The room they all met in was still called Gabe’s office, even though he now had one a few streets away. The earl sat behind his desk. Michael Deville, the one above Zach in the pecking order, was standing before the fireplace, staring down into the flames.
He was the gentle Deville, and most like Forrest in nature. He had fallen in love with a Scottish noblewoman, and they would be married after Nathan and Beth.
“Hello, Harriet.” Forrest acknowledged the ginger cat, who was lying beside Michael’s left boot. He’d found her in the street, and she’d followed him home, and here she’d stayed, much to Ella’s delight.
“What’s going on then?” Zach said. He was stroking Walter with his boot. The dog was making a rumbling noise.
“We’ve been summoned, but the directive included Forrest,” Michael said, straightening from his contemplation of the fire. “And as it’s daylight out, it must be important.”
“I have yet to fully decide if I wish to be part of this business,” Forrest said.
“Clearly they’ve made the decision for you,” Zach drawled. “You’ll have so much fun. There are the cloaks, then there’s the fact Gabe wears a ring and we don’t.”
“Yes, thank you, Zach, that will do,” Gabe said. “The decision of course is yours, but you need to make it now, as your name was on the missive I received.”
A knock had them looking to the doorway. Fairfax stood there.
“Yes, what is it, Fairfax?” Gabe asked the butler.
“Are you needing refreshments, my lord?”
“Of course,” Zach said.
“No thank you,” Gabe said. “We are due to leave the house shortly, Fairfax.”
The butler bowed. Zach sighed.
“We’ve been circling around this for some time, Forrest,” Michael said. “Is there danger? Yes, but we always have each other’s backs, and you know that Ella is now cared for by many.”
He nodded. Forrest was a cautious man. He worried for his child should something happen to him.
“Each of us would protect your child with our lives,” Nathan said solemnly.
He looked at the men before him. Brothers now in every way. He owed them this. They wanted him to be part of it, and he would do it for them.
“Very well, I will do it, but my daughter will always come first.”
“Agreed,” Gabe said.
“And you will tell me everything on the journey. If I decide I do not wish to be part of it, I will return here.”
“Agreed,” Nathan said.
He went upstairs and said goodbye to his daughter and nodded to the disturbing Miss Knight, who nodded back but did not smile. The problem was, he couldn’t put his finger on why she was disturbing. Women did not disturb Forrest. He’d made that decision quite some time ago. He’d married a woman he’d respected but had not great passion for because he’d not believed himself capable of passion. Of course, that had ended horrifically, but it did not change the fact Forrest was not a man of passions.
Or he hadn’t been. But last night’s dream about Miss Knight had certainly ended with his body hard with the need to feel her naked flesh pressed to his. In fact, she’d been featuring quite regularly in his dreams of late.
And that must stop.
Soon they were in the Raine carriage heading to a location that he had never been. The day was cool and wet, the skies gray and dismal. London at its finest.
“I wish it would either rain or not; this incessant drizzle is wearing me down,” Zach muttered.
“Agreed. But as incessant drivel is something you excel at, and we must suffer through, you will have to also,” Nathan said, needling his youngest brother.
They constantly did that. Annoyed, argued. Often, they went to that room below stairs that had been set up for their training and fought each other. It was physical, with no one giving quarter. Forrest had been included in that. They’d spent the last few years teaching him to defend himself. He’d been bruised, bloodied, and yet they had not let up.
He could now defend himself should it be required. He could also shoot a pistol with deadly accuracy and fence. His cousins had educated him in areas he’d not thought he’d ever need. Perhaps that was about to change?
