Chapter 6
Sunny rubbed his aching head, and there was a strange pull of discomfort from his right shoulder. For a moment, he thought that he had a terrible hangover, but then he remembered where he was and what had happened the night before. He’d dislocated his shoulder in the carriage accident.
“Mantheria! Andrew!”
He threw off his coverlet and realized that his only clothing was his breeches. He could not burst into her room without a shirt on. Sighing, Sunny quickly dressed. Once fully attired with his coat, he entered their shared parlor. But no one was there.
Glancing out the window, he realized that it was already midmorning.
Possibly as late as ten o’clock. Andrew would be nearly to Bath by now.
He let out a long string of curses that he’d learned at Eton.
How could he have slept in on such a morning?
He truly was the worst companion on a rescue.
Sunny was as useless as his rakish father had been.
With another heaving sigh, he lightly knocked on Mantheria’s door and waited for her answer. After several minutes, he cautiously opened it and found the room empty. The bed was already made up. She was gone.
Closing the door, Sunny left the green parlor and went down to the taproom, where he was met by a matron in a white apron. She curtsied deeply. “Your Grace is up. I will send your meal up to the private parlor and have a hostler fetch the doctor to look at your shoulder.”
He swung his arm around. “I’m fit as a fiddle this morning. I am merely looking for Her Grace.”
The matron gave a low whistle. “Your wife was so eager to go after your son that she left you here to recover.”
Your wife.
Sunny only wished that those two words were true, but he didn’t blame Mantheria for her prevarication. It would be difficult for her to explain that they were old friends. “When did she leave?”
“Five o’clock this morning on the mail coach, Your Grace.”
Always efficient was Mantheria.
And she’d left him behind because he’d been useless. Perhaps he should return to London. Clearly, she did not need him. But then, how was he ever going to convince Mantheria that she did need him in her life? As her real husband.
Breathing in and out slowly, he felt another tug of pain from his shoulder, but he ignored it. “Breakfast in the taproom is fine, ma’am. I should like to hire your fastest hack to follow my wife. Please have it saddled and ready for me as soon as possible.”
She curtsied. “Very good, Your Grace.”
A man who Sunny assumed was the matron’s husband gave him a large plate of eggs, bread, sausages, potatoes, and beans. It was a hearty meal, but he would need it if he was going to ride all day to catch up with Mantheria and Andrew.
Since Sunny was not married, he didn’t know how it felt to be a parent.
Truthfully, the thought of fathering had always been foreign to him.
He had no memories of his own father, and he wondered what sort of parent he would be.
Wick had taken to fatherhood with aplomb and seemed to be carrying one of his many boys whenever Sunny saw him.
Wick was relaxed and playful. Not unlike his own father, the Duke of Hampford.
But Sunny had no example, and he wasn’t particularly good with children.
Including Andrew. Not that the young boy wasn’t polite to him.
He was. But if anything, Andrew seemed to find Sunny unworthy or not interesting enough for his attention.
Sunny never seemed to know what to say or what to do.
Perhaps he would be a terrible stepfather.
He washed down these unpleasant thoughts and the eggs with a cold cup of tea.
He loved Mantheria.
No, he needed her. And he couldn’t have one without the other.
Sunny would help Mantheria find Andrew and then try to create a relationship with the boy.
He was eleven, only a couple of years away from school, and the sole child of a duke.
The same as Sunny. Perhaps he and the boy had more in common than he realized.
Being a child duke was not an easy thing, as Sunny himself had learned.
He could teach Andrew everything that he wished he’d known before attending Eton.
Including not picking fights with boys who are bigger than you.
Sunny touched his crooked nose—Wick had given it to him.
And Sunny had gifted his new best friend with two black eyes.
He settled up with the lady innkeeper and was delighted to see that the horse saddled for him was a fine mare, young and strong. Both he and the horse were going to have to ride long and hard to catch up with Mantheria, who was five hours ahead of him, and Andrew, who was even more ahead of her.