Chapter 3
“The key has to be here somewhere.”
Louise ran her fingers along the doorframe while Emily’s muffled sobs came through the wood.
The locked door mocked her, its handle rattling uselessly under her grip. Behind her, she could hear the Duke of Calborough’s footsteps on the stairs, but all that mattered was getting to her sister.
“Stand back,” the Duke of Calborough moved past her, examining the lock with quick efficiency.
He drove his shoulder into the door. A part of her wanted to stop him as it calculated the cost of fixing a broken door, but that was irrelevant. She needed to find Emily.
The wood splintered but held. The second impact sent it crashing open, revealing Emily huddled on her bed, her china doll clutched against her chest, and her face streaked with tears.
“Louise!” The child launched herself forward.
Louise caught her, sinking to her knees as Emily’s small arms wrapped around her neck. The familiar scent of her sister’s lavender soap made Louise’s eyes burn.
She had failed to protect her. Failed to keep her safe.
“I was so scared.” Emily’s words came muffled against Louise’s shoulder. “They were shouting and breaking things, and Mrs. Fielding told me to hide, but they found me and pushed me in here, and I couldn’t get out.”
“Shh, you’re safe now.” Louise ran her hand through Emily’s curls, feeling the girl’s body still trembling in fright. “I’m here. You’re safe.”
Emily pulled back slightly, and her gaze shifted to the man standing in the doorway. Her grip on Louise tightened. “Are you one of the mean men?”
The question, asked with such innocent directness, made Louise’s heart clench. She turned Emily’s face gently towards her. “No, darling. He’s not. This is the Duke of Calborough. His Grace helped us tonight.”
The Duke remained still in the doorway, his expression unreadable as he watched the sisters. Something flickered across his features, gone too quickly for Louise to identify.
“A duke?” Emily looked at him with interest. “Like in my storybooks?”
“Similar, though I suspect less heroic,” the duke’s voice carried an unexpected gentleness. “Are you hurt, Lady Emily?”
Emily shook her head, then buried her face against Louise again. “I want the bad men to go away forever.”
Louise felt the duke’s gaze on them. When she looked up, his jaw had set in a hard line, his hands clenched at his sides.
“Pack your things.” Each word landed calmly, yet firmly. “Both of you. You’re coming to live with me.”
Louise’s arms tightened around Emily instinctively. “I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me. This house isn’t safe.” He gestured to the broken door and the ransacked room visible beyond. “Gather what you need immediately.”
“Your Grace, we couldn’t possibly—”
“Mrs. Fielding.” Aaron addressed the housekeeper, who had appeared in the hallway. “Help them pack necessities. We leave within the quarter hour.”
Mrs. Fielding bobbed a curtsy, her face still pale from her ordeal, then cast an uncertain glance toward Louise.
Louise flicked her eyes to the duke, hesitated, then looked back at her housekeeper and gave a small, steady nod.
“Yes, Your Grace,” Mrs. Fielding said.
Louise rose carefully, keeping Emily’s hand in hers. “Your Grace, might I speak with you privately?”
The duke nodded once, sharply. “The library. Mrs. Fielding, stay with the child.”
Louise kissed Emily’s forehead. “I’ll be right back, darling. Help Mrs. Fielding gather your things.”
Emily’s fingers clung for a moment before releasing. “Promise me you’ll come back?”
“Always.”
Louise followed the Duke of Calborough down the stairs, stepping over scattered papers and broken picture frames.
The library door stood open, and miracle of miracles, it remained relatively untouched.
Perhaps even thieves recognized the worthlessness of their remaining books, water-stained and mildewed as they were.
The duke closed the door behind them. Louise moved to the center of the room, wrapping her arms around herself as if that might hold her together.
“Explain yourself.” She forced steel into her voice. “What do you mean, we’re coming to live with you?”
“Exactly what I said. You and your sister will live at Calborough House until this matter is resolved.”
“That’s impossible. You must see how improper … what people would say …”
The Duke stepped closer, and Louise had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. “What people? The ones who’ve already written your family off? The ones who whisper about your brother’s debts at every gathering?”
The truth of it stung. “We’re not charity cases.”
“No, you’re not.” His voice softened fractionally. “I will receive something in return, both to appease your pride and to keep scandal at bay: you’re going to be my aunt’s companion.”
Louise blinked. “Your aunt?”
“The Dowager Viscountess Merrow, my mother’s sister.
She’s been asking for female companionship, someone to help with her correspondence and accompany her on calls.
You’ll fill that position.” The duke moved to the window, gazing out at the dark street.
“Your sister is young enough that her presence won’t be questioned.
It’s a perfectly respectable arrangement. ”
She pressed her lips into a thin line. “And that’s it?”
“You’ll both have protection. A safe place to stay while I locate your brother and resolve this situation,” he reasoned.
Louise’s hands clenched in her skirts. “George has been missing for over a week. What makes you think you can find him?”
“I have resources your family lacks. Connections in places where a desperate man might seek refuge. Or further trouble.” The duke turned back to her. “When I find him—and I will—he and I will discuss how to handle his debts properly.”
“Why?” The word escaped before she could stop it. “Why would you do this for strangers?”
The duke was quiet for a long time. When he spoke, his tone was controlled. “Call it a mutually beneficial arrangement. I need someone trustworthy to be a companion to my aunt. You need protection. It’s a practical solution.”
“And Bragg?”
His expression hardened. “Leave Bragg to me. I’ll deal with him.”
“He won’t simply forget about us. About what he wanted me to …” Louise couldn’t finish the sentence.
“He’ll learn that some targets are better left alone.” The quiet menace in his tone made her shiver. “Trust me on this, if nothing else.”
Louise moved to the shelf, running her finger along the spines of books that had belonged to her mother. Water damage had warped most of them beyond saving.
“What about our staff?” she asked, sighing. “Mrs. Fielding, Hartley … they’ve stayed with us through everything.”
“I’ll arrange positions for them at one of my estates in the country. They’ll be safe and well-compensated.”
She turned to face him. “You’ve thought of everything.”
“I find it pays to be thorough.”
Louise studied his face, searching for deception, for some sign that this was another trap. She found only steady determination and something else, something that looked almost like concern.
“What if I refuse?” she asked.
The duke closed the distance between them, his cologne a whisper of warm spice and expense.
“Then you’ll stay here, waiting for Bragg’s men to return.
And next time, they might not be content with simply locking your sister away.
Next time, they might decide that taking her would provide better leverage. ”
The image his words painted made bile rise in her throat. Emily, dragged from the house. Emily in some workhouse or worse, one of those establishments Bragg had hinted at.
Her knees nearly buckled.
“You’re trying to frighten me.”
“I’m trying to make you see reason.” His voice was gentle. “You’ve been carrying this burden alone. Let someone help.”
“And when George returns? When this is over?”
“Then you’ll be free to leave, if you choose. Though I hope my aunt won’t have grown too attached by then.”
Louise looked around the ruined library, at the life they’d tried so desperately to maintain.
The water stains on the ceiling had grown larger since last week.
The cold seeped through cracks in the windows they couldn’t afford to repair.
Even without Bragg’s threats, how much longer could they have lasted here?
“Emily needs stability.” The admission hurt. “She needs to feel safe.”
“She’ll have both at Calborough House.”
“And I’ll truly be a companion? Not …” She couldn’t voice the other possibility, the one that would destroy what little remained of her reputation.
His jaw tightened. “You’ll be exactly what I’ve said. My aunt’s companion. Nothing more, nothing less. Any member of my staff who suggests otherwise will be dismissed immediately.”
Louise pressed her fingers to her temples, trying to think through the chaos in her mind. Every instinct screamed against placing herself in this man’s power. But what choice did she have?
“Louise?” Emily’s voice drifted down from above. “Where are you?”
That decided it. Emily needed more than Louise could provide alone.
“All right.” The words came out barely above a whisper. “We’ll come with you.”
The duke nodded, his expression giving nothing away. “Good. I’ll wait downstairs while you pack.” He moved toward the door, then paused. “Bring whatever has sentimental value. I’ll send men tomorrow for the rest, but anything you leave tonight might not be here when they arrive.”
The implication chilled her. Bragg’s men would return, probably before dawn, to finish what they’d started.
She nodded, “Thank you, Your Grace.”
He only nodded back, and she climbed the stairs on unsteady legs.
Emily waited on the landing, a small valise clutched in her hands, her china doll, Clementine, tucked under one arm.
“Are we going on an adventure?” Emily’s attempt at bravery broke Louise’s heart.
“Something like that.” Louise smoothed her sister’s hair. “We’re going to stay with the duke for a while. He has a very grand house, I’m told.”
“Will the bad men find us there?”
Louise kneeled, taking Emily’s face gently in her hands. “No, darling. They won’t. We’ll be safe there.”
She helped Emily into her warmest cloak, then went to her own room to help her maid pack her belongings.
Her hands shook as she watched the maid fold her two best dresses, neither particularly fine anymore.
Emily’s christening gown, which she’d saved.
Then, Louise went to her armoire and found her mother’s pearl earrings, the last jewelry she hadn’t sold.
Her father’s watch—George hadn’t taken it because it was broken, but Louise had kept it, nevertheless.
So little to show for twenty years of life.
Mrs. Fielding appeared in the doorway. “His Grace is right, my lady. You can’t stay here. Not after tonight.”
“I know.” Louise latched the valise. “He says he’ll find positions for you all.”
“Don’t you worry about us. We’ll manage, as we always have.” The older woman’s eyes filled with tears. “You just keep yourself and Lady Emily safe.”
They descended to find the duke waiting in the entrance hall, somehow looking imposing even surrounded by destruction. Emily hung back, intimidated, until Louise took her hand.
“Ready?”
Louise looked back once at the house that had sheltered them, however inadequately, these past months. Tomorrow it would likely be stripped bare, and their last connections to their old life would be scattered to the wind.
“Yes,” she lied, and followed him into the night.
The carriage waited, warm and luxurious in a way that made their circumstances even starker by comparison. Emily pressed her nose to the window, watching their neighborhood disappear into darkness. Louise kept her arm around her sister, trying not to think about what she’d just agreed to.
“It will be all right.” The duke’s voice came quietly from the opposite seat.
Louise met his gaze in the dim carriage light. “You can’t promise that.”
“No,” he admitted. “But I can promise you’ll both be safe. For tonight, let that be enough.”
Emily yawned, the evening’s terror finally catching up with her. She curled against Louise’s side, Clementine still clutched tight.
Safe. The word felt foreign on Louise’s tongue. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt truly safe.
Still, as the carriage rolled through London’s dark streets toward Mayfair, toward a new life she couldn’t quite imagine, Louise allowed herself the smallest spark of hope.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the Duke of Calborough could deliver on his promise.
Perhaps they really would be safe.
At least for tonight.