pacing the floor rather than resting atop the overly large bed. His family, all of whom lived at Angleside Court with him, had been thrilled at his return, if curious at his appearance and his arrival at such an unusual hour. Luckily, they had believed his lies about being thrown from his horse.
He didn’t tell them that soon there would be a new Lady Stanton.
That little bit of truth was still too tightly lodged in Henry’s throat for him to get the words out.
Eventually, as the early morning rays reached his bedchamber window, and after shaving the hated stubble off his face, he left the room and headed toward his office. It was where he went first thing every morning, usually at first dawn, unless he’d been working late the night before. He’d walked these same corridors, from his bedchamber to his office, at this same time in the morning for years before joining the smugglers a few months ago. This morning, he was too worn out to do anything but fall back into old tendencies. He found small solace in the habit, but it was more than he’d found staring up at the moonless sky all night. Unfortunately, all he managed to accomplish was a relocation of his pacing.
His mind wasn’t even rehashing the night any longer. He’d turned over the events so often, he was just numb.
Some time later, David pushed into the room. “Are you not joining us for breakfast this morning, Henry? Everyone’s bursting to hear what you have been doing with yourself this summer.”
He only shook his head, turning his back on his brother. The door shut and footsteps drew near.
“What the blazes is wrong? You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.”
Henry turned back around just as David was sitting himself in one of the two wingbacks by the fire.
Lud, he wasn’t in the mood to discuss this. But what was he supposed to do? Just bring Miss Dinah home one afternoon? When his family asked after who she was, what would he say?Oh, why this is my wife. Did I not tell you I was getting married this morning?Henry collapsed onto the other wingback and buried his head in his hands.
Devil take him. “I’m getting married,” Henry said between his hands.
David was up on his feet immediately. “What? That’s fantastic! Congratulations, old man. I had no idea any lady had caught your eye. Followed her home for summer, did you? That was quite sly of you, keeping her hidden from us all. Honestly, though, I think everyone’s relief at you finally marrying will far outweigh anyone’s disappointment at not being told sooner.” David’s upbeat rant pierced directly through Henry’s skull. “Gads, married?” David continued. “I guess I can say this now, but after Emily and I got married and then you never showed any interest in any woman—ever—I couldn’t help but wonder...after all, you and Emily had been quite close friends growing up.”
“David.” Henry’s voice has hard. “Sit. Down.” His friendship with his brother’s wife when they were children was the last thing he wanted to discuss now.
David plopped back down into the wingback across from Henry. The fact that Emily had chosen to marry David instead of himself didn’t bother Henry—at least, not anymore. Seeing how perfectly suited David and Emily were had done much to heal that wound, but it still wasn’t something he ever cared to discuss with his brother.
“I want to hear all about her.” David’s enthusiasm seemed undampened by Henry’s clear wretchedness. “When did you first meet? How long have you been secretly courting her? Are you getting married in St. James’s or traveling out to her parish?”
Henry finally dropped his hands and looked his brother square in the eye. “Yesterday. Never happened. And I don’t know, but I’m meeting with her father in a few hours to make the plans.”
David’s insipid smile froze on his face. His brow dropped, but his lips stayed up. Then his face squished itself into the most annoying half-smiling, half-shocked expression. “Come again?”
“We met yesterday,” Henry said. “I came across her and deemed she needed my help, which I offered. However, in seeing her back home, some guest of her father saw us.”
“So, you’re marrying the girl because people saw you walking together?”
He sure as the devil wasn’t marrying her because he’d fallen in love with her. Henry wasn’t built for love, something he’d learned many, many years ago. Some people were quite suited to the emotion. David, for one. But people like himself? No. He cared for people, his family and a very few close friends. But romantic love was quite against his nature, and he didn’t expect to ever wrestle with the feeling.
Henry leaned back, placing an ankle against his knee. “It was quite late at night. Due to the circumstances I found her in, Miss Dinah Mulgrave looked...disheveled—”
“Hold on,” David interjected. “Did you say Mulgrave?”
“Yes. Do you know the family?” The name hadn’t sounded familiar to him.
“Dear brother, all of London knows of Sir Mulgrave and his daughters. I’m surprised you didn’t hear the tale before leaving Town. It’s been everyone’s favorite piece of gossip this Season, I can attest to that.”
Ah, so Henry had been wrong in thinking of the man as mister; he had been knighted. Still, men were knighted often enough, and it rarely caused a stir so big as David seemed to think Sir Mulgrave had.
David shook his head. “Sometimes you get so focused on the few things you deem important in life, you miss everything else happening around you, I swear.”
“And what has this Sir Mulgrave done that is so gossip-worthy?”
David rocked forward, clearly eager to tell. “He singlehandedly saved the Marchioness of Blackmore from three highwaymen. Took them all out. Saved her life, they say.”
