Chapter 13
Maurice wanted to wraphis arms around Sebastian and hold on tight in an uncouth impolite outpouring of emotion.His butler, Hardwicke, would be horrified.But Maurice had fallen completely and utterly in love with Sebastian and if it wasn’t impossible, he wanted Sebastian in his bed every night.He wanted to hold him and kiss him and consul him when he was sad, and he missed his snarky jokes too.Since they’d met, Sebastian had never treated him like a Duke and Maurice had no one else in his life who did that.In the past six weeks, he’d taken the task of making some friends seriously, spending time visiting several of his peers who he respected and trying his best to relax enough to become friends.Having a task to do—one that Sebastian had inadvertently given him—had helped with the pining.Damnation, the constant pining for Sebastian was more than his ducal outlook could deal with, and now he was here in the same physical space as Sebastian it all came rushing back.
“Wildgoose.”
“Your Grace.”
“Come to dinner.”
Sebastian flashed him a look.“Dinner?Or?”
Oh God, yes please.Heat rushed all over his body, setting him alight from his heart outwards, searing through his veins and across his skin until he was aflame.He gulped.
“I can’t.”Sebastian shook his head, as if he’d remembered that he’d been the one to push Maurice away.“A friend has arrived, and I need to entertain him.”
“A friend?”Maurice hated the jealous tone in his voice, but the idea that Sebastian had moved on in the last six weeks and had a new lover stabbed him in the chest.He shouldn’t have left, but the dilemma was that Sebastian had wanted him to, so he’d had no choice.
“Sir Pashley.Surely you saw him interrupt and upset the zebras?”
“I did see a rider arrive, but I assumed it was a messenger.”
Sebastian’s shoulders shifted with a deep breath.“A messenger would have more sense than to disrupt my work.”
Maurice had been so worried by the idea of Sebastian having a ‘friend’ that he only just pieced together who the friend was.His envy was misplaced, and the tension in his shoulders released on a long slow breath.“Hold on.Sir Earnest Pashley has arrived to visit you?”
“Yes.My friend Earnest.I have mentioned him before.”
“He must stay with me.Come to dinner with him.”He thanked the Lord for providing this opportunity.Sebastian’s gaze shuttered and he pinched his lips together.
“Yes.”And with that, Sebastian walked away to talk to his stable lads, leaving Maurice once again uncertain.With anyone else, he would demand the respect of his title, preserving his dignity.Instead, he held his head high and walked back to his house to greet his guest as if nothing in the world bothered him.
Three hours later, Maurice went down to the formal dining room for dinner.Hardwicke had informed him that his guest had requested a bath to freshen up after riding here, and so Maurice had spent the time in his office writing to Theodore, Earl of Milnes-Wilkes’ heir—they’d reconnected in Whites a few weeks ago—and doing other administrative tasks which his steward should probably do.It was busy work to distract himself.And now he was adequately dressed for dinner by his valet and the nerves had returned.He wiped his palms on a napkin and handed it to Hardwicke, who would supervise dinner tonight with three footmen.
“Your Grace?”
“Yes, Hardwicke?”
“Am I to understand that your guest is the poet, Sir Earnest Pashley?”Surely Hardwicke knew this already.
"Yes.The stable master, Wildgoose, will join us for dinner.They grew up together, you know.”Maurice was glad for the excuse to have Sebastian for dinner.He knew the servants were all curious after their dinner six weeks ago but given the way things had been ended by Sebastian, he wasn’t able to articulate any of it to anyone, particularly not his staff.
“What an unusual coincidence.I thought Mr Wildgoose grew up here on the farm?”Hardwicke asked.
“He was adopted by Wildgoose Senior as a young man to work here, as was his brother Barry, but before that he was in an orphanage in London with Sir Pashley.Before Sir Pashley was a sir.”Maurice probably didn’t need to add that detail as it was obvious that no one with a title would begin their life in an orphanage, and so he took a few slow breaths to ease his nerves.
"Correct.We were scamps when we were young.”Sir Earnest Pashley entered the room in a dramatic sweep with Sebastian following.
“You were a scamp.Adam and I were much more sensible.”
