Page 27 of The Baron Takes a Wife

“Not because he is large. Because he challenges you. I think it will benefit both of you.” David raised an eyebrow at her. “But yes, also because he is very large,” she admitted, flashing him a mischievous smile that he hadn’t seen before. “There is some truth in names, you know.” She looked up at him, clearly testing if he remembered their conversation from years before.

“Yes,” he echoed her words. “Yes, I suppose there is.”

David went to change his shirt, which was unfortunately covered in the dog’s blood. His new valet would have a challenge saving the shirt and his coat. He had not come to know the man very well yet, as his old valet had fallen in love and married a girl in Switzerland. But, hell, he would ruin all his shirts if it would make his wife look at him that way again. As if he were her hero…Damnation, he had things to do, but instead, he was going to go find her again.

After he changed, he found Elena was having footmen bring a tub and water down to the kitchen.

When he made a face, she said matter-of-factly, “He needs a proper bath. Mrs. Raeburn always says cleanliness helps prevent infection.”

He followed her downstairs, and she looked up at him beseechingly. “Could you pick him up and place him in the tub?” Since he could probably never deny her anything, David began to remove his coat. “Wait, what are you doing?” Elena was looking at him in a strange way.

“If I’m going to get soaked, I’d rather not ruin my clothing again,” he said while rolling his shirt sleeves. He saw her eyeing his forearms with alarm and something else in her golden-brown eyes. That look caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. As well as other things.

The dog, Goliath, he supposed, was far too lethargic from pain to object to being lifted into a tub of water. As Elena picked a bar of soap and began scrubbing the dog, carefully avoiding the bandages she had just set, David had a flash of her gentle hands bathing him. Suddenly, his collar felt too tight. Sod it, all his clothes felt too tight. Attempting to tamp down this jolt of lust, he swallowed.

She looked up at him as she had almost forgotten his presence once she set herself to the task at hand. “Are you quite all right?”

He hadn’t noticed he had been standing there frozen for several moments.

“I-I forgot I had to…keep up with my correspondence. In my study. Upstairs.”

She crooked her head. “Well, don’t let me keep you.”

He stared for a moment longer, then nearly sprinted up the stairs with his cane. Did he have correspondence to keep up on? He supposed he could write a line to Henry, anything to take his mind off his wife and her gentle hands.

As he entered his study, he decided he could probably find Henry if he wanted to speak with him. He might find Henry at the Garrick, the gentleman’s club they frequented as younger men. Young Henry had fancied himself a rebel and an artist, eschewing the traditional aristocratic Boodle’s or White’s. However, a new club, Pratt’s, had just opened off of St. James, which seemed a more likely option for Henry since David had been away. As David turned and walked to the front door, Fields asked if he should summon the carriage as the club was within walking distance.

“I’ll walk instead, Fields.” Walking would help rid him of this arousal. Yes, proper exercise ought to be effective.

However, after he was halfway there, he admitted to himself that he hadn’t thought through how difficult walking all the way to the club with a cane would be. But he had almost made it and wasn’t going to stop. Just another few blocks. Just…

There were too many people. He couldn’t catch his breath. It felt as if someone was stepping on his chest and wouldn’t let up, no matter how he begged. What had he done before? As he was being treated for his spine, one of the doctors suggested deep breaths when he felt crowded in. He tried to remember. Breathe. What had he told McDaniel today? Count backward from ten.

Ten. Nine. He gasped. Eight. Seven. He thought of Elena working quietly, bathing that poor dog. Six. Five. Four. Three. The gold in her eyes when he first saw her and the sun shining behind her braided hair creating a sort of halo. Two. One. He could breathe again. He could make it. He had stopped by a lamppost, which he grabbed as if to remind himself that he was real, that he was on this sidewalk and needed to keep walking. He wasn’t going to dissolve into the air. He was going to see his friend. He had resolved to be a better friend and a better brother. He had been too wrapped up in his own problems for too long.

****

The porter’s eyes went wide when David entered and enquired about Henry. Fortunately, even though David didn’t have membership at Pratt’s, he was recognized as they bought his sherry and wine. As expected, Henry was at the club, and when David found him, in his cups.

“King David!” When he drank, Henry was always excited to see everyone.

“Hotspur.” David bowed his head. He had no idea how long they had called each other these silly nicknames. Henry’s mother had been a lover of the Romantic poets, so she gave him the middle name Percy, and at some point, David had arrived at Hotspur from Henry Percy.

“My liege, you have deigned to grace us mere mortals with your presence.”

David did not know what to say, so he gestured to join him.

“Please.” Henry seemed to recover himself slightly. “Sit. Join me.”

David started to say something, then stopped. This was one of his oldest friends. Why was he having so much trouble talking to him?

Finally, he said, “I haven’t heard from you in a long time. I wasn’t sure I would be welcome.”

“Well, yes, I’ve been busy.”

“Busy?” David had never heard his friend live anything but the life of an idle gentleman. It had been part of what he wanted to get away from. He wasn’t like Henry, who was from a very old, very blue-blooded family and title. David, whose title was much more recent and whose family was in trade, felt the grating nature of indolence and had tried to escape it.

“Yes, just so.” Henry gestured around as if indicating this was what he had been doing. Henry glanced at his drink.