Page 40 of Duke in Darkness

All in all, a most wonderful day.

WHEN HIS WIFE returned from the modiste, she practically glowed.

Lilian stood next to him in his library waiting for Fairlie, and Gabriel could only nod gravely as bizarre phrases like ‘fashion plate’ and ‘lace overlay’ danced in the air. While he liked seeing her genuinely happy, more than that, in her bubbling excitement, she had taken his hands in hers. As it remained the only touch he could bear, to the only part of his body where his mind didn’t hurl him back to the nightmares of Bayonne, he wanted to prolong it as long as possible. Especially because Lilian had taken off her gloves, and her hands felt warm, smooth, and delicate pressed against his.

What would it be like to have these fingers stroking his hair or chest? Clinging to his back as she orgasmed? Wrapped around his cock? Part of him yearned to know. And yet even the thought of unrestricted touch, of hands anywhere near his scars, made his stomach churn violently.

No. He definitely wasn’t ready for that. Kisses, and as much hand-holding as he could engender, it would have to be. Fortunately, Lilian didn’t want or expect more from him.

“What do you think, Exton?”

“The gown sounds just right. Especially the color. I’m rather partial to sapphire blue,” he replied, pointedly meeting her gaze.

His wife’s blush could have been used to boil water. “I, ah, well…”

A sharp knock sounded, and he sighed regretfully as she dropped his hands and stepped back from him. “Enter.”

Norris peered around the door. “Mr. Fairlie, Your Grace.”

“Send him in.”

The steward marched into the room, ledgers tucked under his arm. “Good afternoon, Your Graces.”

“Fairlie,” he said, gesturing to the other chair across from his desk after Lilian had sat down. “Take a seat.”

“Thank you, sir. I thought perhaps we could look at these ledgers first so you might familiarize yourself with the columns and language and calculations, then you could compare to some of the others you have. I understand the other stewards delivered theirs for your perusal?”

Gabriel nodded. “Yes. Some were none too pleased…to let me have them for a few days. But I insisted.”

Fairlie set his two ledgers on the desk. “A few days should hardly matter. Now, should we start with the various columns?”

As with the previous day, Lilian asked many polite but direct questions, and Fairlie answered them in great detail. His ledgers were military-neat, and surprisingly easy to follow in terms of income and expenditure. They soon reached the end, and although Gabriel’s head swam at all the estate and farming language, it had started to make sense.

Norris brought in refreshments at five o’clock, and they paused to enjoy hot tea, vanilla cream cakes, marzipan fruits, and apple tarts sprinkled with nutmeg and sugar. At the array of sweets, warmth unfolded in his chest region, and he glanced at Lilian with an appreciative smile. She had indeed spoken to the kitchens about his preferences. But they were all eager to push on, and Fairlie got up to fetch an armload of ledgers from the corner of the library overlooking a small garden and paved courtyard.

The first two they pored over together, and agreed that all appeared in order. And then came the third one, one of the larger ducal estates in the county of Sussex.

“Hmmm,” said Fairlie blandly, but his furrowed brow told a different story.

Lilian leaned in to where the steward pointed at a certain entry. “If I’m reading that correctly, it’s a very similar figure for miscellaneous costs entered within a few days in the expenditure column. Exton, look at this.”

Gabriel rubbed a hand along his jaw as his heart sank. “A large amount to be spent again…within the month. Too large to be miscellaneous.”

“Exactly, sir,” said Fairlie.

“Was there a special harvest, perhaps? Or a storm that destroyed the crop…and it needed replanting?”

The steward hesitated. “Possibly. We could look at the month prior.”

They flicked back several pages, and stared at the columns. Lilian sucked in a breath and rapped a fingernail on a certain square. “There it is again. Two large amounts within a few days of each other. Miscellaneous. Go back further.”

The damned bloody fraud carried on the same way for months. Even longer than he’d been duke, which in some ways provided a little relief that it wasn’t just him who had been fleeced, but it also meant a great deal of money had disappeared. And this for just one estate.

About to launch into a tirade, Gabriel halted at another sharp knock at the door. What now? “Enter,” he barked.

To his surprise, the lawyers Ormsby and Jacobs strolled in.

“Good afternoon, Your Grace. We are here for…oh, good gracious. Do excuse me, madam. And you, Mr. Fairlie.”