Page 20 of A Raven Repents

“I’m sorry, old chap, but I need to leave for a while. I have to go rescue my wife. She’s not far from here, so it won’t take me very long.”

“Bloody hell, Giles. Did you just come here to drink? What you need is a nap so you can sleep it off.”

Giles shook his head, and grabbed onto the wall to steady himself. “I’m fine. I just thought you should know where I’m going, in case…” He shrugged and turned back down the hall.

“Go with him. Make sure the idiot doesn’t get himself killed.”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Pfft.” Giles waved a hand. “I don’t need a minder, Michael.” He stumbled as he turned his head to call over his shoulder. Perhaps he was a bit soused. What did it matter? The horse wouldn’t be drunk.

He waited for one to be saddled, but when he tried to climb on, he only managed to end up on his backside on the ground. Twice. Even with the groom’s help.

Isaac shook his head with a sigh, but held out a hand to help him to his feet. “Perhaps you’ll be safer walking. At least that way you’ll be closer to the ground the next time you fall on your arse.”

“Fair point. But I still don’t need a nanny. I know where to find my own house. You can go back up to Belle. Although, I’m not sure why she needs a bodyguard right now. Unless…” He looked sideways at the man. “Is the child yours?”

Isaac grabbed his lapels and slammed him back against the side of the barn. Oof. Not again. He braced himself for a punch.

“I’m only going to allow that to pass because you’re drunk as a skunk right now. And you’d best be glad you said it to me and not Michael. He’d have had you unconscious with a broken jaw.”

Giles held up his hands and nodded. “Apologies.” Isaac was right. Michael would have knocked him unconscious. “I suppose I was just hoping he might be as useless a husband as I have been.”

“He hasn’t left her side for two weeks. He hardly sleeps or eats.”

More guilt.

“Now, which way’s your house?”

Giles assumed he’d sober up on the long walk, but he only seemed to get increasingly sleepy. His feet were nearly as heavy as his eyelids, and he wasn’t entirely sure he was going to make it. Eventually, hiccups were the only thing keeping him awake. Bloody annoying things.

It was fully dark by the time he stumbled through his front door. Christina was just starting up the stairs on the far side of the entrance hall. Which was lucky. He could feel the darkness of sleep dragging him under.

“Chrissy!” Even to his own drunken ears, the word was slurred. “I’ve come to rescue you!”

Christina stood frozen, as her husband collapsed in a heap at her feet, the unmistakable smell of booze billowing up from him and filling the room.

A tall, thin man stood behind him shaking his head. “Bloody idiot.” He heaved Giles off the floor and threw his unconscious body over his shoulder. “Where’s his bed?”

Flustered, it took her a moment to understand the question. “This way.” She hurried up the stairs and down the hall, throwing back the blankets on his bed. The man flopped him, none too gently, onto the mattress.

“I’m sorry. I probably should have stopped him before we got here. At least he managed to find the right house, I suppose.”

Christina looked down at her husband and back at the other man. “I don’t understand what’s happening right now.”

“A large helping of drunken guilt, if I had to guess.”

“Do you work for my husband?”

“No. My name is Isaac. I work for his cousin, Lord Dalinridge.”

“Oh.” That still didn’t answer anything really. Why was her husband here? And with a man who worked for his cousin? Giles had never actually mentioned his cousin, and although she’d always known he was heir to an earldom, she’d never understood the reality of that until this very moment. His cousin, Lord Dalinridge, was an earl.

“His estate is about a two hour walk from here. Well, probably only one hour if you’re sober enough to walk in a straight line.”

“I still don’t understand. What is he doing here? And what exactly is he rescuing me from?” There were so many other questions bombarding her, but she wasn’t sure Isaac would be able to answer them.

The man simply shrugged. “Based on his intoxicated ramblings, I think he feels guilty for leaving you here, locked up in a strange house, alone.”