Passions of a Gentleman (Gentlemen of Honor #3) - Rose Gordon Page 0,52

his head wildly. “I’ve already seen London. Uncle Simon is taking me on a real adventure.” His eyes lit. “We might even get to see highwaymen!”

Mother paled, and Simon patted Seth’s shoulder and gave his head a little shake to silence anymore nonsense that might be on the verge of tumbling from his lips.

“Simon, I promised his mother I’d keep him safe,” Mother persisted.

“And he will be. I’ll make sure of it.”

“But—” she started again then stopped when Father’s hand found her shoulder.

“Let them go,” Father said in his usual quiet tone. “A boy’s greatest ally is his uncle. Let them have their fun.”

“But what if they get hurt?”

“And what if they don’t?” Father challenged softly. He fixed his eyes on Simon and Seth who stood by the door anxious to leave. “I think the biggest harm will come if we don’t let them go.”

“But I promised his mother,” Mother started again. “I couldn’t bear it if something happened to him.”

“Katherine,” Father started, then dropped his voice to a whisper.

The worry in Mother’s eyes stayed, but slowly her jaw went slack. “All right,” she said at last. “But you two will be back before Seth is to be returned to his mother in two days.” She wagged a finger at Simon. “Without a single scratch.”

Simon threw his hands up into the air, palms out. “I promise. The boy shall be returned in museum condition.”

“Good,” Mother chirped. “Because if he’s not, you’ll get to be the one to explain it to his parents.”

“There will be nothing to explain,” Simon said, silently praying he was right, save a betrothal announcement, that is.

Not wanting to risk Mother changing her mind, Simon ushered Seth out to the waiting carriage.

“What’s at Crumbles and how long will it take for us to get there?” Seth asked, making himself comfortable on the velvet bench.

“You’ll see when we get there.”

Seth crossed his arms over his chest. “Now that you’ve trapped a traveling companion, you’re not going to become unfun, are you?”

“I’d remind you that unfun, is not a word, but I don’t want to be seen as an ogre.” Simon put his hands out in front of him. “Care to learn a new game you can teach your papa?”

“A-all right.”

“The name of the game is stone, parchment, shears and you put your hands out like this. Perfect. This is stone, this is shears, and this is parchment.” After showing the different symbols, Simon put his hand back into stone position. “Now, a few rules: stone crushes shears, shears shred parchment, and parchment covers stone.”

“Covers it?”

Simon nodded. “I, too, thought that stone was the ultimate choice because it could fly through a sheet of parchment.”

Seth snorted. “Only if someone stood at the top of the London Tower and dropped it on that fancy parchment everyone uses in London.”

“That’s vellum. It’s animal skin and it certainly could cover a rock. Some of the invitations I’ve received could be used to smother a man.” He scooted up toward the edge of his bench. “All right, you know the outcomes, now let’s play. Bring your hand up like this, hit your palm two times and on the third, show your choice.”

Seth stared blankly at him as if he were still trying to make sense of everything.

“You’ll get it after a few rounds,” Simon encouraged, tapping his fisted hand on his flat hand.

Simon had been right, Seth picked up on the game in a matter of minutes and insisted they play it over and over and over and over and over until at last Simon couldn’t take it another minute.

“Change of plans,” he said to Seth, rapping on the roof of the carriage with his knuckles.

Banes, the coachman, stopped the carriage and pulled the door open. “Sir?”

Simon climbed down from the carriage, grateful for a chance to stretch his legs. Through his excitement to go see Rae at Crumbles, one thing had niggled at him from the back of his mind. “Let’s make a detour.”

The older man’s leathered face scrunched up as he looked up to the sky. Purple, red, and orange streaks filled the lower half of the horizon. “If we stop, we’ll never make it to Crumbles by nightfall.”

“We probably won’t anyway,” Simon said. “But we’ll be close enough.”

Seth’s head emerged from the window. “Where are we going, Uncle Simon?”

“We’re going to stop off at Bedlam,” Simon said easily. “There will be plenty stone, parchment, shears partners for you. You’ll love it.”

“All right,” Seth said happily then pulled himself back into