Angel of Ash (2 page)

Asher laughed; he had too, joining his oldest brother on the fallen tree. “Damn, how did Hunter and mother managed to get us here?” Asher asked still in disbelief that he was attending a ball. “Three balls in three years. This should be written down in the history books.”

“The first two didn’t count, seeing as how they were for Hunter. This one…well, they are our sister and our mother, we cannot say no to them,” Caleb said gloomily. “How you managed to hold out for three hours is beyond me, as soon as Hunter turned those big, golden eyes my way, I knew it was all over,” Caleb added, smiling slightly, he knew Hunter had him wrapped around her finger, and yet he’d have it no other way, at least not for his baby sister.

Asher shook his head, still not believing that they were attending a ball, and all for the future hopes of the brothers marrying. As far as he was concerned the only who need marry was Caleb, seeing as how he was the heir. “If you would just race along, and do some debutante the justice of standing before the priest, Hunter and mother will be so enraptured with plans for your wedding and you future child, I will get at least two years rest.”

“I think not, brother, knowing the two, they would enjoy it greatly if we all fell before the priest in one fell swoop. It matters not who the lady is, as long as we march down the dreaded aisle.”

“Well damn that,” Asher said. He refused marching down any aisle unless he was attending church with his parents in the country.

“Well, damn it to hell, we thought you two were in some private corner with a beautiful young debutante,” a voice said in amazement before Caleb and Asher turned to see two more of their brothers stepping into the dark clearing.

The twins, Michael and Luke, looked thoroughly aggravated and it was with some notice that Caleb and Ben both saw the two bottles of wine Michael had sneaked out of the party.

“Just who I wanted to see, my favorite brother,” Asher said holding out one hand for a wine bottle.

Michael obligingly gave him a bottle, before taking a swig from the other one he carried. “Not bad at all, a little too sweet,” he commented before passing the bottle to Luke.

Luke gratefully took a swig and then two more before passing the bottle along to Caleb who gratefully took it. “How did you two manage to sneak out before us?” He asked.

Caleb paused from drinking, swiping his mouth with one golden hand. “Told the chits I saw a wild animal and a threat of rain,” He said, passing the bottle back to Michael.

Asher snorted; he’d not wanted to share his bottle and stingily cupped it in his arms. “Hunter threatened to faint in her delicate condition if I wasn’t the one to escort her out doors. Once there, Gabe and she started smooching while I slithered away.”

They laughed; they had too, Asher sounding so disgusted in discussing Hunter and their brother-in-law kissing.

“Better than ours, Michael pretended to have whooping cough, so I of course, obligingly escorted him outdoors where we ran for our very lives.”

Michael laughed. “Even though, I must admit, the last one I danced with had a body like a goddess, did you see her, Luke?” He asked, smiling in appreciation.

“The red?” Luke asked and started smiling at Michael’s nod.

“Yes, her, I hadn’t seen breasts that large in a long while,” Michael said, the brothers in general agreement upon the red head who’d they all had the pleasure of dancing with. All except, Asher who was graced with two left feet and had never made motions to make a fool of himself by dancing in front of a large crowd of people.

Luke and Michael settled down on opposite trees in the grass, Michael sighing gratefully. “Damn, brothers, it has been nearly a year since the family has managed to group us together. Asher, how was London, any new beauties there?”

Michael was fast walking in Asher’s step as the next rake of the family. More quiet then his twin, Luke; he instead spent his many hours in London from one beauty’s bed to the next. At twenty six, he’d had his fair share of women.

“No one interesting,” Asher countered taking another swig of wine, before regretfully passing the bottle to Luke. “Are all the women in our fair country exactly the same? I’ve had no interest in any of the ladies of the ton for far too long. Perhaps I shall go to the continent, see what awaits me there.”

Caleb snorted. “Same women, different accents,” He said, laughing at his own joke. “No, brother, what you need is a woman who shows you absolutely no interest. I believe you have grown quite jaded at the fair amount of beauties who throw their selves at your two left feet.”

The wine was affecting the brothers. They laughed loudly, settling deeper into the grass and trees of their seats. “Perhaps so, old man. I don’t understand your own will power; you’ve had what, two women in your entire life?” Asher said sarcastically, grinning when his pun hit home. Caleb was reserved around women, and only gave his intentions to the most beautiful and interesting of England’s various widows.

“At least I am not in the chance of getting the pox,” Caleb countered before laughing.

“Perhaps the pox, but at least he’ll die happy,” Luke said as the brothers roaring with laughter as they each talked about the others escapades with the fairer sex.

“Where is that Dave?” Michael asked, speaking of their youngest brother, who at twenty three was the only virgin and most thoughtful of the five.

Asher snorted. “More than likely boxed in with some freckled face young ms I’ve seen him dance with twice. Told the brother not too, but the young fool wouldn’t listen.”

“I’ll have you know that freckled face young ms is perhaps the only interesting female in the entire ball,” A deep voice said from the shadows before David, the youngest of the five brothers stepped out of the shadows.

Asher nearly choked on his just swallowed wine and with a hard beating from Caleb managed to swallow the rest. “Damn, boy, don’t go sneaking up on me like that, I thought you were mama,” he said, aggravated at David who could walk with all the stealth of a mouse stealing a piece of cheese from a cat no more than one foot away.

“Don’t think she hadn’t noticed you ass’s absence. Her and father are about to send the cavalry, namely, father and Gabe in less than a quarter of an hour.” Dave said, snatching the wine bottle from Caleb before passing it to Michael after a long drink.

“Damn it all,” Michael said. “I thought we could escape for a good hour. It hasn’t even been twenty minutes. And who is this little ms who has caught your eye, baby brother?” He asked, staring at David with dubious intent.

“The only female in the place who actually reads books on a daily basis, the girl knew more than I did,” David said, waiting for his turn with one of the two bottles.

“That doesn’t take much,” Asher snidely said before erupting in a fit of laughter.

“You lack any intelligence at all, Asher. The most your thoughts are concerned about is your next session of wild animal coupling.”

Asher looked startled before a slow smile caressed his face. “Well, damn my boy, I didn’t think you knew me at all.”

He couldn’t be taken seriously, so with an aggravated groan David decided to ignore him. “I shall pray for your immortal soul, dear brother, which has now purchased a one way ticket to hell for all eternity.”

Asher laughed at that too. “And I shall pray that you will know a female before you turn fifty, however, it seems that I perhaps will have a better chance at the heavenly wings then you loving a woman before your jack hammer become too rusty from misuse.”

The rest of the brothers roared with humor, David turning red before he started smiling sheepishly. “When the right woman comes along,” he finally managed to say.

“Come, brothers,” Caleb said, rising from his seat and stretching. “Let us go back into purgatory before they send the militia to find us,” He said, taking one last swig of wine before hiding the empty bottle behind the tree in which he had been sitting on.

The brothers grumbled, all except for Asher who made no move. “I shall follow within the minute,” he promised, watching as the brothers gave him a dubious look, but Asher only grinned innocently. “Truly.”

Watching the four leave, Asher smiled, taking the last swallow of wine before he too hid it behind the tree in which he and Caleb sat at.

Rubbing his face wearily, Asher bent over, running his hands through his hair before standing and following the brothers to the ball.

He heard an ear full from his mother who looked more than a little askance at his long disappearance. Hunter made no notice, her and Gabe sitting in a quiet corner and whispering sweet nonsense to each other.

Regretfully, or so he claimed to the hostess of the party and his mother, the hour struck twelve midnight and Asher made his escape from the cloying perfume and tepid glances of the London society, escaping with all due haste to his waiting carriage.

The carriage ride was uneventful, the roads free of muck and giving Asher ample opportunity to take a quick, refreshing nap. Forty five minutes later, the carriage was rolling to a stop in front of his townhouse and opening the door before the driver got down, Asher thanked Gary and Steven.

The house was quiet and dark, Asher refusing to keep his servants up well past a reasonable hour when he knew he would be out late. Making his way through his darkened home, he reached his bedroom, and in the dark, stripped naked, before collapsing onto his bed and falling into another fitful asleep.

Asher woke the next morning, early, before dawn arose and heard the large grandfather mantle in the hallway strike five in the morning, he jumped from bed, knowing he’d had enough sleep and it was time to go over the various aspects of his numerous holdings, many of which he shared with his brothers who were his business partners. They had more than their fair share of coal factories and places which Asher was trying adamantly to make not only more productive but also safer places.

As a lord of the realm, but with a mother who raised all of her children to be as humanitarian as herself, Asher knew the atrocities that occurred in the factories were reprehensible. He’d made sure when he’d undergone by many said factories from corrupt or bankrupt owners, he’d gotten rid of those managers who thought nothing more of putting their workers in harm’s way. Since he’d undertaken buying three factories, two a metal factory and one a coal mining factory, he’d raised wages, installed a six day work week, working twelve hours and also oversaw all safety measures himself.

The factory was the most productive in the country; another insight was removing the women and children who also worked there and instead sending them to his brother’s cotton factory, where the work was not as strenuous as his. The women and children there had also got the added bonus of learning how to read on the advice of Hunter, and the entire community had benefited from the higher wages, safety conscious managers and learned citizens.

Asher enjoyed his work immensely, loving the thrill of a challenge and knowing that each and every step he undertook, aided the end result which he knew would be soon within his reach. He’d just brought his fourth factory, a flour mill on the outskirts of London, which was a rat infested piece of hole in the ground where the workers were dissatisfied with their pay and the many accidents which caused many of them to be maimed had undermined morale.

Washing quickly, Asher got dressed and went for his morning ride, meeting Luke in the park, as they always did, whenever they were both in town.

“
Morning,” Luke greeted cheerily, a large smile on his face in the early morning light. Few people were out at this time, namely other gentlemen of well-meaning who were also out for exercise.

“
Why so happy?” Asher asked, even though he purported to know the answer before Luke said another word.

Luke smiled wider, the devilish grin deepening the dimple in his right cheek, while Asher had two deep dimples on both cheeks, which the women swooned over whenever he graced the ladies with a smile. The only problem was that Asher rarely smiled and the ladies drove their selves in a royal tizzy to try to get him to laugh at their amusing stories. “I believe I met the woman of my dreams,” Luke started, looking at the moon with a dreamy glance.

Asher sighed, rolling his eyes. “Please, brother, not this early in the morning, I do not believe I can take such chatter of how her eyes shine, or her hair is alight with the stars God has graced her with, or her teeth are like small, white pearls.”

“
But everything you say, is so true, Ash,” Luke, said using Asher’s childhood nickname, which Asher detested when everyone except Hunter used it but decided to grit his teeth and hear Luke out. “Her eyes are alight, the most wonderful shade of blue you could ever imagine, like the darkest of nights with the lights shining in them from the brilliance of a thousand…no, a million stars. And her teeth, such a beautiful smile, such white teeth, if I could dive into the deepest ocean and search a hundred years for pearls of the magnitude of her teeth, I would never be able to finish my task, for she has taken their brilliance also.”

Asher sighed, dropped his head back on his shoulders, looked at the sky with utter boredom while Luke rambled on, dropped his neck to stare at his saddle, fixed his gloves upon his hands, and scratched his thigh before interrupting Luke’s fabled tale of the most mysteriously beautiful woman he had ever met. “So, did you make love to this mysterious lady?”