EARLS TRIP BY JENNY HOLIDAY – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Jenny Holiday
- Language: English
- Genre: Contemporary romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2.9 MB
- Price: Free
The Boys Are Back in Town
What happens on Earls Trip, stays on Earls Trip.
Usually.
In 1821, on the eighth annual Earls Trip, things took a bit of a turn.
When Archibald Fielding-Burton, the Earl of Harcourt, arrived at
Number Seven Park Lane to collect his friend, Simon Courteney, the Earl of
Marsden, Marsden was waiting in front of his town house.
“Hullo,” Archie said, hopping out of the coach. “Ready?”
“He’s been ready since seven this morning,” said Mr. Janes, Simon’s
valet, who was stationed at attention behind his master.
“Of course he has.” Archie shot an affectionate look at Simon, then a
placating one at the long-suffering Janes. “Has he also been standing here
since seven this morning?” Archie took the valet’s sniff as affirmation.
“Poor Janes. Marsden, you ought to wait inside like a properly bred
person.”
“Well, remember,” Simon said mildly, “I’m barely a properly bred
person.”
Archie chuckled as small muscles in Janes’s jaw visibly tightened. “Mr.
Janes, what will you do with yourself for a fortnight without your wayward
earl and his wretched wardrobe to wrangle?”
“I look fine,” Simon said, and a muscle in Janes’s jaw twitched.
Strictly speaking, it was true. There was nothing wrong with Simon’s
current ensemble or any other in his wardrobe. It was more that he tended
toward the bland in all matters material, be they sartorial, culinary, or
bodily. He always had. Today he was wearing a pair of buff breeches and a
brown coat cut in a style that had been the height of fashion five Seasons
ago when he’d ascended the earldom, and his hair . . . Well, his hair was
best not discussed. Archie himself was no dandy, but he tried to keep up
appearances.
As Janes supervised the loading of a small trunk into the coach, Archie
picked up a valise resting on the bottom step of Simon’s house—and nearly
tore his arm off. “Oof. What’s in here? Bricks?”
“Books.” Simon climbed into the coach.
“Ah, yes.” Archie was flooded with affection for his friend. Simon was
so very much himself. He used to try to smuggle books out of the
Winchester College library on term breaks. He was still doing it, apparently.
“Where’s Effie?” Simon asked when Archie joined him inside. “I’d’ve
thought you’d have collected him first, as his house is between mine and
yours. Now you’ll have to backtrack.”
Simon disliked inefficiency, but perhaps not as much as he appreciated a
logical argument, so Archie made one: “Yes, but unlike you, he won’t be
ready. He may not even remember that we’re to make the trip at all. Either
way, he almost certainly won’t have done his packing. I’d rather go out of
my way and have some company for the extraction process, since it’s likely
to be laborious.”
“A fair point.” Simon heaved an enormous sigh and slumped back
against the squabs.
Archie examined his friend, cataloging the darker-than-usual circles
under his eyes and the paler-than-usual cast of his skin. “All right, then?”
“Yes, yes, but I am sorely in need of respite. I’ve been run off my feet of
late. I’ve been—” He cut himself off. “It is of no mind.”
Archie smiled. He understood perfectly what Simon meant, because he
understood Simon perfectly.
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