Wedding Night With the Earl Read Online Free PDF Page A

dine at the duke’s table once again when the invitation came this afternoon.”
    “And drink his wine,” Bray added.
    Adam grinned. “Without a doubt.”
    “Why don’t we go get a drink? The table is on the other side of the dance floor.”
    Adam was about to turn when from over Bray’s shoulder he saw Harrison taking off his cloak at the front door. Adam’s eyes narrowed and he was suddenly washed with a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. “I see Harrison has just arrived. And he’s alone. I wonder why his wife isn’t with him.”
    Bray looked down the corridor but didn’t respond to Adam as Harrison walked up and greeted them.
    Harrison glanced at Bray before saying, “This is a surprise, my friend. We didn’t expect to see you tonight.”
    “So Bray just said,” Adam commented cautiously. “And I’m wondering why.” Just as during their brief visit to his house a few days ago, something didn’t feel right between his friends. Adam looked at Bray. “Where is Louisa?” And to Harrison he said, “Where is Angelina?”
    “Home,” they answered one after the other.
    Dinner at the Duke of Quillsbury’s house was a sought-after invitation each year. Bray’s and Harrison’s wives wouldn’t miss it unless there was a very good reason.
    Adam frowned. “What’s this? Both of you here and your wives not by your sides?”
    Bray and Harrison looked at each other again, and Adam didn’t like the signals they were sending each other.
    “Why aren’t they here?”
    Harrison shifted his stance. Bray avoided Adam’s eyes and sipped his drink.
    Neither man spoke.
    “Someone had better start talking right now,” Adam said.
    “Oh, hellfire,” Harrison muttered. “We tried to tell you the other afternoon and we just didn’t know how.”
    Adam stiffened. “Tell me what?”
    Bray sighed. “Both Louisa and Angelina are with child and not attending the Season.”
    The words hit Adam like a horse kick to the stomach, but he was sure he masked it well. “Both of them?” he asked with a steady voice. “At the same time?”
    Harrison nodded. “It’s not like we planned it to happen this way. It just did.”
    “Louisa and I were shocked,” Bray added. “We’ve been married almost two years, we were beginning to wonder if … well…” He let his words die away.
    “Why didn’t you tell me this the other day when you were at my house?”
    “I wanted to,” Bray said. “Harrison thought we should give you another day to get settled, so we decided to go see you and decide after we got there if it would be a good time to tell you.”
    “Then we met Dixon and you said he was your heir and that you’d never marry again and have a son. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it.”
    Adam had suspected something was wrong that afternoon, but he’d let the uneasy feeling pass, thinking it was because he’d been gone from London so long. They were his friends, they were—“Cowards,” he accused. “You were both cowards.”
    “Hell, no,” Bray said.
    “Those are fighting words, Adam,” Harrison said calmly.
    He knew it, but he added, “If you think you can take me, we’ll step outside right now.”
    “That’s enough of that from both of you,” Bray said. “What Harrison told you is true, Adam. We didn’t know how to tell you about our wives after what you went through. We didn’t know you’d be here tonight.”
    Adam wasn’t sure what he was feeling except that they should have told him. “When the hell were you going to let me know? Or were you hoping someone else might tell me and save you the trouble?”
    “That’s not true. You know us. We thought we’d have a few drinks at the Heirs’ Club and then tell you. We were trying to be kind.”
    “Just the way we have been since Annie died.”
    Startled, Adam blinked. That was the first time he’d heard her name spoken out loud in over two years.
    His throat thickened and suddenly his mind swirled with images and sounds he