Page 48 of The Duchess Debt

“No, miss. His Grace refused breakfast this morning, saddled his horse, and rode out at dawn.”

She bit her bottom lip. She was disappointed—and worried. “Did he go to the bridge site, then?”

“He said he wanted to check the far southern pastures.”

“Thank you,” she mumbled and stepped aside so the butler could enter the room and finish setting up the breakfast buffet.

“Shall I bring chocolate for you, miss?”

“No, thank you.” She’d lost her appetite.

She had no idea what the two brothers had said to each other after Adam’s arrival yesterday afternoon, but it couldn’t have been good. Adam left the house shortly after their meeting, and Gabe remained in his study all night. For the first time since Helena presented her rules of engagement, there was no family dinner. Gabe canceled it, asking Alice to eat with Nanny Potts in the nursery and Helena and Verity to eat in the dining roomwithout him. He’d asked Cook to send up a tray for him to eat in his study, but it remained untouched outside the closed doors. Helena knew about the tray because she’d lingered in the hall outside the study, biting her lip and uncertain whether to knock.

In the end, she decided to retire upstairs. Having Adam home after all that had happened must have been upsetting, and Gabe needed time and space to himself to cope with it all. Yet she had waited up in her room, pacing and wringing her hands all night, hoping he would seek her out and tell her how his conversation with Adam had gone. But he didn’t. When the longcase clock on the landing struck three, she gave up and slipped into bed for the rest of the sleepless night.

Now, he had completely left the house.

She turned away from the breakfast room and made her way toward the stairs. Perhaps her maid would be awake by now, and Helena could ask the woman to—

The front door opened, and she hurried into the entry hall. “Gabe?”

Adam walked heavily through the front door, his dirty boots scuffing across the marble floor. He saw her and halted, which was no mean feat given how unsteadily he swayed from a night of too much drink and undoubtedly too many women. Even from ten feet away she could smell him—he reeked of cheap ale and even cheaper perfume, and his disheveled clothes testified to hours spent at least partially undressed.

He winced at the bright sunlight falling through the wide fanlight over the first-floor landing as he came forward. “Good morning, Duchess.”

“Adam, good morning,” she greeted him flatly. “But I’m not a duchess yet.” And the infuriating scapegrace knew it, too.

“Ah, my mistake!” His bloodshot eyes gleamed mischievously as he teetered into a shaky bow. “Good morning, Duchess-To-Be.”

Just as when she’d known him in London, she didn’t find him at all charming. He’d said something awful to Gabe yesterday, she knew—nothing friendly and welcoming about his return would have sent him to the tavern to get foxed for the night and Gabe to ride away before he returned.

Despite the dread settling on her chest like a lead ball, she ignored his baiting and said instead, “When I didn’t see you last evening, I thought perhaps you’d left Grangely Park.” Or at least, that was what she’d hoped.

“Not at all.” He smiled, a bright grin that surely sent butterflies fluttering in the stomachs of women across two continents but only made hers roil. “I’m staying until your wedding. I wouldn’t miss the most important moment in my brother’s life…again.” He paused, as if waiting for her to understand a joke. But there was nothing funny about his comment. Yet if she called him out for the insult it was, she knew he’d feign innocence and offense. “Although, Iamsurprised that Gabe would marry you.”

“Why is that?” Her flat voice lacked all humor.

“Well, let’s be honest. You’ve always struck me as someone who was more romantic than realistic, too wrapped up in your love for my brother to realize what it takes to be a good duchess or share a life with such a practical man.”

Helena didn’t let her reaction to that insult show on her face. Typical Adam. She wasn’t surprised. He had always been tight with James Wentworth, and neither man had hidden his feelings about her five years ago. And in the case of Wentworth, he’d flat-out announced to the entire gaming room at White’s that Gabe belonged with someone like his sister and not to some fortune-hunting cit who wouldn’t know how to behave in society. Apparently, opinions of her hadn’t changed.

But she’d be damned if she let him see that he’d wounded her. “I’ve always known exactly what marriage to your brotherwould require of me,” she returned in a very controlled, yet pleasant, voice. “I think I’m quite prepared and will do fine as Duchess of Thurston and Grangely Park’s mistress, especially with Gabe to guide me. He’s always thought me more than capable of all the role will require, and that’s all that matters.”

“Hmm.” The sound was dismissive.

“I suppose your lack of faith in me is proof that you and I don’t know each other very well.” She forced a smile and rocked back on her heels, hiding how infuriating he was. “I hope we can have the opportunity to rectify that while you’re here.”

“I hope so, too.” He paused thoughtfully, as if sizing up an opponent. “It’s amazing how situations change, isn’t it? Good for you to come up so far in the world. Again.” This time, his not-so-charming smile was little more than a smirk. “I hope your marriage to Gabe will be everything you two deserve.”

With that cryptic blessing, he brushed past her with a low chuckle and headed into the stair hall and up toward his room, where he would undoubtedly sleep away both the day and his hangover.

Helena bit her lip as she stared after him, her worry about Gabe flooding back to her. After all, if Adam had been willing to openly insult her, then what on earth had he been willing to say to his brother in the privacy of the study?

She had to find out.Now.

She hurried back into the hall and caught the butler just as he was leaving the breakfast room. “Larkin.”

“Yes, miss?”