Dukes By the Dozen

This seemed finally too much for the marquess. “It was where she was going! Marguerite was waiting for her. What do you think me, a monster? Who told you such a lie, Georgiana?”

“Your gamekeeper,” Georgie said.

“My late gamekeeper,” he retorted, then took his marchioness's hand. “I am strict, Leona. I am not a beast.”

Georgie slumped just a bit, relieved at her father’s words. Even as fraught as their relationship was, she hadn’t wanted to believe the worst.

Adam squeezed her hand and smiled for her. “See? Some good news.”

She smiled for him and turned back to see her mother regain her seat.

“Georgie’s marriage, father,” Jack said from the facing chairs. “What are we to do about it?”

“There was no marriage,” the marquess insisted.

“If you wish to see your granddaughter made a duchess instead of a scandal,” Georgie retorted, “this matter needs to be settled this afternoon, sir.”

The marchioness nodded. “We will acknowledge the marriage and be done with it.”

The marquess stared at her as if she had started speaking in tongues. “Madame….”

“Enough, Windham,” she snapped. “Georgiana is correct. We skate perilously close to scandal, and I won’t have it.”

The marquess seemed to swell. “That is not a matter for you.”

“I disagree,” the earl quietly said. “It is a matter for all of us. I have already told you quite clearly that if you attempt to interfere in our lives again I will separate us from you and we will never cross this threshold again until you are dead and I assume the marquessate. Did you think I was bluffing?”

The marchioness blanched and turned a condemning eye on her lord. “You would risk losing your heirs? You would send Jamie away again?”

“This has nothing to do with you,” his father told Jack.

Jack Wyndham sneered at his father. “Oh, but it is. I won’t waste my time appealing to your family feeling. As mother has said, you are far more interested in reputation. Consider this, though. If not for Georgie, you would have no heir of your blood for the title. She kept Gervaise from murdering your grandson. And do you really believe Gervaise would have stopped at Jamie and me? He would have gone after Ned next so that the title would have gone to him, who wasn’t fit to clean out your stables. Now, for all that is holy, father, get off your high horse and make it clear to all and sundry that you always approved of Georgie’s marriage, or you will be the loneliest, most despised peer in the realm.”

“If it means that much to you,” Georgie added, “you may comfort yourself with the knowledge that if he had lived, Jamie would have been Duke of Kintyre. I should think that would be notable enough even for you.”

“A Scottish title,” her father scoffed.

“A dukedom older than the marquessate,” Georgie retorted.

Good heavens. She was actually beginning to enjoy herself. It truly was all right to rely on someone else, especially someone you loved. She gifted that someone a sly smile to see the pride in his eyes and hung onto his hand for a little extra strength.

“Do you have my marriage lines?” Georgie asked her father, sitting as tall and proud as any in the room as she faced him. “Will you finally heal the breach, or will Jack be correct? I would very much like you both to know your granddaughter. But not if it puts Lully in any danger. And just to make certain, if you aren’t certain how well my child—and Jack’s, come to think of it—are protected, ask young Jem about our Murphy, who is up with both of them in the nursery right now. I will no longer live every day in terror that you will hurt my child.”

The duke actually looked stricken. “I would never hurt a child. You must know that.”

“How could I?” she demanded. “First you disowned your granddaughter and then you tried to kidnap her. Exactly what type of kindness is that?”

“Just so you know, Wyndham,” Adam said, dropping a kiss on Georgie’s hand, “your daughter and granddaughter are no longer powerless. In exactly three days, she will be a duchess with all the power and resources incumbent. She is no longer alone.”

Georgie wished she were surprised that her mother immediately brightened. It seemed a dukedom salved all wounds.

Her father turned to Jack where he’d been watching his sister with a half smile. “Do you know about this?”

“We are to be their attendants,” Jack said. “With the greatest pleasure. We just have to find a way to choose who gets Murphy.”

Georgie actually grinned. “I dare you to challenge Lully for him.” Turning back to her father, she kept her smile. “Well, father?” she asked. “What say you?”

The marquess gave her a long, assessing look, his expression oddly vulnerable. “I only wanted what was best,” he finally admitted.