His Lordship's Secret by Samantha SoRelle

Author:Samantha SoRelle
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781952789007
Publisher: Balcarres Books LLC
Published: 2020-06-18T04:00:00+00:00

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He awoke slowly. The fire had burned down, and while the embers still glowed, the study was beginning to get the slightest chill. The rain still beat against the windows in a steady tattoo. Alfie rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock on the mantel. He’d been asleep for nearly three hours. Glancing over, Dominick was fast asleep in the chair next to his, banyan wrapped tightly around him and chin tucked into his chest. The tea on the table between them was no more than half drunk and ice cold.

Dominick had never been a graceful sleeper. In their childhood, Alfie had often been kept awake half the night by Dominick snoring directly into his ear. Dominick said it was in revenge for Alfie's icy feet keeping him awake the other half. Alfie shivered in pleasure at the thought of sharing a bed with him now, and out of curiosity leaned in. Sure enough, after a moment, he heard it. Not nearly as loud as when they were children and much deeper in tone, Dominick's soft snores sounded like a basset hound contented after a long day’s hunt.

He got up as quietly as he could and added more logs to the fire. One slipped, making the embers hiss and snap, and when he turned around, Dominick was watching him through sleepy, half-lidded eyes.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” Alfie whispered. There was something in the air that required hushed voices and soft tones.

“It’s fine,” Dominick rumbled, voice still heavy with sleep.

“Are you hungry at all?”

“No,” said Dominick, stretching his powerful arms high above his head. “Still full from luncheon. You?”

“I’m the same.” Alfie sat back down in his chair. “You know that’s the thing I remember most about the workhouse? Not the fleas or the cold or that awful matron. I just remember always being hungry. It must have been worse for you, getting the same rations as me and being twice my size.”

Dominick hummed and shifted in his chair.

“It was hard,” he agreed. He paused, but seemed to come to a decision. “Both then and after.”

Alfie turned to face him, but Dominick just stared resolutely into the fire.

“Do you want to talk about any of it?”

Dominick shrugged. “Not much to tell that you haven’t already guessed. I told you I stayed in the workhouse until I aged out, and then I was on the streets. No money, no food, no real skills. So I did what I had to do to survive. I stole, I fought, and when the choice was that or starve, I sold my body. There’s always a market for that.”

A wave of pity swept through Alfie, followed by a wave of anger. That Dominick had been so badly abused by life yet still remained such a good man made him rage. Men like his cousin could drink and gamble and raise all sorts of hell and still be granted the utmost respect, but men like Dominick could do nothing but try to survive and were treated worse than dogs.

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