pulled at his skin to remind him how much of a sorry state he was in.
“You should have come back with Blakiston.”
“Is Sophia all right?” Blake asked despite knowing he shouldn’t care what went on between her and the Duke of Slime.
“Sophia it is now? I thought you were only going to call her Sophie?”
He shrugged. “Slip of the tongue. Is she all right?”
Matthew nodded and set to work untying one the nags from the lead ropes. Dominic was already at work on the other. There wasn’t much he could say when the boy was there too. He would not give yet more fodder to the gossips by talking about Sophie behind her back.
It took a good half an hour for Matthew and Dominic to move Monster’s body far from the road. They shouldn’t just leave him there, but dragging the once majestic horse back to the inn would be of no use to anyone. Blake was forced to watch as they pulled on ropes tied to his body and the harness he still wore. Once he was far enough from the roadway, Blake said his final goodbyes to the old boy, then went back to his wagon.
Dominic sat on the driver’s bench with the two horses already crudely hooked up and ready to be gone. Blake checked that the makeshift preparations would hold and then went to climb up beside him.
“You ride with me,” Matthew called.
“I’ll ride with the boy,” Blake called in return as he gritted his teeth against the pain that would come once he grabbed a hold of the cart.
A warm, firm hand came down on his shoulder, stopped him from jumping up.
“You can’t seriously mean to be jostled around on that seat all the way back?”
Blake turned to Matthew and knew by the look in the other man’s eyes that this was a battle he’d already lost. He didn’t have the energy to protest. All he really wanted to do was lie back down on the ground and sleep for a day or more.
“I suppose not.” He let Matthew help him into the back of the wagon, where a makeshift bed had been thrown down on the timber boards. He would have put up a fight at being treated like an invalid, but it felt so good to finally relax. How had he thought sitting on a driver’s seat a good idea?
Matthew chuckled again and climbed up. He took the reins and rolled on slowly as the pair set their own speed.
“You never answered my question,” Blake reminded him after a few minutes.
“She’s fine. Blakiston made quite a show of carrying her into the inn, which should set tongues wagging for a while to come. Apart from the dirt and that scrape on her head, she says she’s fine.”
Blake tensed. He wanted to meet Matthew’s eyes, but couldn’t quite raise himself to his elbow. “Blakiston’s not there with her now, is he?”
“So what if he is? The two of them obviously know one another.”
“They do not.”
“He called her Sophia and she called him Blakiston.”
“I knew I should have stopped her.”
“Yes, you should have,” Matthew said as the first hints of anger crept into his voice.
“And how would you have stopped her?”
“Any way I could have. Blakiston is a toad—”
“Worse than a toad,” Blake interrupted.
“Worse than a toad. He is going to come back to see her.”
“Did he say that?”
“He didn’t have to. The look in his eyes as he stared at her, he’ll be back. I’d bet my baby on it.”
“You don’t have to go that far.” Blake laughed in spite of his anger. Some of the finely wrought tension left his body but the motion stung his side so he had to pause before drawing his next breath to continue. “Sophie can look after herself.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Matthew said, the line of his back sitting up straighter.
Blake remembered the way her palm had cracked his cheek, the shock wave it had sent through his body. The little minx would be fine even in a fight to the death. “She has slapped me a few times since her arrival.” If she kept it up, he’d have a permanent imprint.
Matthew laughed loud and long, slapping a hand to his thigh. “Did you deserve it?”
Blake smiled and closed his eyes, remembering the fury that fired those slaps. “Of course I did.”
“Sophia isn’t as tough or as strong as she makes out,” Matthew said, sobering in an instant.
Blake knew that too.
He just wished she did.
Chapter Ten
“I’m