Page 38 of The Hero

“Yes.” Harry looked searchingly at Gideon, wishing she could see just an inkling of the man who had made love to her so intensely and thoroughly rather than the aloof stranger he had now become. “Do you intend to report my brother’s behavior to the authorities?”

“As it appears he was not responsible for harming Plymouth, I think his fate for the crime of shooting his own father is for the earl to decide,” he replied coolly. “Granger has informed me your brother is an opium eater, and that many of his friends have distanced themselves from the man he has become because of it,” he added in a softer voice. “Perhaps, if he can be weaned away from that, he might once again become a decent human being.”

Edward was an opium eater? Dear Lord, his situation was so much worse than Harry had even imagined it to be. “He has always been self-serving, I am afraid.”

“Still, I believe the best thing would be for your father to arrange for your brother to be removed from the situation here. For Edward to perhaps travel to and stay on the Continent for the winter. He should be accompanied by men your father trusts to ensure Edward is not able to access the opium.” He grimaced. “Those men will need to be strong in both mind and body, because I have heard that the withdrawal symptoms when someone stops taking that drug can be most unpleasant.”

Perhaps they were, but they surely could not be as character changing as the drug itself. As Harry said, Edward had always been self-centred, but his behavior now had become criminal and leaned toward him hurting someone else. Possibly more seriously than their father, if he was not stopped.

“I will talk to my father on the subject,” Harry assured Gideon. “Do you really have to return to London today?” she asked as Gideon began to lay items out on the bed next to the saddlebags that would later be thrown over the back of his horse.

Her heart had sunk and continued to ache after Gideon had made the announcement of his plans immediately after hearing her father’s reply to Robert Granger’s question. She simply did not see the reason for his urgency to return to London when the Duke of Plymouth had died over a year ago.

“Initially, yes, so that I can discuss this new development with the other Ruthless Dukes,” Gideon confirmed evenly. “Then we shall perhaps have need to travel to the Plymouth estate,” he added distantly.

“Why?”

“Plymouth is buried in the family crypt there.”

“I do not see… Do you have doubts that it is his body in the crypt?”

He released a heavy sigh. “I am sure it is, but we must leave no stone unturned in our efforts to discover the truth.”

“Surely he must be dead?” Harry eyed him incredulously. “If not, where could he have been all this time?”

Gideon’s jaw tightened. “That is a question for after we have looked at the body in the crypt.”

“I— Do— Will it still be recognizable?” She wrinkled her nose in distaste for the task of looking at the dead body of a close friend so long after it had been buried.

Gideon’s expression was grim. “I hope so, yes.”

She gave a knowing nod. “Which is why Robert Granger needs to accompany you.”

“I do not need that young gentleman’s permission to continue investigating my friend’s murder.” He grimaced. “I agreed to his accompanying me only because I do not think I would be able to prevent him from doing so, and it is better to accept such stubbornness graciously rather than attempt to fight it.”

Robert had been adamant earlier in his decision to leave with Gideon, citing that he wished to find his cousin’s murderer more than anyone else. There had been none of the usual foppish manner in his announcement of returning to London with Gideon.

The way her father described the events of that day at Waterloo made little sense, Harry acknowledged. So much so that they merited further investigation by Gideon and his friends.

Why would some mysterious cart have suddenly appeared in the woods? Or the two men upon it deposit the body of an English officer on the ground? Before then taking away the bodies of the Duke of Plymouth and the Frenchman her father had fought off and killed when trying to save the duke?

Whatever the reason, Harry was proud of her gentle and mild-mannered father. He might not have succeeded in saving Plymouth, but he had tried to do so before being rendered unconscious himself, which made her father a hero in her eyes.

“I shall remain here until my father is well enough to travel. Possibly another week or so. Will you be returning to Bedfordshire once you have spoken with your friends?” Harry really wished her voice did not sound quite so forlorn at the prospect of Gideon remaining in London and her never seeing him again.

Except it was how she felt.

Gideon had come to mean so much to her in just a few short days.

* * *

Gideon was still in shock following Dunhill’s revelations regarding what he had done and seen during the battle at Waterloo.

This information posed so many new questions, Gideon knew he must ride to London and share that knowledge with the other Ruthless Dukes as quickly as possible.

Which was not to say he was not heartsore at the thought of leaving Harry so soon after meeting her.

Or that a part of him did not wish to beg her to come with him to London rather than be without her for however long it took him and the other dukes to ascertain what had really happened at Waterloo that day.

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