Beyond A Wicked Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page A

trading conversation. They drank little. No one disturbed them.
    The subdued air of their group was giving rise to glances in their direction and talk among the other members of the club. People acquainted with the news of his father's death would also understand he was not in deep mourning. "We're causing a stir, you know," he said at last.
    East glanced around and saw it was so. He shrugged. "Must be South. He is looking rather disheveled this evening. Bound to cause talk."
    Viscount Southerton roused himself enough to ask, "You are referring, perhaps, to the flecks of mud on my boots?"
    Gabriel Whitney, Marquess of Eastlyn, could have named a number of other things that contributed to South's less-than-tidy person, but he settled for the mud-flecked boots. "That's right. Never say Darrow has left you."
    "It is more to the point that I have left him," South said of his valet. His head rested against the back of his chair. Through half-closed eyes the color of polished steel, he regarded the tips of his offending boots. It had been a hard ride from the middle of nowhere back to the center of London. "It is a temporary state of affairs." He added this in the event East had some notion that he might tempt Darrow with an offer to come into his employ. "He is not available to you."
    "Pity." Eastlyn sipped his port, and in due time his attention swiveled to Northam. "You are particularly introspective this evening," he said. "It cannot be solely on account of West's father."
    Brendan David Hampton, many years now the sixth Earl of Northam, absently raked back his helmet of sun-bleached hair. "It's not." His slim smile communicated his apology to West.
    For his part, West waved it aside. There was no reason to take umbrage with his friend's admission. He could hardly fault North for having little in the way of feeling for the passing of the late duke, not when his own feelings were similarly impoverished. West cocked his head to one side, his dark-green glance amused as Eastlyn poked a bit more at Northam, trying to discover the cause of that worthy's contemplation.
    "Elizabeth, then," Eastlyn said. The words were no sooner out than he held up his hand, staying North's reply. "No, don't answer. I should not have asked. It is none of my affair."
    West did not miss the visible change in the set of Northam's shoulders as he relaxed his guard. It seemed North did not mind that they knew things were not at all as they should be in his marriage, but that he had no desire to share the blow-by-blow. West could respect that. Just as they had all come together for him tonight, North must know his friends would rally if he required anything of them. He had only to look at Southerton to see the effort that would be made if necessary.
    North inclined his head slightly in South's direction and caught his friend's eye. "Where were you when you heard the news?" he asked.
    West wondered how South would respond. He had reason to know that South had been a considerable distance from London, having helped make the arrangements for that journey's end himself. It occurred to West that South was taking pains not to let the strain of his hard travel show. He did not take South's presence here for granted, but acknowledged this as further evidence of the bonds of friendship that had been forged at Hambrick Hall.
    West doubted that it had entered South's head for even a moment that he should go on to his destination rather than turn back to London. Friends for life, we have confessed. A stranger might not have recognized Southerton's taut expression for the deep weariness that it was, but he was among his boon companions now and they could not help but see the toll his journey had taken.
    A small smile eased the lines of tension about Southerton's mouth as he prepared to answer North's question. "More than halfway there," he said quietly. "I was more than halfway there."
    North's own expression was wryly appreciative of the enigmatic response. "So