Chapter 8 #2
“But when would he do such a thing, milady? He’s either with ye or with me at all times.”
With a weary sigh, Athena dropped the pillow and began to massage her temples. “Apparently no’. Apparently, the wee rabble-rouser has figured out how to slip away with each of us assuming he is with the other. Like now, for instance.”
The nurse was becoming flustered. “I swear, milady. I thought he was with ye. I thought ye’d taken him to the river to swim again—”
Athena lifted one hand to wave off her objections. “I should have had this talk with ye immediately after I learned of his shenanigans, but I was…distracted.”
Distracted by a dance with a duke, and what she’d learned after that dance.
I was going to ask you to be my mistress.
I would have agreed.
Damnation!
“I’m sorry, Lady Athena,” the nurse said quietly. “I understand if ye dinnae want me to work with Callan after such a breach of trust—”
Athena waved away her objections with another sigh. “I am as much to blame as ye are, for making assumptions. Let us find the lad, and together we will explain how this is no’ acceptable behavior. He is the one who set out to fool us both, and he deserves a punishment.”
Annie offered a relieved smile. “Aye, milady. We’ll put the fear of God in him!”
Nodding, Athena rose to her feet and offered a hand to her son’s nurse. “Ye look up here, and perhaps in the servants’ quarters, and I will begin the search downstairs.”
She might’ve said more, but a knock interrupted her.
They both turned to the nursery door as it opened and one of the footmen stuck in a head, looking relieved to have found her. “Lady Athena, you have a visitor downstairs.”
Now? Who?
She wanted to snap out the question, but instead, she sighed and glanced at Annie. “Aye, and then I will begin the search.” She gestured to the footman. “Would ye please stay and help my son’s nurse look for him? I will be back as soon as possible.”
The man was already agreeing as Athena hurried out of the nursery and down the stairs. Who would’ve sent a footman to fetch her?
The explanation awaited her in the foyer.
Athena skidded to a stop on the upper landing, her skirts bunched in her hands, as she realized who waited for her inside the front door.
The Duke of Cashard was waving off Kidder’s attempts to get him to wait in a parlor and was fiddling with a pair of spectacles she’d never seen before.
He looked up and saw her. Athena would like to claim there were sparks between them when their eyes met, or something, and he did hesitate…but then he bounded up the stairs fast enough to cause her to step backward.
His expression… She’d never seen him like this. Almost frantic, if such a word could be applied to a man who normally kept himself strictly under control. Was he here for her?
He halted in front of her and waved the eyeglasses under her nose. “Tell me he’s here,” he barked out. “Oh God, Athena. Tell me he’s here.”
“Who?” She snatched the spectacles from him, turning it over in her hands, thinking of Olive’s missing pair. “Are these yers?”
“Matthew is missing.”
It was the way he said the words, bleak and hopeless, that had her gaze darting back to his. The pain in his eyes caused her to catch her breath, and her lips formed the word “Matthew?” without any sound emerging.
Then his hands were on her upper arms, his grip strong. “Tell me he’s here, Athena. Tell me he’s run here to be with Callan.” His voice was harsh, full of pain.
“Does he miss Callan as much as Callan missed him?” Athena managed, her own tears pricking at the memory, and at the sight of this man’s agony.
The man she loved.
The lads she loved.
“He was heartbroken when I told him we wouldn’t be joining you at the river again.” His grip tightened. “That was days ago, but this morning— Oh God!”
His voice cracked, and he hung his head, although he kept his hold on her as if it was the only thing that mattered. Instinctively, Athena dropped the spectacles by her side and lifted one hand to Cash’s cheek.
“He is missing?” A suspicion curled through her mind, and her heart began to pound.
“Tell me he’s here,” Cash croaked. “Please.”
It nearly broke her heart, but Athena had to shake her head, even knowing he couldn’t see it.
“Matthew is no’ here, Cash,” she admitted, and before he could do more than suck in a breath, she continued, adding, “And Callan is missing as well.”
His head jerked up, piercing her with an intense, inquisitive stare. “He is? Are you—”
He broke off the question, and Athena ached to know what he’d intended to ask.
Instead though, he straightened, as if this news had revitalized him.
“I was hoping Matthew was here, but afraid…” He shook his head, then jerked his chin at the spectacles she held, her other hand still cupping the side of his face.
“I found them in the middle of the corridor outside of the Dumpkins nursery, where he’s been staying.
I was afraid they belonged to whoever had taken him. ”
Taken him?
Shocked, Athena lifted the eyeglasses once more to study them. They were round and delicate, the kind a lady might wear. “Why would someone want to take…?”
“He’s a duke’s heir,” Cash reminded her dully, releasing her arms and stepping away from her.
Athena dropped her chin. “Of course,” she whispered.
Of course, he was a duke.
It was easier to study the spectacles than to look up at him, although she wasn’t really seeing them.
“What are the odds both lads were taken?” she murmured.
“I wondered if they were together when it happened?”
But… She took a deep breath and held it. “Cash, these are women’s spectacles.” Slowly, she switched her gaze to him. “I think they are Olive’s.”
He frowned. “Your brother’s new wife? Why would she take Matthew?”
“Nay!” She placed the spectacles on a nearby table, then whirled back to Cash, latching onto his arm in an attempt to get him to understand. “Callan has been filching little things lately, including a pair of Olive’s spectacles.”
When he still didn’t seem to understand, she shook him slightly, feeling the strength in the coiled muscles of his forearms.
“Do ye no’ see? If Olive’s glasses—which Callan stole weeks ago—were outside Matthew’s rooms…”
“Then Callan must be at Dumpkins Manor,” he finished in a whisper, his gaze on her lips.
“Aye, or somehow he has been passing his treasures to Matthew. The lads may be working together on this for some reason!”
“Is it possible?” he murmured, then shook his head. “Matthew said something to me recently about a fort—”
“Oh!” she interrupted excitedly, remembering a conversation with her son weeks ago. “Callan said something similar. Is it possible they have been sneaking away to collude without either of us kenning?”
Heaven knew it wouldn’t be the first time Callan had escaped her care and his nurse’s attention by making each think he was with the other.
She watched Cash’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed once, then twice. Finally, he nodded.
“Matthew has been heartbroken at the thought of not being allowed to see Callan. I suspect you are correct, Lady Athena.”
Lady Athena.
There’d been a time when he’d called her by her given name, and she’d called him Cash. But this was a reminder of what they were to one another now.
Just two concerned parents.
“Come along,” she said softly. “Let us return to Dumpkins. I have set the servants to searching for Callan here—”
“And I for Matthew at Dumpkins,” he interrupted.
“Aye, but we ken Callan’s treasures are there, and if the two have been meeting behind our backs, it is likely they are together.”
He nodded, a harsh jerk of his head, and swallowed again as he pulled away from her touch. “Then let us hurry,” he called as he trotted down the stairs toward the front door.