Page 4 of Hooked By a Hero
Elias’s heart beat fast in his chest, and for more reasons than escaping certain disaster. He thrilled to the idea that he had four entire months or more to spend in the company of the gorgeous and enigmatic Caspian.
Two
Never in all his years of traveling and exploring the world had Caspian had such strong feelings about a man from the moment he laid eyes on him. There was something unendingly charming about Dr. Elias Pettigrew which he’d noticed from the start. Not only was he handsome, with sandy blond hair and strong cheekbones, he had a certain innocence about him that sent Caspian’s heart soaring.
“How does a woman as young and apparently foolish as this Lady Eudora think the two of you are to be wed?” he asked as he led Elias across the deck to the forecastle and up the steep stairs so that they could look out onto the busy Thames.
Elias laughed without humor as he climbed after Caspian, then shook his head. “I was as foolish as she was,” he said. “I knew she and her mother were attempting to trap me into a marriage and I walked right into said trap.”
“Like a lobster,” Caspian said with a nod.
Elias blinked and stared at him for a moment. A smile slowly spread over his shapely lips, scattering Caspian’s concentration. “Yes, I was a lobster,” Elias said, then laughed.
The way he lowered his head self-effacingly had Caspian’s heart beating faster. Truly, he had never reacted quite so strongly to a man before. It puzzled him in the best way possible.
“What is a marriage trap?” he asked bluntly before he could stop himself.
Elias’s laughter stopped, and once again, he stared hard at Caspian. “I take it you are not an Englishman,” he said.
“No, I am not,” Caspian said, heat rising up his neck to his cheeks. He had not been that obvious, had he?
“Where are you from?” Elias asked, a look of charming interest in his hazel eyes. “I do not recognize your accent, and, if you will forgive me, your coloring is most unusual. Are you Scandinavian?”
Caspian flushed harder. “No,” he admitted slowly. “I’m from the other side of the world.”
“Ah.” Elias nodded as if he understood. “I take it you are a descendant of the earliest explorers to that part of the globe? May I assume that your fair complexion is some sort of albinism?”
Caspian had never heard of albinism, but for all he knew, Elias could have been correct. “Yes,” he said, then quickly went on with, “You did not answer my question. What is a marriage trap?”
Elias huffed. “English society is fickle and strange,” he said. “If a woman is importuned in any way, she must marry the man who sullied her or face social outcast.”
Caspian’s heart sank. He’d been so certain Elias was attracted to him. “Oh,” he said. “I did not realize you sullied the woman.”
Elias blanched, and not for the first time in his life, or even that day, Caspian feared he’d accidentally violated some unspoken rule of how Englishmen spoke to each other. In his home, everyone was so much more forthright.
“I did not compromise the young lady at all,” he said, a bit defensively. “She cornered me in a parlor and forced the compromise all by herself. Her mother was standing by, and before I knew it, I’d been called in front of the entire house party and accused of villainy. I was tricked into an engagement with Lady Eudora.”
Caspian nodded slowly, his smile returning. Not because he found Elias’s circumstances funny, but because it meant the alluring man standing in front of him, sunlight catching in his hair, the breeze blowing up the river making his face pink and wafting his soapy scent toward him, might be of the same mind as him after all.
“I was not aware it was standard practice in England for women to catch a husband that way,” he said, happy to have learned something new.
“It isn’t,” Elias insisted, standing taller. “It was a gross violation of my personal freedom.”
Caspian frowned again. “Could you not have simply said no to the woman?”
Elias seemed to wilt. “I could have,” he sighed, brushing a hand through his hair. “But despite the wickedness of the trap that was set for me, I did not wish to irreparably damage Lady Eudora’s reputation with a harsh ‘no’.”
Caspian’s chest squeezed. “You are kind, sir,” he said, admiring the man.
Elias grunted. “Too kind. Although I’m uncertain how kind it is to run away to Australia, leaving the woman to fend for herself. At least this way she can still claim to be engaged, or she could accuse me of abandonment or spread the rumor I am lost at sea, I do not care.”
Caspian blinked a few times in surprise. “You do not care what the young woman says about you in your absence?”
Elias winced. “No,” he answered truthfully. “I suppose I should, but?—”
“You there!” the elderly gentleman who had been waiting to board the ship just in front of Elias called out, drawing both Caspian’s and Elias’s attention. “Have a care with those trunks. Valuable cargo, you know.”
It was clear at once that the man was not shouting at either Caspian or Elias, but Caspian decided it was best if he and Elias ended their conversation to spare Elias any further embarrassment.
