Chapter Twenty-Six
BROOKE DREADED GETTING DRENCHED again but imagined that Dominic wouldn’t want to stay here any longer than he had to, so she offered, “If you tell me you can find your way back to Rothdale in the dark, I’ll come out.”
He didn’t answer, which prompted her to change her mind about giving him conditions. She was reluctant to step back into that downpour until she had to. But when he came toward her and handed her his lantern before returning to the horses, she realized they might not be going back to the manor house right away. So she set the lantern in the far back corner of the cubbyhole, out of the way.
She returned to the doorway, but it was so dark she couldn’t see him or the horses. Was he looking for a bigger room that was still intact? No, he’d need the lantern for that. She supposed he could just be unsaddling the horses, but he should have examined the room first. It simply wasn’t big enough for the two of them.
When he loomed in the doorway again, she moved to the back wall to get out of his way. He had to duck down to enter the cubbyhole. Her head almost reached the ceiling, so he definitely couldn’t stand straight in here. He tossed her two leather sacks before he set down a second unlit lantern by the entrance and shrugged out of his greatcoat, which he left outside the enclosure since it was dripping wet. She saw that it had kept his clothes and hair, which was pulled back in a queue, from getting soaked like hers.
“Aren’t you going to lead us home tonight? You do know the way, don’t you?”
“Yes, but it’s not safe. The ground is muddy, the river has overflowed its banks, and there are deep pools of water out there. I’m not willing to take that risk.”
Brooke recalled what Arnold Biscane had told her about one of Dominic’s ancestors dying in a carriage accident during a rainstorm like this. It was sweet that Dominic cared so much for her safety to wait until morning to lead them home.
But then he added, “I’m not willing to risk Royal’s safety when he could slip and break a leg. I’m lucky we got this far without that happening.”
Of course, he wasn’t thinking about her at all! She gritted her teeth, hoping he’d stay at the opposite end of the small space. The room was far too narrow for them to maneuver around in it.
“Spread out the blankets before you take out the food.”
There was food! She quickly shook out two blankets, laid them on the stone floor, and sat down in the back quarter of the room before she reached for the other sack. She found a small meat pie and began eating. He could have sat in front of her, but instead he stretched out on the blankets and curled on his side next to her, resting on an elbow, his head nearly touching the back wall, his legs taking up far too much space now!
She quickly scooted around to face him before complaining, “There’s not enough room in here for both of us if you’re going to lie down.”
“There’s plenty. You can lie down, too, just curl up next to me. I’ve even brought you a pillow.”
He meant his arm, she guessed, though he was still leaning on it just then. He didn’t sound pleased to have made the offer, either. He was cramped, stuck in a small space with his enemy. Of course he wouldn’t be pleased. And his leg . . .
She glanced at his left thigh, concerned. “Does your leg pain you? You haven’t reopened the stitches, have you?”
“Would you like me to remove my trousers so you can take a look?” She must have looked so surprised by that suggestion, he amended, “The wound is securely bandaged and no longer pains me very much, due to your ministrations.”
Was that a thank-you? She was incredulous until he added, “You can consider this rescue payment for healing me. Now that we’re even, you can go home.”
He meant her home, not his. But the food was taking the edge off her hunger, so she tried not to let that comment darken her mood. “How did you find me?”
“Wolf led me this way.”
“Where is he?”
He snorted. “Probably still barking at the fox hole just south of here. I rode up here because I took shelter in these ruins myself one summer during a sudden storm. It’s the only shelter in these parts, so I figured you might have found the castle’s last intact room.”
She wouldn’t exactly call it intact, but realized Dominic’s big body was blocking much of the wind gusts that blew in. Was that why he’d lain down? If so, that was quite—chivalrous of him.
A dog started barking.
“There he is now looking for me.”
Was that Wolf suddenly barking out there? Or was the white dog still in the ruins, disturbed by the sound of Dominic’s voice and sensing a threat? But Dominic obviously assumed it was Wolf and called to his pet. Repeatedly. If it was Wolf, he’d probably caught the scent of the other dog because he was now howling mournfully, as if calling to it.
Dominic finally shouted, “Get in here!”
Brooke shrieked when Wolf came into the cubbyhole and shook the rain off his coat before lying down at Dominic’s feet with a whimper. Dominic grumbled. Brooke rolled her eyes as she wiped the spray off her face.
Watching her, he asked curiously, “How did you find these ruins in the rain?”
“With help.”
“From whom?”
“Witch spirits.” She grinned. He snorted, so she simply said, “I’d just passed by when the rain started, so it was easy to get back here.”
She didn’t think he’d believe that a dog had called her back this way.
“Your maid was frantic when you didn’t return from your ride after a few hours. Most of the men on my estate are out looking for you. I thought you’d finally come to your senses and left Rothdale for good.”
Then why had he bothered to look for her himself? she should ask, but guessed it would lead to an argument, and that’s the last thing she wanted in their small space. She couldn’t exactly leave or slam any doors here!
“At least you’re not on Shaw land.”
Thank goodness, a neutral subject! “Are we still on yours?”
“No. Whoever owns this stretch to the northwest of Rothdale has never occupied it or farmed on it as far as I know.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, thinking of the dog’s owner.
“Actually, no. I haven’t been up this way for several years. Hell, Ian Shaw might have purchased it for all I know.”
“You say that as if it’s a bad thing. Or were you going to court your Shaw neighbor in order to join your land to hers?”
“She’s a pretty girl.”
Brooke waited, but apparently he wasn’t going to say more, so she pointedly asked, “Do you love her?”
“I barely know her. It would merely have been a useful match to expand Rothdale and settle a couple of disputes.”
“Over land?”
“Ten years ago Ian Shaw promised to shoot any Wolfe on his land. I promised to have him thrown in prison if he even tried. But the animosity between our families didn’t start over land. Our ancestors five generations back dueled. They used swords back then. My ancestor lost a hand in that fight, which should have ended it, but didn’t. Then our great-great-aunts had a notorious physical brawl, which caused a scandal that lasted decades. Those are the two main clashes that I know of. There could have been others since the animosity apparently started long before that, around the same time that the infamous Wolfe curse began. As the story goes, the Shaws reviled and then shunned my ancestor Cornelius Wolfe for flaunting his lowborn mistress in front of them. Cornelius was a hedonist who cared only for his own whims and pleasures, the proverbial black sheep of the Wolfe family.”
She shook her head at him. “And you actually think Shaw would have let you court his daughter with all that bad history between your families?”
“Why not?” Dominic shrugged. “It’s exactly that—ancient bad history. I’m confident Shaw would quit fretting over our border if his daughter were to become mistress of Rothdale. Besides, the man strikes me as simpleminded.”
“Are you sure the daughter isn’t simpleminded, too?”
“I doubt I would have cared.”
What a sad thing for him to say. “Do you really aspire so low?”
“What else is there?”
“Happiness, love, children.”
“That sounds like what you might aspire to.”
“But not you?”
“Love is fleeting, as is happiness. I would have got around to having some children, though. I just wasn’t in a hurry for them.”
“Cynical—at the least, not very optimistic, are you? But happiness and love are possible. Whether they last is entirely up to you. Surely you could agree with that?”
He snorted. “That both require work?”
“Not so much work as a little effort. Or maybe nothing a’tall except acceptance. Sometimes you have to believe you can attain something to attain it.”
He raised a single brow. “A philosopher, too? Aren’t you full of surprises.”
She wasn’t put off by his derisive tone. “As for you not caring whether your wife is simpleminded or not, I highly doubt you’d want that trait passed down to your children, so that statement is false. You would care.”
“I’m not getting a chance to find out, am I?”
She stiffened. The subject had just turned on them, and this was not the place to get into that argument again, when she couldn’t move without touching him, when she felt him against her knees, his legs bent enough to touch her entire right flank and hip. She wouldn’t even be able to get out of here without crawling over him.
Wisely, she didn’t rise to the bait. She opened the sack of blankets, took out two more, and handed him one. He folded his to use as a pillow and put his head on it. He still had to keep his knees bent, or his feet would have been out in the rain.
“Get some sleep,” he said. “It will be morning soon enough. And if the ghosts wake you, ignore them.”
She stared. “What ghosts?”
“Some of these old castle and guard-tower ruins are reputed to be haunted. I never believed it m’self, but you never know.”
“Is this one reputed to be haunted?”
“I don’t know. But in any case, ghosts are harmless, so no screaming. I don’t wake well to screaming.”
She rolled her eyes. If he hadn’t added that, she might have thought he was serious. She couldn’t guess what he was up to tonight, teasing, telling obvious whoppers, almost as if he’d grown comfortable with her—even as he still tried to push her away.
But she did not want to lie down next to him, even though he’d closed his eyes, letting her know he was done talking. And she didn’t think she could sleep sitting up, much as she would like to. No longer the least bit cold, a little too warm in fact with the thought of sleeping beside him, she draped the other blanket over her anyway and lay down carefully on her side, facing away from him.
She had to bend her knees, too, because his legs were blocking her from doing anything else. But she didn’t have enough room on her side to bend her legs without leaving her backside pressed against him. She was mortified. She hoped he was asleep and didn’t notice that she was touching him again and wriggling around as she tried to get comfortable and couldn’t!
“If you’re not still in the next second, we’re not going to be sleeping tonight.”
She wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by that, but she immediately stopped moving. Her last thought before she drifted off was that it was pleasant to feel his warmth all around her as the wind howled and the rain continued to pour down outside their ancient shelter.