The Earl Claims a Bride by Amelia Grey Read Free Book Online Page B

his stance. “Not very. Why?”
    “It’s too involved to get into tonight.” Harrison took a drink from his champagne. His gaze automatically scanned the ballroom, looking for the golden-brown-haired angel he’d seen. Someone had already led her onto the dance floor.
    Not surprising that she had already caught attention. She was easily a diamond of the first water and the belle of the ball tonight.
    “Are you going to talk to me or stare at the dance floor?”
    “You always see too much.”
    “There’ve been many times in the past when you were glad I did.”
    Harrison grinned. “You need not remind me of my foolish youth.”
    “Are you looking for anyone in particular, or have you already found her?”
    Harrison smiled and ignored Bray’s probing question. He knew his friend was fishing for what had caught his attention, and Harrison wasn’t ready to divulge anything.
    “Let’s meet at the Heirs’ Club this week,” Bray said. “Now that you’re in London you need to officially apply for membership.”
    “After all these years.” Harrison’s thoughts drifted back to the many times he’d walked through the door of that club and acted as if he owned it. “When we were younger I would have signed over my yearly allowance to a footpad to be a member. I didn’t want to be a member this way.”
    “Understandable considering the circumstances. No one wants to gain entrance the way you did. Still, no need for you to continue to participate as my guest when you can have all the privileges of a member.”
    Harrison thought back over the many times he and Adam had played cards, billiards, and dice when they could get away with it in the Heirs’ Club. It was the most exclusive of all the private gentlemen’s clubs in London because in order to be a member you had to either have a title or be an heir to a title. No others need apply.
    Bray was the only son of the Duke of Drakestone, so when he came of age he was reluctantly accepted for membership. Some of the older, stuffier members had tried to keep him out, fearing Bray and his unruly friends would disturb their quiet and orderly establishment. And Bray, Harrison, and Adam had from time to time. Or at least more times than Harrison could count anyway.
    “What do you think the board members will say about now having two of the three scoundrels in the Heirs’ Club?” Harrison asked.
    “I have a feeling they will be saying, Damnation! What the hell are we going to do with the two of them? ”
    “And they’ll complain about it for years.”
    “But we won’t care.”
    “Not a damned whit.”
    Harrison and Bray laughed, remembering that it was at the Heirs’ Club they’d planned an ill-advised journey to Dover where they’d jumped from one of the highest cliffs into the dangerous rocky waters below. Fate had smiled on them and somehow saved them all from certain death.
    “Speaking of Adam,” Harrison said, “have you heard from him recently?”
    The laughter faded from Bray’s features and he shook his head. “How about you?”
    “Not a word since we visited him last year,” Harrison answered.
    “I wrote him about your brother and family. The fire. I had hoped he’d be in touch with you.”
    “I can understand why he hasn’t,” Harrison said, remembering how he felt when he heard about the deaths of his brother, Maddie, and their children. He didn’t even want to imagine what it must have been like for Adam to have lost his wife and babe during childbirth.
    “Maybe we should go see him again,” Bray said. “What do you think?”
    “That it’s a good idea. He seemed to be all right with our visit last spring, didn’t he?”
    Bray nodded. “Let’s make plans to do that at the club, too. I’ll ask for a time from the review panel and send you a note.”
    “Good.”
    “Time for my duty on the dance floor with one of the dowagers or widows. Then I’m going to find my bride and dance with her. I’ll see you later in the