Chapter 5 #2
Emily was already darting ahead, drawn by the spill of pale winter light through the glass panels. They followed her into the long, airy space, where clipped evergreens and wintering citrus trees gave the room a faint, fragrant warmth despite the cold outside.
Lady Merrow smiled. “In summer, it’s overflowing with orchids. But for now, we must be content ourselves with the hardier plants.”
Emily pressed her hands to one of the glass panes, peering out at the frost-covered hedges and the faint outline of the fountain beyond. “It’s like a crystal palace.”
Louise agreed.
“My Lady?” A maid appeared in the doorway. Sarah, if Louise remembered correctly. “The duke has returned. He’s asking for Lady Louise in his study.”
Louise’s pulse jumped. “Now?”
“Yes, my lady.”
Lady Merrow squeezed her arm. “Best not keep him waiting. Emily and I will continue our tour. We haven’t even seen the good hiding spots yet.”
Emily took Lady Merrow’s offered hand without hesitation, already chattering about whether the frozen fountain had fish in it. A knot formed beneath Louise’s ribs at her sister’s easy trust.
She made her way back down the corridor to the study door and knocked.
“Enter.”
The duke stood behind his desk, still wearing his greatcoat, as though he had only just arrived. He looked up as she entered, and something flickered in his expression before he schooled it back to neutrality.
“Your Grace? You wished to see me?”
“Yes.” He gestured to the chair across from his desk. “Please sit.”
Louise settled into the leather chair, aware of how small she felt in this masculine space of dark wood and serious books.
“I’ve just come from Mr. Bragg’s establishment.”
Louise’s breath caught. “You went to see him? Alone?”
“The matter required immediate attention.” The duke’s tone brooked no argument. “He won’t trouble you or your sister again. I’ve paid your brother’s debt in full, and made clear the consequences should he come near either of you.”
Relief crashed over her, so sudden and fierce that her eyes burned. “Your Grace, I don’t know how to … the debt was eight thousand pounds. I cannot possibly repay—”
“I’m not asking you to.” He held up a hand, forestalling her protests. “Consider it an investment in resolving this situation cleanly. Bragg was a loose thread. Now he’s dealt with.”
Louise stared at him, this cold, controlled man who had just erased her most immediate terror as though it were merely an item on a ledger. “Why would you do this for us?”
Something shifted in his expression, there and gone before she could name it. “Because men like Bragg rely on their victims having no recourse. It costs me little to prove him wrong.”
She wanted to argue, to insist that eight thousand pounds was not little, that his generosity created a debt she could never repay. But the set of his jaw told her such protests would be unwelcome.
“Thank you.” The words felt inadequate, but she meant them with every fiber of her being.
He acknowledged this with a brief nod. “Now. Our next task is locating your brother. I have connections who can search more effectively than you could alone. I intend to make inquiries today.”
“What sort of inquiries?”
“I know a man at Bow Street. A Runner named Howlett. He owes me a favor, and he’s skilled at finding people who don’t wish to be found.”
Louise’s fingers found a loose thread on her sleeve. “George rarely confided in me about his business ventures. He left after dinner one evening and said he had business to attend to.” She tugged at the thread, then forced herself to stop. “He didn’t return.”
“Did he mention what kind of business? Or where?”
“No. But he seemed agitated that evening.”
The Duke’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. “And you’ve heard nothing since? No message, no word through friends?”
“Nothing.” The admission stung. “I sent our butler to his usual haunts, his club, even some of the less reputable establishments he frequented. No one claimed to have seen him.”
“Or they were paid not to say,” he made a note in his ledger. “I’ll need a list of his associates. Anyone he might turn to for help or shelter.”
Louise almost laughed. “His friends abandoned us months ago when the money ran out. As for associates …” She thought of the increasingly rough men who’d come calling in recent weeks. “I doubt they’d help without payment.”
“Let me worry about payment.” He said with finality. “Names, Lady Louise. Anyone you can think of.”
She provided what names she knew, watching his precise handwriting fill the page. His hands were elegant despite their size, ink-stained at the fingertips. Working hands, not merely decorative ones.
“That’s all I know.” She felt useless, providing so little. “I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful.”
The duke set down his pen and looked at her directly. “You’ve helped plenty, my lady. You’ve been managing alone for far too long. I’ll handle this now.”
“He’s my brother. My responsibility.”
“He abandoned his responsibility to you.” The words carried quiet fury. “Now you’re under my protection, and that extends to cleaning up his messes.”
Louise straightened her spine. “We’re not your messes to clean up, Your Grace.”
“No.” He stood, moving to the window, his back to her. “But you’re here now, and I protect what’s mine.”
The possessiveness in his voice sent an unexpected shiver through her. “We’re not yours either.”
He turned back, something intense flickering in his eyes. “For now, Lady Louise, you are. Until your brother is found and this matter is resolved, you and your sister are under my protection. That makes you mine to keep safe.”
The words hung between them, carrying more weight than their surface meaning.
Louise found herself unable to look away from his steady gaze.
The fire crackled in the hearth, and she realized how the afternoon light caught the powerful line of his jaw, the way his broad shoulders filled the window frame.
The study felt smaller than it had moments ago, the air thicker, warmer.
His eyes dropped to her mouth. Just for an instant. So brief that she might have imagined it.
She hadn’t imagined it.
Heat bloomed across her cheeks, spreading down her neck to places she refused to acknowledge. Her pulse beat a traitorous rhythm against her throat, and she watched his gaze track the movement there, too.
“I should return to Emily,” she managed finally.
“Of course.” He moved to open the door for her, ever the gentleman despite the tension crackling between them. “We dine at eight. My aunt insists on formal dinners, I’m afraid.”
“We’ll be ready.”
As she passed him in the doorway, she caught his scent again. Something woody and warm that made her want to lean closer. She forced herself to keep walking.
“Lady Louise.”
She paused, turning back.
“Your brother is fortunate to have you.” His expression had softened slightly. “Most siblings would have given up by now.”
“Family doesn’t give up on each other,” she whispered.
Something shifted in his face, perhaps pain or longing. “No. I suppose they shouldn’t.”
She left him there, standing in his study doorway, and wondered what ghosts haunted the Duke of Calborough. Whatever they were, she recognized the look of someone who understood abandonment.
Perhaps they had more in common than she’d thought.