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“Winter in these parts can kill a man,” Albie said quietly. “I take it you have no family?”
Percy winced, the pain still too fresh. “I do. Kind of.” He pulled the girth strap on Ox’s saddle, then dropped his hands, not game to look at Albie. Too scared of what he’d see.
“But you left them,” Albie offered, his voice warm and closer than it was before.
“I had to,” Percy murmured. “I wasn’t welcome. It’s a long story...”
Albie was even closer now. Percy could feel the heat of his body behind him.
“I was supposed to be married,” Percy said. “But I refused.”
“Married?” Albie whispered.
Percy nodded. “It was all arranged. A wealthy family my father was securing leverage with. My father had lost a lot of money... That’s a long story for another time, perhaps. But this business deal.” He shrugged. “They had a daughter, but I refused.”
“A wealthy daughter,” Albie mused. “Why did you say no?”
Percy shot him a look then, their gazes locking, unable to hide anything.
You know why.
Percy couldn’t bear the scrutiny. The honesty. It was too much, and he looked away. “It was no more than a business deal and I wanted no part of it. I would never marry someone I didn’t love... couldn’t ever love.” He shook his head, swallowing the lump in his throat. “I was told to leave and not come back until I could see reason. Reality would prevail and impart some clarity, my father said. He’d provided a good life for me and my siblings, and I should have been respectful and...”
Albie put his hand on Percy’s arm. “I’m sorry. How long have you been on your own?”
“Four months.”
Albie winced then, as if this hurt to hear. Then he licked his lips, his voice barely a whisper. “When you said you couldn’t ever love her...”
Percy’s gaze caught Albie’s, both of them wide-eyed and scared, too afraid to say the words out loud.
Words that couldn’t ever be taken back. Words that could ruin a man.
“I tried to love her,” Percy whispered, but then he shook his head. “She was pretty, and I tried to find something that appealed to me but... my dreams are not filled with the likes of her.”
Albie blinked a few times, licking his lips as if his mouth had gone dry. “What are the likes you dream of?” His voice was so soft, so pained, gruff. “Perhaps they match my own.”
Percy couldn’t believe it.
Yes, he’d caught Albie looking his way a time or two, and they had slept in each other’s arms last night...
But to hear it, to see the vulnerability in Albie’s face, the fear in his eyes.
“If I had to choose,” Percy whispered, his gaze falling to Albie’s lips. “Between her bed and yours, I would choose yours.”
Albie’s breath left him in a woosh, just as a door slammed and men’s voices came across from the hotel.
Albie and Percy separated, each pretending to be tending to a horse, fixing straps that didn’t need fixing.
The two men who came in weren’t McAllister’s men. Albie called one of them by name, but Percy didn’t retain it.
His mind was too busy reeling, his heart hammering, fingers trembling.
Had they just had that conversation?
Had Percy just admitted his deepest fears and secrets out loud?
And not to just anyone, but his boss?
