Page 14 of Hold On

“Ha! Well, what we have here is probably the floor of a triclinium.”

“Fancy dining room where well-to-do Romans lay down and ate.”

“Only the wealthy had one, which means we might find some interesting artefacts.”

“I always wondered why they ate lying down?”

“Ordinary Romans didn’t. The wealthy thought it showed power and sophistication. It probably gave them indigestion.” Will set off towards the tents and Ren followed.

“Where’ve you been?”

Will was clearly trying not to make the question sound too pointed but…

“Out for a ride. When I got back, I met the son of the marquess.”

Will raised his eyebrows. “I believe he’s taken.”

Not my type.“I also met his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s brother.”

“Unlike you to be sociable.”

“Yeah, well.” Ren unzipped the tent and when Will was inside, he zipped it up again and sat on the bed.

“What?” Will narrowed his eyes. “What have you done?”

“When I was coming up the drive, I clipped the brother with my mirror.”

“Oh God.” Will slumped down opposite. “Is he all right?”

“He says so. Didn’t want me to call the police or an ambulance, but I gave him a hard…nudge. Enough to throw him a few feet. No bones broken but it had to hurt. He didn’t want me to tell his brother or the boyfriend either.”

“Well, that’s good, right?”

“Except it’s a legal requirement to inform the police.”

“But if he didn’t want you to…”

“In theory, makes no difference. I should tell them what happened, but with Dominic saying he’s not been injured, the police won’t be interested. I’m just wondering why he didn’t want the other two to know.”

“Maybe he’s like you. Keeps his affairs private. Let it go, Ren, and count yourself lucky.”

Except Ren didn’t want to let it go. It went against everything he knew.

Chapter Three

Dominic had known life out of prison wouldn’t be easy, but it looked as though it was going to be more difficult than he’d expected. His current problems included walking up the drive without revealing how much he hurt and not answering the flurry of questions being fired by his brother.

“Where did you go?” Col asked. “Why didn’t you tell us you were going out? How did you meet that guy? What were you talking about?”

“Col!” Theo nudged him. “Give him a break.”

Hello Pot, meet Kettle.“I just wanted to go for a walk.”You two were busy in the bedroom and I didn’t want to sit and listen to something that…

“I was worried when you weren’t there,” Col whispered.

Dominic bit back his irritation. “Sorry.”

“Anything could have happened,” Col said.

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