Page 71 of Five Nights with a Rakish Duke
“Woah!” Vincent cried as Asher nearly toppled backwards again. Both men had to support him walking forward. “It’s like watching a baby deer trying to walk for the first time.”
“Vincent… you said you were being serious.”
“I was about that coach driver!” Vincent said, prodding Asher forward another time. “He didn’t just not slow down; he sped up.”
“Surely not,” Dorian said, urging Asher down a gas-lit path toward where a carriage awaited them.
“No, I am sure of it. He flicked the reins.”
“Wait…” Asher said, blinking a few times as he rearranged the handkerchief on his head and thought back to the moment of seeing the carriage come toward him. “I saw it too. He did flick the reins.”
“Please do not tell me you two think this was intentional,” Dorian said, scoffing. “He may not have even seen you were there.”
“Truly? You think that?” Vincent was clearly tempted to laugh. “With you and I screaming like two banshees, and he didn’t see Asher? No, I do not believe it.”
“Is now really the time to scare him?” Dorian asked. “I think he’s got enough on his plate as it is.” As they reached the end of the path and turned in the road, Dorian and Vincent had to swing Asher around in a new direction.
“I’m not trying to scare him. All I am saying is… well, it rather looked the coach driver didn’t care if he knocked him over.” Asher grimaced and glanced Dorian’s way.
“It would not be the first time someone tried to hurt me, would it?” he asked. Dorian blanched and came to a stop.
“When you were struck on the head at the ball… you thought it was just some drunkard.”
“Maybe it was. Maybe it is just a coincidence.” Asher walked forward again with his two friends prodding him.
“Either way, this wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been drinking yourself into a stupor,” Dorian said as they reached the coach. The footman jumped down from where he was attending beside the carriage driver and unlatched the door for them to clamber inside. Asher managed to climb in himself, but as he sat on the coach bench, he felt Vincent sit beside him and place a hand to his arm, keeping him sitting straight.
“I am not going to fall over,” Asher said in complaint.
“I’d wager good money you are,” Vincent laughed. “How about it, Dorian? Two bob says I release him, and he falls over instantly!”
“I’m not taking that bet. I’m certain you’d win,” Dorian said as he stepped into the carriage and closed the door behind him. Within the darkness of the coach, the gas lights from the street were marred, making it more difficult to see.
The coach jolted forward, and they set off again. As Dorian’s face appeared every now and then when gas lights shone through the window, Asher watched him all the more, seeing the worry in his face that made harsher lines in his cheeks.
“Dorian… thank you,” Asher said another time.
“You have thanked me once already; you do not need to say it again,” Dorian said, his tone firm as he held Asher’s gaze.
“I rather think I couldn’t thank you enough,” Asher said, leaning forward. Vincent had to grab him and force him back in the seat again.
“He cannot even sit straight!” Vincent complained.
“True,” Dorian said with a nod.
“Dorian, you could have been hurt,” Asher said, trying his best to make sense in his drunken state.
“What else are friends for?” Dorian said with a shrug. “The night you pulled me out of that canal, you cursed my name all the way home, I seem to remember, but you never once complained about the twisted ankle you got because of it.”
I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
“Now, as I am your friend, there is something else I am going to do for you next,” Dorian said, folding his arms and sitting back in the seat.
“Give me a bed for the night?” Asher asked. “I will be very grateful for it.”
“I’m already going to give you that. Next…” He paused, making Asher look up to him again. “I am going to get you to talk to Lady Penelope.”
Asher let out a string of curses under his breath.
