“What do you think he’s doing?” Harrison asked.
“I don’t know,” Bray answered, shoving Miss Prim to the back of his mind as he did several times a day since he and Harrison had begun their journey. “We might as well ride down and find out. It doesn’t look as if this weather is going to get any better.”
But thoughts of Miss Prim had made him feel warmer.
Bray and Harrison nudged their horses and headed down the slope. Adam heard them riding up and turned away from the edge of the cliff. Bray saw a flash of disbelief on Adam’s face when he first saw them, but he just stood motionless and watched them ride up and stop their horses in front of him.
Adam pushed his wide-brimmed hat up his forehead. “This is Yorkshire, gentlemen, in case you’re lost?”
“We know exactly where we are,” Bray said, giving a passing glance to the wet, grassy plain on either side of them. “We thought you might have lost your way, so we came looking for you.”
“I’m not lost either.”
“You’re a long way from London,” Harrison said.
Adam shrugged. “Last I heard, you were nowhere near London either.”
“It was a hell of an adventure,” Harrison said, and then cut his eyes over to Bray. “But as I was recently reminded, there’s no place like England.”
“This valley is home for me now,” Adam said.
“I don’t mind finding my way up here once or twice a year, do you, Bray?”
“I guess not. It’s probably nice country when it’s not cold, drizzling, and foggy.”
A touch of a grin twitched the corners of Adam’s mouth. “It’s always raining here. The fog and the rain suit me.”
Bray heard something that sounded like a sheep bleating and looked around. “Where’s that sound coming from?”
“A ewe fell over the edge,” Adam said, pointing behind him. “I was thinking about tying a rope to my horse and scaling down after her.”
Bray and Harrison kicked free of their stirrups and dismounted. They walked to the edge and looked over. Bray saw a sheep standing on a small ledge about thirty or forty feet down with at least another fifty-foot drop to the bottom. The ewe looked unharmed. Even with its thick wool coat to cushion the fall, Bray didn’t know how the sheep had made it past all the jagged and sharp rocks without getting killed or breaking a leg.
“Are you tending sheep now?” Harrison asked in a teasing tone.
“It keeps me from drinking all day and all night, too,” Adam answered with no emotion in his voice.
Bray looked down again, and the sheep looked up at him with big black eyes and bleated. “I think you should count that one as lost,” Bray said. “Those rocks look slippery and dangerous.”
“When have I ever not done something just because it was dangerous?”
“You probably haven’t,” Harrison said, “but I agree with Bray. Even if you make it down without breaking your leg or your neck, you’ll never get back up with that blasted sheep. She’s not a little lamb you can just tuck under the crook of your arm and hold while you climb up the rope. She looks to be a full adult ewe.”
“She is, but I can handle her. I’ll tie her feet together and then strap her to my neck and shoulders and climb up. I can’t leave her down there to starve.”
Harrison and Bray looked at each other, and Bray knew they were thinking the same thing. Their childhood friend didn’t care if he lived or died.
“How often are you risking your life for sheep?”
Adam shrugged. “I’ve risked my life for less.”
“We all have,” Harrison said quietly.
Bray saw a faraway look in Harrison’s eyes and couldn’t help but think his friend was remembering something specific and not just the many times the trio had thrown caution to the wind and risked their lives in fool stunts over simple dares.
Since their first year at Eton, the three friends had known they all had their strengths and weaknesses. In their younger years, there were times rivalries had surfaced between them, when one would try to best the others in shooting, racing, fencing, or the attention of a young miss, but they never forgot they were friends.
“Where’s the damn rope?” Bray said. “I’ll do it.”
