Page 177 of The Wallflower Takes All

“Yes.”

She narrowed her eyes. “And Messrs. Wetherby, Crane, and Holt wished to consult you about it?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

“That is not an answer.”

“No.” A faint, strained smile crossed his face. “It is a delaying tactic.”

“Gabriel.”

He came toward her then, stopping close enough that she could see the disbelief still moving through him.

“The Dukedom of Alderbury was created with a special remainder,” he said. “A rare provision in the original letters patent. The direct line has failed, along with the nearer collateral branches. The descent passes through the first duke’s elder daughter’s line.”

Poppy listened, but she still didn’t understand what he meant.

Gabriel continued, quieter now. “That line eventually came through my mother.”

Poppy’s breath caught.

“Lady Anne Marten,” he said. “She was the senior surviving descendant. As she is dead, the right passes to her eldest and only surviving son.”

For a moment, all the sound left the room, and the half-empty shelves, the crates, the scrape of trunks in the hall, Freddie’s barking near Papa’s portrait, and Algernon’s complaints about filtered light all seemed to fall away.

Poppy stared at Gabriel. “You,” she whispered, half-covering her mouth with her hand.

“Yes.”

Her eyes widened. “You are the Duke of Alderbury.”

Gabriel gave a helpless shrug. “Apparently, yes.”

Poppy sat down abruptly on the edge of a crate.

Gabriel reached for her. “Poppy?”

“I am not fainting.”

“You sat rather suddenly.”

“I am recalculating the universe.”

His mouth twitched despite the tension in his face. “So am I.”

“The Duke of Alderbury,” she repeated.

“Yes.”

“So…Alderbury Court?”

“Yes.”

“And that gorgeous house in Grosvenor Square?”

“Yes.”

“And other estates?”