Hunters

XV. Distance

XV. Distance

He’d had to leave her.

There had been an issue with the bank, and his attorney had some “urgent” business. Of course, it was all because he was trying to set up the accounts so she could start her charitable endeavors. All of the discussions could have been done through the mail, he had quickly realized, and that angered him. He was finally comfortable with how he felt about her; he had finally wanted to change his plans.

But. He was in London and she was not.

“Ahem,” Ezekiel rapped his knuckles on the table to get Vaughan’s attention.

With a start, he remembered that he was in White’s with his cousin.

“I could have just told you I’d spent a week with three Nancys on the moon, and you’d be none the wiser,” the Marquee reprimanded him.

“You’re right,” was all Vaughan said before downing his tumbler of whiskey.

“What? No retort? No verbal sparring? No jokes at my expense?” Ezekiel insisted.

“Oh, Zeke, I do not spar with you, I conquer,” the Duke jibed. The alcohol brought a flush to his cheeks, but the shine in his eyes was not due to drink.

“What’s going on?” Zeke asked with narrowed eyes. He tipped his head back slightly and examined the subject before him: slumped shoulders, disheveled necktie, and shaggy hair. Something was amiss. 

As Vaughan waved down a waiter to get him another drink, he looked to his friend and shrugged.

“It’s Lecia,” he said.

His companion lit up. “I knew it!” he gritted. “Are you suffering from an infected stab wound? Has she been slipping you strawberries?” He had moved forward to the edge of his seat awaiting a reply.

“No,” Vaughan groaned. He received his fresh glass and swallowed it whole before the waiter could leave; he motioned for the man to bring two the next time.

“I haven’t seen you drink this much since—” Zeke narrowed his eyes again and withheld the urge to slap the Duke across the face. “Good God.”

“I can now tell you with the greatest clarity that I never loved Annika. If this is love—and I have no doubt it is—this is not at all how I felt about her,” Vaughan confessed.

“You’re an idiot,” the Marquee said painfully. “I should have never told you about her; I should have never introduced you to her father; I should have—”

“I don’t think you could have prevented this,” the Duke interrupted.

“Mate, don’t say things like that,” Ezekiel grumbled. “It’s painful for even my masculinity, and I’m the romantic one.”

Vaughan glared for a moment until Zeke rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“I don’t like what she’s done to you,” he huffed.

“She hasn’t done anything,” Vaughan lamented. “Nothing out of the ordinary for her, anyway. It’s just that I realized how lovely she is. The magnitude of her beauty just…struck me, and I was powerless to stop it, and now… Now she must think me a fool. I told her all of these things about not wanting a true wife, or a family, but then I kissed her and she must see me as a hypocrite and an imbecile.” He ran out of breath. “She asked me for a dog,” Vaughan began to chuckle.

“Beg pardon?” Ezekiel snorted.

“When I kissed her,” the Duke laughed, “she asked for a bloody dog. That was all she said to me.”