Page 2 of Avoiding the Merry Viscount
The boys settled and secured their horses and then entered the cabin. Elias and the others cheered when they found the cabin had been equipped with a bunch of firewood, more blankets, and extra food. His mother had coordinated it all for them, no doubt. She didn’t miss a thing.
Dropping their bags to the floor and placing their guns on the rack mounted by the door, Jude and Hudson plopped into chairs while Matt and Elias set to work on starting the fire.
“Will we get to help collect some of the greenery for the Christmas Eve decorations?” Jude asked.
Matt stacked the wood in the fireplace, then Elias lit it. He stoked the fire to get it to the point of high flames that emitted a warm heat.
“If you want to. Haven’t you done so before?” Elias asked.
“No,” Jude answered, frowning.
Jude’s mother had died giving birth to him, and the group of friends knew very little about his father, the Marquess Sandon, since they’d never met him.
“Let’s all help then.” Matt sat on the floor in front of the settee and leaned back against it. “It would be great fun. We can let the girls help us, and that should keep them from saying we did nothing with them all break.”
Matt was one of the most jovial people that one would ever meet. And the most dependable and helpful of their group. His father was the Earl of Wilton, and Elias knew Matt would be an admirable peer of the realm when he inherited the title.
Hudson groaned. “Do we have to? That sounds dreadful.”
He had been Elias’s closest friend for years, given that they had practically shared a cradle. Hudson’s and Hannah’s parents wouldarrive in two days to spend the holidays with the lot of them. Hudson was a good friend, but he wasn’t always the friendliest sort. It’s a shame his father wasn’t a duke, because he’d have the broody, haughty duke persona down cold. But alas, his father was an earl, just as Elias’s. Hudson’s father was the Earl of Onslow.
“Come now, Hud,” Elias said. “Matt is right. It won’t kill us to do something with the girls. It is Christmas after all. We can consider it our gift to them.”
“Fine. As long as there aren’t any of those kissing balls anywhere,” Hudson replied, crossing his arms.
“I don’t believe so.” Elias shrugged one of his shoulders before plopping onto the settee. “It will not be a big party. Lord and Lady Onslow are the only ones coming besides us. Our parents don’t need a kissing ball as an excuse to kiss in front of us all.”
Hudson wrinkled his nose. His parents were also a love match, and he suffered the same affectionate displays in his home that Elias had.
“Speaking of kissing,” Jude began, changing the subject. “I think that Sarah, the daughter of Mister Pembroke, is sweet on Matt.”
Matt waved him off. “Not me. I’m just kind to her. She has eyes for Elias. At least I should hope so after what I walked in on.” Then he stared knowingly at Elias.
“All right, all right. I kissed her. Only once.” She was their professor’s daughter and visited the school every so often. He was almost certain she was a year or so older than him.
Elias glanced around the room and saw his friends all staring at him as if they expected him to say more about the matter.
“What? It was just a quick kiss. She said she thought I was handsome, and that was that.”
Jude smirked at him. “And where were your hands?”
“At my sides,” Elias said. Although, if he could go back, he might have been a bit more strategic about the placement.
“And what if I hadn’t walked in on you?” Matt asked.
Elias shrugged. “I guess we’ll never know.” He wasn’t certain what else could occur beyond kissing but could tell with his eyes that a girl’s body differed from a boy’s. But he wouldn’t admit his lack of knowledge to his friends.
“Now that we know Elias has kissed her, he’s ruined her for the rest of us.” Jude feigned irritation before grinning at him.
The boys all laughed, and Elias rolled his eyes at all of them. It hadn’t been a big deal. He had just wondered what it would be like to kiss a girl, and the opportunity presented itself. But he supposed they were of the age to experiment and learn of such things.
Elias always confided everything in his father, and when he told his father about his kiss, it was just before his friends were set to arrive. His father said he wanted to have a talk with him about what occurred between men and women after the holidays and everyone had returned home. It only made him all the more curious.
“Let’s dig into some of the food that Lady Snowdon must have sent.” Hudson rose from his chair.
They descended on the basket of food like locusts, eating their fill for their dinner, laughing and bantering with each other as they did so. The boys retold some of their favorite stories from school and about the mischievous times they had.
Elias sent a silent thought of gratitude to his mother for sending the extra food, because what she sent was completely gone and they’d need the food they had in their packs to break their fast in the morning.
