Chapter 5

“I would not feel too badly about your ignorance regarding your butler and his motley array of relatives,” Stonyhurst assured as the two men sat together drinking brandy in one of the lounges at their gentleman’s club, after having first enjoyed a five-course luncheon together.

Wulf felt only a little guilty at the thought of Billy eating stale bread and cheese for his lunch.

“I am as much a trained interrogator for the Crown as you are,” Stonyhurst continued. “And despite coming to your home on numerous occasions, I had not realized the Moreland family connection throughout your household either,” he dismissed. “I am a little more surprised at Valentin’s leaving too, but he always was temperamental, even for a Frenchman.”

Which was perfectly acceptable for the other man to say when it was not his home which was currently in an uproar.

Well, perhaps uproar was rather a dramatic description of the complete and eerie silence that currently existed in Wulf’s cold and unwelcoming home. It wasn’t just that there were no fires in any of the rooms; the house just felt wrong. Huge, cavernous, with only him and Billy in residence.

The lack of grooms and a head groom had also meant that Wulf had been forced to go to the stables this morning and see to the feeding of his own horses. Billy had flatly refused to do so, stating he wasn’t comfortable around the creatures.

Wulf kept only five horses in the stables behind Wulferston House, his own black stallion, and four sturdier horses to draw the choice of three carriages he also kept in Town.

The feeding of them had resulted in Wulf also needing to “shovel shit.”

Billy had assured him, when Wulf sought him out in the kitchen after he had been to his bedchamber and washed the smell of the stables off himself, that all would be well by the time the duke returned home.

Wulf was somewhat skeptical as to that being the case, but he had also learned not to underestimate Billy’s ability to do and achieve exactly what he said he would.

“I am less confident of what you are going to do to resolve the Billy Brown situation.” Stonyhurst’s softly made comment cut into Wulf’s musings.

He glanced sharply at his friend. “What Billy Brown situation?”

The other man gave a knowing smile. “The one where you want to fuck him unconscious before doing it all over again the moment he regains his senses.”

Wulf wished, in retrospect, that he had not been about to swallow a mouthful of brandy when Stonyhurst gave him that blunt explanation.

Unfortunately, being about to swallow a mouthful of brandy was exactly what Wulf was doing!

As a consequence, when he gasped his shock at the other man’s blatantly crude answer, he also then wheezed quickly out again as he choked on the brandy. The result being he sprayed the alcohol all over himself and his clothing.

He gave a glance about the room to make sure that none of the other members of this respectable gentleman’s club were sitting close enough to have heard Stonyhurst’s remark. Luckily, the two men had chosen to sit in a corner, a far enough distance from the other gentlemen in the room that they would not be able to hear their conversation.

“Thank you.” He gratefully accepted a snowy-white napkin from one of the servers in the lounge as he passed by on his way to serve another member of the club. Wulf began to wipe the brown liquid from his clothes before it had a chance to be absorbed into the fabric. “What the bloody hell was that about…?” He glowered across at a completely unabashed Stonyhurst.

“That, my dear Wulferston, is the honesty you have been avoiding acknowledging to yourself these past four months since you first set eyes on the cheeky imp, but which all three of your closest friends have easily observed.” Having made that comment, Stonyhurst took a sip of his own brandy.

Wulf winced. “All three of you?”

“Yes.”

Wulf wiped his hands before handing the soiled napkin back to the server, who had returned with a fully replenished glass of brandy. “I have not been avoiding it,” he snapped once they were alone again. “I know exactly what I wish for with that forthright young man. I simply do not know how to proceed from being Billy’s employer to becoming his lover.”

“Have you thought of starting with a simple kiss?”

Wulf glowered across at the other man as he nodded. “Yesterday evening.”

“And how did that go?”

“It did not,” he sighed.

“Why not?”

“Because I only thought about it. I did not actually do it.” Wulf’s agitation at this uncharacteristic lack of action was palpable. “This indecision simply is not me, Stonyhurst. My nature is naturally forthright, not this…this constant fluctuation between desire and fear,” he bit out in self-disgust.

“Fear?” the other man repeated softly.

He nodded, his expression bleak. “That if I act, and Billy is repulsed by my advances, that I will lose him altogether.”

He had not slept well after leaving Billy in the kitchen the night before. Not only because his engorged cock refused to go down, but also because he had realized, in his urgent need to get away from the temptation that Billy represented, that he had failed to provide the younger man with a more comfortable bedchamber for the night.

He felt even guiltier when he went to the kitchen early this morning and saw the blanket draped over one of the kitchen chairs. As evidence that Billy had preferred to sleep there, by the warmth of the range, rather than return to the cold of the attic.

Humor twinkled in Stonyhurst’s deep blue eyes. “I have never seen you so hesitant before, about anything.”

Wulf released a heavy sigh at this indisputable truth. “I have already explained that is because I am afraid, if I kiss him, and he is repulsed, there will be no going back from it.”

“Then at least you will know not to proceed any further.”

Wulf’s brow lowered. “I also risk losing the friendship we now have.”

It was a surprise to him, as it no doubt would be to Billy if that young man ever sat down and thought about it—sitting idle, and allowing his thoughts to ferment, was not something that restless young man ever seemed to do—to realize that the two of them had become, in essence, friends.

At least, they did some of the things together that friends did.

For instance, they often spent time chatting.

Admittedly it usually started out because Billy was pointing out one or more of Wulf’s shortfalls in character.

But Wulf could never recall allowing anyone else such liberties. If they had so much as tried then they would have immediately found themselves at the sharp end of Wulf’s legendarily acerbic tongue.

They had sat and drunk brandy comfortably together in the library the previous evening. And not for the first time, either.

Again, those incidents had come about because Billy did not seem to know, or simply did not accept, the social mores which dictated a temporary underfootman simply did not sit down and drink brandy in the company of a duke who was also his employer.

But there was no denying, and Wulf had no wish to ever do so, that they had become friends.

Wulf was simply at a loss to know how to even broach the subject of them becoming more than that.

“I believe you underestimate your young man,” Stonyhurst said softly.

“He is not my young man.”

“I believe he is and will be.”

Wulf gave him a sharp glance. “On what evidence?”

Dear God, he sounded like some lovesick schoolboy begging a friend to tell him if one of the other boys returned his affection!

Stonyhurst grinned, probably after having made the same observation. “On the evidence of the longing glances he gives in your direction whenever he thinks you are not looking. Along with the fact he has continued to remain in your home for the past three weeks, despite being treated badly by Moreland and the other servants. The fact that Billy spoke out about the deviant behavior of the chef at the Apollo shows that he is not a young man who will readily tolerate ill-treatment toward others or himself.”

Wulf felt the same anger rising within him as had occurred when he first learned of that devil’s having sexually preyed on so many of the young men employed at the Apollo. Thank God Billy had not been one of them; otherwise, Wulf knew he would have ripped the other man limb from limb without a second thought.

But he could not recall ever having noticed Billy giving him any longing looks.

Nor, as he was a man aged seven and thirty, and not that schoolboy, was he about to press Stonyhurst for more information on his having made that observation.

“Talking of the Apollo…” Stonyhurst drank the last of his brandy and placed the empty glass down on the table beside him before standing. “It is time we paid a visit to see how the renovations are proceeding.” He gave Wulf a sly grin. “Perhaps when you see how close we are to reopening, it will spur you on to making a move before it comes time for Billy to leave your house and the opportunity is lost forever.”

The mere thought of no longer having Billy within his home to talk to and to be teased by brought about a hollow feeling in Wulf’s chest.

A hollowness that had not gone away by the time he returned to Wulferston House and the front door was opened to him by none other than that same beautiful young man who refused to leave Wulf’s thoughts even for a moment.

“Well, don’t just stand there gawping and letting the cold air in. Get your arse inside,” Billy’s forthright rebuke immediately dispelled Wulf’s hope that Billy harbored a secret desire for him.

Billy was also once again wearing that unsuitable bright red and ornately decorated jacket.

Wulf winced. “Have you been outside in that jacket?”

“Course I have. How else was I supposed to hire new servants for ya? Wipe ya muddy feet on the mat.” The younger man’s next instruction added to that air of reality of the moment as Wulf stepped inside the entrance hall. “Before I could leave the ’ouse this morning, I had to spend considerable time cleaning the mud off this floor from yesterday.”

When Wulf had walked through it with his boots covered in mud and ’orse shit, he recalled wryly.

“If you have managed to hire new servants, why are you the one opening the door?” Wulf prompted, laying his cloak and hat on the bench beside the door after Billy made no effort to take them.

“The new servants are all unpacking and changing into their appropriate uniforms. If you’d waited another ten minutes more before coming home, your new butler would have done the honors and opened the door for you rather than me. Although, why you can’t open your own bloody front door is beyond me,” he added in a mutter.

The hollowness in Wulf’s chest dissipated completely upon being welcomed back with the familiar barracking for what Billy considered his inconsiderate behavior in having returned too early to his own home.

* * *

“Whatcha grinnin’ about?” Billy demanded suspiciously when the duke smiled instead of rebuking him for his cheekiness, as he would normally have done.

As Billy had hoped he would. If the duke was rebuking him, then the other man was at least acknowledging his presence.

“I am grinning,” the duke drawled, “because I believe in a female, such behavior as yours would be referred to as nagging.”

His eyes narrowed. “You castin’ aspersions about me looks again?”

“I would not dare,” the older man assured, hesitating before continuing. “As one of the new servants could make an appearance at any moment, would you join me in the privacy of my study for a few moments, please?” he requested lightly.

“Why?”

The duke appeared perplexed. “Is it not enough that I asked you to do so?”

“Not really, no. I mean, you could be taking me there with the intention of dismissing me, in which case I’d rather you just got it over with.” He looked pointedly around at the deserted entrance hall. “It’s not as if there are a lot of other people about as yet who might eavesdrop.”

The older man released a long-suffering sigh before speaking again. “I am not going to dismiss you.”

Billy grinned. “Is that ’cos you need me here, at least for now, so that I can introduce you to the other servants?”

“You are not my servant, Billy. You are my secretary.”

“Temporary.”

“Temporarily,” the duke conceded. “As such, I am asking you to join me in my study.”

“And I asked for what reason?”

“Billy, get your arse into my study this instant.” The older man had obviously come to the end of his patience. “Before I am reduced to spanking said arse in front of those other servants I do not yet know!”

“There you are.” Billy grinned.

The other man arched a single eyebrow. “There I am what?”

“The haughty and imposing Duke of Wulferston.”

He frowned. “I am always the haughty and imposing Duke of Wulferston.”

“You are.” Billy nodded agreement. “But sometimes, when it’s just you and me talking, I forget that.”

“When Billy and Wulf are talking, you mean?”

“Well, I’ve never called you that, but yes.” Billy’s cheeks warmed at the thought of being so forward.

He might like to give the older man hell every now and then, but there were certain liberties he was not willing to take.

“You are welcome to do so,” the duke now invited huskily.

Unless he was invited to step over that line! “Very well, then, yes, Wulf, that’s exactly what I mean. When it’s just the two of us, I sometimes forget how much more toplofty than me you are,” he revealed ruefully.

The other man eyed him cautiously. “Is that a good or a bad thing?”

“It’s just a fact.” Billy shrugged. “Truth is, I like both sides of you the same amount.”

“You like me?” The duke appeared astonished.

Billy grinned. “You make it sound as if that doesn’t happen very often.”

“It doesn’t,” the older man conceded dryly. “My acerbic tongue and imposing manner mean I am not the easiest of men to like. Nor do I make friends easily. Stonyhurst said— I have never noticed any partiality in your behavior toward me.”

Billy had been busy this morning as he rushed about town hiring a dozen new servants. But not so busy that he hadn’t missed Wulf’s imposing presence in the house, both as the duke and the less aloof gentleman he had spent time with in the library the previous evening.

He genuinely did like both sides of Wulfram Edmund Fitzherbert. Best of all, he liked it when Wulf lost that aloofness and it was just the two of them. Wulf and Billy.

“Well, there is,” he insisted. “If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t even waste me time bothering talking to you.”

“I can well believe that!” the other man choked out.

“There you go, then.” Billy nodded. “Now what is it you want to talk to me about when we get to the privacy of your study?”

The duke drew in a long and controlling breath before speaking. “I have decided to answer the question you asked me last night.”

His brows rose. “You have?”

“I have.”

Anticipation rose inside Billy as he fell into step beside the other man as they walked down the hallway to the duke’s study.