Page 47 of Baron in Check
With the speed of a tiger, one of the other men pounced at the one who’d just landed, but that one ducked and rolled the tiger off his back. The tiger fell on his feet, bent low, and twisted around his own axis like a compass, knocking the feet out from under the other two. All four men collapsed in laughter on the parquet.
“Good one, Caleb.” Arnold, shaking with mirth, lifted his mask.
Caleb also lifted his mask. “We have an audience, so I wanted to ensure you had a chance to show off.”
The other two revealed their faces, Fave and—Hermy gulped—the fencing Hercules who’d hung from the ceiling was Greg.
“We were just training a little after dessert.” Greg rose and came to the door, greeting Hermy with a bone-meltingly handsome smile and hair so disheveled that she wished to wrap her naked body around him and muss it some more. She didn’t expect him to be in such athletic shape outside the chess battlefield, but he was a warrior who’d conquered her heart in every way.
“Shouldn’t you drink whisky and play cards like other gentlemen after dinner?”
Greg looked over his shoulder at the others, who nodded and smiled. Then he turned back to Hermy and came so close that the hairs on the back of her neck pricked up. “I’m not a typical gentleman.”
“That’s it for me. It’s time to read Maia a story.” Fave hung his mask and sword on the wall, followed by Caleb and Arnold.
“Me, too!”
“I promised Izaac another story about the crying dragons of Genalore,” Arnold said.
“Is that even real?” Caleb asked.
“No, he’s making the stories up. I’m reading Maia Greek mythology,” Fave said as he bowed to Hermy and walked past her, disappearing downstairs.
Arnold and Caleb followed with a polite wish for a good night.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Lady Hermione.” Caleb bowed. Oh dear, he was handsome.
“What are you looking at?” Greg asked when Hermy watched the three men disappear down the stairs.
“He could have injured you,” Hermy said when Greg cupped her face.
“He didn’t.”
“Could have,” she insisted.
“I can fight him.” Greg came closer. “I’m in good shape.”
“How good?”
“Would you like to judge for yourself?”
She tore her eyes wide open. “Here?”
Greg gave her a toothy smile, a perfect one that reached into her chest and squeezed the resolve not to let him seduce her into nothing but a laudable idea.
“Perhaps at home?”
She parted her lips but couldn’t find the right words. It was scandalous for a well-born lady to be so … so free. Yes, those were the right words for how she felt at the Pearler’s house. The Ton hated and envied this large family under one roof, where they’d created a family’s paradise within their circle of love. And somehow, Greg was part of it; because of him,she’d been welcomed. Instead of the countless rules of etiquette and expectations for formality, no rules were necessary because everyone abided by an unwritten code of honorable conduct; respect and love were implied. A safer home she’d never known. A lovelier family she couldn’t imagine.
“They treat you like one of them,” she whispered when Greg gave her a chaste but lingering kiss on the forehead and wrapped his arms around her.
“They are the only family I have left.” He sighed.
Hm! Hermy would change that as soon as she could.
CHAPTER 23
It was time to go home, but the crisp night air felt charged with a novel vibrancy as Greg thought about leaving with his fiancée, her hand in his hand, and heart in her hands. In the muted glow of the street lamps, the night hummed with the quiet anticipation of a shared future and the end of his loneliness.
