Chapter 2 #2
“I assure you that I am,” he replied calmly, moving to stand beside Helena and squeeze her hand. “This young lady is important to me, and I want her to have the most beautiful wedding possible. Which was why I sent a call out for help in the first place.”
Helena felt stiff and trapped under Jeremy’s touch.
How could he be leaving now? When not just she, but his grandmother, obviously, needed him the most?
She had known him for a long time, and in the last two years alone, he had been responsible for hosting the most lavish parties in London.
What would be so important that it took him from his most favorite pastime?
She had not predicted any of this at all.
She had assumed that Jeremy would have taken over the wedding plans with gusto, even going so far as to help her with the finishing touches on her wedding dress.
She had thought that all she would have to focus on was looking happy and pretending to be the excited bride-to-be.
“Jeremy,” she rasped, clenching his hand as it started to slip away from hers. She turned to give him an imploring look. “Are you sure you cannot stay? You must know that I need your help with this.”
Jeremy gave her a comforting smile.
“You will do perfectly,” he assured her. “Have the same faith in yourself as I do, Helena dearest, and you will see.”
Beside them, Patricia began to grumble her discontent as the butler announced the arrival of the Duke of Redgrave from the patio.
“Ah! Perfect timing!” Jeremy exclaimed, clapping his hands loudly together.
Helena winced at the sound, and for a moment, her smile slipped into a grimace. She quickly fixed it, though, and turned in her seat to watch Jeremy walk up to meet the approaching gentleman. Her mouth fell open as she saw the largest, most intimidating man she had ever laid eyes on.
The Duke of Redgrave appeared to be the complete opposite of Jeremy’s bubbly nature, with his stoic expression, harsh, piercing blue eyes, and a long, angry-looking scar running vertically down the left side of his face.
His intensity was amplified by the high collar and tight black cravat he wore around his neck, along with the black leather gloves covering his large hands, despite the warm weather.
“Evander! What an absolute delight that you have agreed to help us, old friend,” Jeremy said enthusiastically as he tried to wrap his arms around the Duke’s wide shoulders.
“I am so pleased and grateful that you are here! And looking as handsome and devilishly debonair as ever, I see! Clearly, you are back to your old self!”
Old self? What does that mean? Helena pondered and made a mental note to ask Aggie about it later.
Helena watched, her discomfort growing, as the man stiffened in Jeremy’s embrace for a moment, then awkwardly reached a gloved hand up to pat Jeremy on the back.
“A friend in need, and all that,” Evander murmured. Helena’s heart fluttered strangely in her chest. She had never heard a voice so deep, so rich and full of timbre, and he had not even said a full sentence.
“Indeed,” Jeremy agreed, clapping Evander’s massive upper arm before he stepped to the side and waved a hand toward Helena and Patricia.
“And speaking of friends, allow me to introduce you to my betrothed, Helena Robinson. Our romance bloomed from the soil of friendship, you see, and she is a dear for deigning to marry me. Helena, this is my other dear friend, Evander Mason, the Duke of Redgrave.”
Helena blushed deeply as she rose from her chair and offered the man a polite curtsy.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Grace,” she said warmly as she extended her hand to him.
When he did not reach for it, Helena lifted her gaze to his face and felt another tremor pass through her heart.
The man had become utterly still. Not a breath moved from his broad chest as he looked down at her with those piercing blue eyes.
Helena felt like a moth trapped by the flow of flame as she looked up into those eyes, and she wondered, as her body grew strangely still, if she was about to be burned alive by such icy fire.
Then he moved. A curt nod followed by a mumbled greeting, then he took a step toward Patricia.
By the time he approached her, a small but attractive smile had formed on his chiseled lips, and he bowed respectfully as he accepted Patricia’s hand in one hand and removed his black top hat with the other, revealing a full head of tousled black hair.
“Your Grace.” Something in the harsh set of his face eased as he bowed over her withered knuckles. “It is good to see you well. It has been too long.”
“Too long indeed,” she replied loftily from her chair, peering up at him. “Look at the size of you. The last I saw you, you were no bigger around the waist than Jeremy here.”
Evander’s smooth chuckle had goosebumps forming on Helena’s arms. He inclined his head, but offered no clever reply, only letting the old woman look her fill.
Patricia let out a harrumph and then nodded to Jeremy.
“Now there is one who could stand to learn some devotion. Time is of the essence for our little celebration, and what is my grandson doing? Running off to London!”
Evander went very still. “London?” he asked, the warmth bleeding out of his voice.
His piercing eyes snapped up straight at Helena, or so it seemed, that intense gaze pinning her until her stomach drew tight.
For one breathless moment, she was certain the man was glaring at her, and she could not for the life of her think what she had done to earn it.
“You cannot be serious,” Evander said.
Helena could not help but jump as Jeremy’s hand suddenly fell on her shoulder, only then letting her know that Evander was staring in her direction because her betrothed was standing right behind her.
“You all worry far too much,” Jeremy scolded lightly.
“I am leaving Grandmama’s tasks in very capable hands!
You, old friend, can intimidate anyone into giving you what you want, and Helena here, with her pretty smile so very bright, can ease the most unwilling soul to comfort.
Surely between the two of you, every task will be completed to perfection. ”
Helena’s pink cheeks turned red at Jeremy’s words, and she fought the urge to bury her head in her hands to hide. Then suddenly a scream erupted into the air, and everyone, even Evander, froze.
“What on earth?” Patricia murmured, then Helena felt a weight rush into her, and she caught her little brother as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Alex, what has gotten into you?” Helena whispered, taking in his wide, terror-filled eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
“There is a monster,” he said through deep, uneven breaths. “He is the beast Nanny told me about!”
If Helena had not wanted to disappear before, she certainly did now. She looked toward Evander with an apologetic glance, but he had already turned his wide back to them all, as if he already knew he was the beast Alex was referring to.
“Hush now. Hush!” Helena insisted, wiping his tears away. “This is no way for you to behave; the man is not a beast or a monster.”
Helena could have sworn she heard a soft breath of relief escape from someone nearby as she said those words, and she turned to Evander. His massive shoulders had lowered from their rigid stance, but he now had his back turned to her and Alex.
Certain that the presence of her and her little brother had clearly offended him, Helena scooped up her little brother’s hand and got up from her chair.
“Do forgive Alex, everyone,” she implored politely. “I believe he has played too long in the sun. I shall take him to his nanny.”
Evander said nothing to let her know he had heard her. Jeremy gave her a half-hearted, close-lipped smile, and Patricia, once more, made a shooing motion with her hand.
“Go on then,” Patricia insisted. “We shall meet tomorrow morning to go over the details.”
Helena nodded and began leading Alex toward the house.
“Why would you say such a thing, Alex?” she whispered as they walked. “That was so rude! You know better!”
“Because he is frightening! Look how tall he is! He is as big as our dining table at home, and he has scars on his face!” Alex whispered back. “He is the beast Nanny told me came back from hell! I am certain of it!”
“Lower your voice,” she scolded. “What you did was very rude!”
“Well,” Alex muttered, looking over his shoulder. “He was rude to you, too.”
Helena shook her head, but like her little brother, she could not resist taking a quick look back at the Duke. She nearly slipped and lost her footing as she realized it was not his back, still turned to them as she expected, but his eyes—boring straight into her as he watched her leave.
She had been raised on the conviction that there was good to be found in everyone, and a solution to every trouble, if one only looked hard enough.
But she could not, for the life of her, find the trouble here.
She had never met the man before this afternoon.
She had spoken to him kindly. She had given him no cause to regard her with such rudeness.
And still, somehow, the Duke of Redgrave seemed to despise her.
What could I possibly have done to earn the loathing of a man I do not even know?