Dukes By the Dozen

Oh, Jamie, she thought, unable to look away, even when Adam lifted a finger to once again stroke her cheek. This is all your fault. It almost made her smile to think that Jamie would have approved.

“Feel a little better?” he asked, his voice softened.

She took a deep, uneven breath. “Less...frantic,” she admitted, finally finding the strength to ease back out of his arms. “The question is, what do I do now?”

“About me?”

She scowled at him, even seeing the glint of humor in his eyes. “Everything is not about you. My father tried to kidnap my child.”

She abruptly sat in the chair she’d vacated earlier. “He tried to kidnap my child,” she repeated in dread. “How did he find out so soon? I have to believe it was because of your news. He has been perfectly happy to leave us alone til now.”

Adam carefully bent to retrieve the snifter and collect his own on the way back to the drinks table. “What do you mean, he left you alone?”

She gave a small wave of her hand. “I embarrass him. He has been trying to pull me back under his control ever since I married Jamie instead of the man my father wanted. But this…”

“I’m sorry,” Adam said, and truly sounded like it. “It might be my fault.”

She caught her breath.“How?”

He refilled the snifters and returned to hand one to her. “I had to find you,” he said, sitting across from her. “Jamie’s family had no idea where you were. I went to yours.”

He reached out his free hand and laid it on hers, just that. Georgie found herself momentarily speechless. Not from Adam’s admission. From his instinctive gesture of comfort. Her skin seemed to glow, not only where his hand covered it, but all over, down to her very toes. She realized, suddenly, that she wanted to be back in his arms. She wanted to feel his heat and strength and calm. Oh, Lord. Her life was getting complicated again. What was worse, she could almost feel Jamie smile at her reaction to his favorite cousin.

She had no time for this.

Instinctively setting the brandy down, she got to her feet. She needed to move. She needed….

“Come to London with me,” he said, standing in one place as she paced. “We can protect her there.”

She scowled at him. “Better than those villagers and the staff here? I don’t believe so. In fact I know so. Any more strangers will be noted and stopped. How do you spot a stranger in London?”

“So you’re going to just hide here and hope for the best?”

“Yes...” she stopped suddenly, closed her eyes. The brandy was flooding her with warmth. It was also slowing the frantic pace of her brain. “No.” She wanted to weep again. “If he thinks I am trying to ignore him, he will think he has the upper hand. He’ll simply try again. He kept trying to take Jamie until Jack returned home and threatened him.”

“Take Jamie?” Adam echoed. “Good heavens, you have been busy. I suspect the Peninsula was quieter the last few years.”

She allowed him a smile. “I certainly could have used some artillery.”

She made it back to her chair and sank into it, the brandy forgotten.

“Oh, God,” she said, hearing how hollow her own voice was. “I have to confront him.”

Adam sat across from her. “You aren’t doing it alone anymore. You aren’t powerless.”

She scowled. “He is a marquess.”

Adam grinned. “And I am a duke. Let me help. I might as well get some enjoyment out of this benighted title.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Not all strawberry leaves and groveling servants, I take it?”

His scowl grew. “The last duke was a financial idiot. It’s not that he was poor. But his finances are in such a muddle it will take years to figure them out.”

Georgie waved her glass at him. “Bring them here. I have an odd talent for that kind of thing.”

“I have a better idea. Come with me.”

She didn’t even bother to shake her head. The tears were building again. She had no other choice. She had to travel to the Abbey and confront her father. And when she did, it would provoke the final break not only between them, but between him and her brother, and she didn’t want that. She simply wanted to be left alone with her little girl here where she was finally settled.

And yet, if she didn’t act, her father would simply try again. He would send her baby to an institution for the insane.

Down went the brandy again. Up went Georgie. “He couldn’t. He simply couldn’t.”

She caught Adam just as he was grabbing for his cane. “Stop. If you try and rise every time I do you’ll be crippled for life. I move about when I’m distracted. You bear no responsibility for keeping me company.”

He got to his feet anyway. “But I want to.”

She tilted her head. “Why?”

His smile was a rueful thing of beauty, and Georgie couldn’t look away.

“We are in this together, Georgie,” he said, reclaiming her hand. “I cannot in all good conscience abandon Lully until her inheritance is safely secured and her people cared for. I will not abandon you while your father persists in this medieval behavior of his.”