Page 94 of Winning Her Duke

He wanted to be angry with Gia for abandoning him. For changing into someone he didn’t even know anymore. But that wasn’t fair. She wanted to marry. Despite her misguided reasons why, she wanted the very thing he’d told her he didn’t want.

What did he expect her to do? She wasn’t at fault. And hadn’t he abandoned her first? Left to the country without a word. She didn’t know he had changed his mind about the bloody business of marriage. That he’d wanted to marry her. His absence was only to ensure she would be happy as his wife.

He sought out the next person he could set his anger on.

“Lord Duncan,” he muttered earning a squeak of dismay from a passing woman. He didn’t know where the man lived, but Hale would search him out and confront him.

But what fault could he find with the earl? That he’d found Gia intriguing and beautiful enough to want to spend his life with her? Hale hardly knew the man, but he trusted Gia to see through any possible trick.

“Bloody Christ.” He stopped rather abruptly in the path of two workmen who offered their own curses and walked around him.

If he couldn’t be angry with Gia or Lord Duncan, that only left himself.

The list of his failings was egregious.

He should have told her he loved her before he’d left London.

He’d missed his chance.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

After spending the evening at home, thinking of how to win over Gia, with more whisky than was required, he’d groaned over his breakfast and cursed himself for his stupidity.

He’d not fallen to poor judgement like that since Julian, Kit and he were just out of Heriot’s.

He was still nursing an aching head hours later when Hutchinson entered his study.

“A Lord Duncan to see you, Your Grace.”

It wasn’t often fate delivered the person you very needed at the moment you needed them, but here was the gentleman Hale required without having to call on the man himself.

“Please, send him in.”

Hale only gave a moment’s thought to his appearance. It didn’t matter what Duncan thought of him. Only that Hale was able to entice Gia when and if the opportunity arose.

“Your Grace,” the man stopped inside the room and bowed.

Hale offered a nod and gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Please have a seat. Can I offer you something to drink?” Hale hoped the man would abstain because he didn’t know if he could manage even the scent of drink at this point.

“No, thank you. I will be brief.”

“Very well. How might I assist you?” Hale was impressed by how friendly he sounded when he felt quite the opposite.

He would wait to hear what the man wanted before making his request that Lord Duncan find another marital prospect.

“There was a misunderstanding by Miss Gia.”

“How so? I find Gia to be quite intelligent.” Hale couldn’t help but use her name in a casual way that made the earl wince. If points were to be awarded, surely Hale had scored a few already.

“I agree, she is usually very astute. However, I am to understand that she has bestowed a gift upon you. A horse. Arabella, in fact.”

“Aye. She mentioned it to me yesterday when I visited upon my return to town.” Let him know that she was his first priority after making himself presentable.

“In addition to the fact it is improper for an unmarried woman to offer gifts of such value to an unmarried gentleman, the horse, you see, was not Miss Gia’s property to give away.”

“You assume her father would not allow her to do what she wishes with her horses?” Hale asked, while leaning closer to rest his hands on his desk.

“Lord Waverly is not available at the moment as he is on his honeymoon. But I can assure you, before he left, he made it clear at his club that all the horses were to be part of Miss Gia’s dowry.”