But he did finally take the half-empty glass from her hand. “Time to go.”
She nodded and preceded him out the door and stumbled on the step.
Suddenly, his arm was about her waist. “Do I need to carry you home?”
She looked up at him. “D’you want to? No, of course you don’t. Which way is the path to Rothdale?”
He laughed. “Not accustomed to drink, are you?”
“No, well, wine, but rarely. But I’m fine. I just wasn’t looking down and forgot there was a step.”
“Sure.”
His tone sounded teasing rather than skeptical. She should stop hearing what she wanted to hear and remember that he had no reason to be nice to her—yet.
When they reached the path, he let go of her waist. She was disappointed. She liked the way she felt when his arm was around her—so secure, as if she belonged to someone. She wondered if he’d made the protective gesture because his tenants might have been watching them leave the village. Glancing at him, she realized that the man she’d seen in the tavern wasn’t the one she knew. No jacket, no cravat of any sort, dressed no differently from the other village men. And they didn’t treat him like their landlord; they appeared to like him! She wanted to learn more about the real Dominic Wolfe.
“What was it like growing up at Rothdale?”
He glanced down at her, seeming surprised by her question. “Wonderful, idyllic, peaceful—at least while my family was here with me.”
She shouldn’t say another word. Dideverythinghave to lead back to his sister’s death? But that little bit of beer she’d drunk had made her bold. “When did you know you wanted to breed horses?”
“The day I set loose my father’s herd.”
She grinned. “You didn’t.”
“Indeed I did. It was a dare, but I still wanted to see what would happen other than my getting punished for it. Gabe helped me pull down a long strip of fence at the back of the pasture, so there would be a mass exodus, and there was. We couldn’t stop laughing as we watched Arnold’s father, who’d been head groom at the time, trying to chase down the horses on foot. Well worth the week I had to spend confined to my room. I was only nine at the time.”
“So your father raised horses, too?”
“And my grandfather before him. I wasn’t sure I wanted to follow in their footsteps until I pulled that prank. It might have been funny when I did it, but I soon regretted it and worried they wouldn’t all be caught, in particular my father’s prize stallion, who I wanted a get from for my own mount.”
“And did you get one?”
“Of course. Royal’s sire.”
“I’m glad.” She smiled, enjoying the genial conversation with Dominic as they walked through the starry night. “Those people in the tavern weren’t nervous around you. They remind me of the servants at our house in Leicestershire. They’re the people I had the most fun with while I was growing up.”
“Your parents allowed you to consort with them?”
“They didn’t know.” She giggled. “Those servants were my real family.”
They’d reached the house. He opened the front door for her, but didn’t follow her in. She turned. “You’re not coming to bed?”
“You might want to rephrase that.”
She didn’t know what he meant. Then she did and started blushing. “I wasn’t suggesting—”
“No, heaven forbid you do that. But I’m not nearly drunk enough yet to find my bed. D’you think it’s easy, sleeping in the room next to yours?”
She drew in her breath sharply, but he didn’t hear it; he’d already closed the door to head back to the tavern.
Chapter Thirty
DOMINIC MIGHT NOT BEdrunk enough to sleep yet, but neither was Brooke after his last remark. She would have loved to think that he wanted her so much that it bothered him that she slept so nearby, but she didn’t believe that. He might have kissed her on two occasions, but neither time had been because he actually wanted to kiss her.
Maybe she should have told Dominic she had been referring to her bed, not his. She giggled, imagining his surprise. Would he have taken her up on the offer? Not before the wedding, he wouldn’t.
