Once And Always

Chapter 25

Enjoy reading!

+++++++

While Tee put on his still-damp clothes, Captain Mew brought the horse and carriage around from his small barn. He helped him into it, and mounted his own horse. The downpour had subsided to a gloomy, persistent drizzle as he rode beside the young lord in the early darkness toward the mansion.

"There's no reason for you to ride all the way back with me," Tee said. "I know the way."

"There's every reason," Captain Mew warned. "The roads aren't safe for a man like you alone after dark. Last week a coach was stopped just the other side of the village, the occupants robbed, and one of them shot. A fortnight before that, one of the older girls at the orphanage wandered too far out at night and was found dead in the river. She was an addled girl, so there's no telling whether foul play was involved, but you can't take chances."

Tee heard him, but his mind was on Tae, his heart filled with warmth for the man who had sheltered him when he came to Khon Kaen, given him beautiful things, teased him when he was lonely, and ultimately married him. True, Tae was frequently distant and unapproachable, but the more Tee contemplated the matter, the more convinced he became that Captain Mew was right—Tae must care for him, or he'd never have risked another marriage.

Tee remembered the hungry passion of his kisses before they were married and he became even more convinced. Despite the torment he had suffered as a child in the name of "religion," he had gone into a temple and married him there, because he asked him to.

"I think you'd better not come any farther," Tee said when they neared the iron gates of mansion.

"Why?"

"Because if Khun Luang Tae knows I've spent the afternoon with you, he's bound to suspect you told me about him as soon as I act differently toward him."

Captain Mew lifted his brows. "Are you going to act differently toward him?"

Tee nodded in the darkness. "I rather think I will." In a soft underbreath he said, "I'm going to try to tame a wolf."

"In that case, you're right. It's best not to tell Tae you came to my place. There were two deserted cottages before you reached mine. I suppose you could say you stopped there—but I warn you, Tae has an aversion to deceit. Don't get caught up in the lie."

"I have an aversion to deception, too," Tee said with a little shiver. "And an even greater aversion to being caught in one by Tae."

"I'm very much afraid he'll be worried and angry if he's returned and discovered you've been out in this storm alone."

-

Tae had returned, and he was worried. He was also furious. Tee heard his raised voice coming from the front of the house as soon as he entered it from the rear, after tying Hades outside. With a mixture of alarm and eagerness to see him, he walked down the hall and stepped into his study. The Khun Luang was pacing back and forth, his back to Tee, addressing a group of six terrified servants. His white shirt was soaked, clinging wetly to his broad shoulders and tapered back, and his brown riding boots were covered in mud. "Tell me again what Tee said," he raged at Shone. "And stop that damned weeping! Start from the beginning and tell me his words exactly."

The servant wrung his hands. "He—he said to have your gentlest horse harnessed to the smallest carriage, because he said he weren't—wasn't too good at driving carriages. Then he told me to have Mrs. Boon-Mee—the cook—pack baskets with food left over from the party last night, and to have the baskets put in the carriage. I w-warned him it was comin' on to storm, but he said it wouldn't start for hours. Then he asked me if I was certain-sure you'd left the house and I told him I was. Then he left."