Page 37 of The Hero

“I am the last person to ever be thought a hero.” The earl grimaced. “I hate everything about war, from the sound of the clashing of swords to the screaming of the horses to the groans of the dying.”

“And yet you served your country anyway,” Gideon said.

“I should have remembered that day sooner.” The other man continued to berate himself. “I should have— Dear God…” His face paled.

“Papa, what is it?” Harry stared at him, her expression anxious. “Papa?”

He was staring across the bedchamber at Gideon. “I have told you I was hit on the head, and for some reason that blow caused my brain not to remember the events of that day. Until now,” he said. “It is because of that lapse in memory that I have no idea if this happened or if it is the result of my befuddled brain.”

“Tell me anyway,” Gideon encouraged.

Dunhill drew in a deep breath before continuing. “I believe I regained consciousness for several minutes. I am not sure how much later it was, but I woke in time to see a cart pulled by two heavy horses entering the woods. Two roughly dressed men jumped down before dragging a body from the back of it.”

Gideon eyed him incredulously. “They took a body from the cart?”

The other man nodded. “Dressed in the uniform of an English officer. I heard the two men from the cart talking in French as they collected the bodies of Plymouth and the French soldier I had killed, before throwing them in the back of the wagon and then driving off.”

“Plymouth’s body was found in the wood that day.” Gideon frowned. “Not by me, because I had been injured, but his body was identified as being amongst the dead.”

Dunhill pursed his lips in thought. “Then perhaps the men in the wagon were collecting the dead bodies after the battle that were ready for burial or burning?”

“From both sides?”

The earl winced. “It does seem a little unlikely, especially as I could still hear the battle raging. But if that was not the case, what did they do with the two bodies?”

“I think there is another question I should like to ask before any more speculation is attempted,” Granger spoke up.

Gideon eyed him curiously. “Which is?”

The younger man turned to the Earl of Dunhill. “Was my cousin still alive or already dead when he was loaded aboard the cart?”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Harry burst into Gideon’s bedchamber without knocking. “Do you believe what my father told you?”

She stood as tall as her few inches over five feet would allow, with her shoulders back, and her chin raised in challenge when Gideon looked down the length of his nose at her from beneath one arrogantly raised brow.

“Leave us,” he instructed his valet, waiting until the other man had departed before answering Harry. “You really cannot keep bursting into a gentleman’s bedchamber in this way. It is not seemly.”

“You did not seem to mind the last time I did so,” she challenged.

“Circumstances have changed.”

Yes, they had, Harry acknowledged heavily. Gideon had changed along with them. He was no longer that warm and intense lover who adored her, but once again the aloof Duke of Oxford.

One look now at his distant and autocratic expression and she knew there was no point in upbraiding him further on the subject. Whatever had been between them was over as far as Gideon was concerned.

Unfortunately, Harry was now certain she was deeply in love with him.

How else could she explain the aching disappointment which had overwhelmed her when Gideon had announced it was his intention to return to London the moment the conversation with her father came to an end?

“Did you believe my father?” she pressed again.

Gideon shrugged. “I have always found Dunhill to be an honest man in the past. As such, I have no reason to disbelieve him now. His head injury might mean he remembers the events out of context or order, but what he told us still bears investigation.”

Harry could understand that. “I am still finding it difficult to believe that Edward could have shot our papa to prevent him from discovering he was once again in debt.”

“You heard your brother’s confession with your own ears.”

---