Page 13 of How the Duke Saved Christmas

Anthony came up next to him at the fire.“Then it’s your chance to prove to her she’s wrong.”

“I don’t know that she is.” He squeezed his eyes shut and admitted, “Every day I wonder what I could have done differently to stop the accident, to keep her from being hurt… Every God damn day.”

Hell.The guilt he still carried for what happened to Clara had been nothing short of hell.

“Which is why you have to be the one to do this.” Anthony rested his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “Youhave to be the one to persuade her to come back to the world of the living. She’ll never accept it from the rest of us.” He dropped his arm to his side. “If you love her—if you ever loved her—then you’ll do this for her now. She’s never needed you more.”

Michael shook his head. “No one has ever been able to force Clara into doing anything she doesn’t want to do. Certainly not me.”

“I’m not saying force. Persuade.”

Michael arched a brow. “Manipulate, you mean.”

“If that’s what it takes.” He ground the heel of his boot against the fireplace fender. “I want my sister to be happy again, to feel alive and be part of the world. I’m willing to do anything to give her that. Are you?”

Michael stared into the fire. Guilt already pricked at him over what Anthony was asking of him, and he hadn’t even agreed yet to help. She’d already lost so much to the accident…her leg, her happiness, their future. The last thing he wanted to do was take what little was left under her own control.

Anthony was right that she couldn’t go on living a shell of her former life. She deserved so much more.

But the manipulation he would have to commit to break her free of the walls she’d erected around herself, the deception and coercion—if she blamed him now for the current state of her life, she’d downright despise him for attempting to change it even more.

His chest tightened. “She’ll hate me for it.”

“No. She still loves you.”

God knew he certainly still loved her, more than her brother would ever know. But what Anthony was asking of him… New anger and anguish, old memories dredged up from the past, wounds that had never healed now ripped open afresh— He would cause her pain all over again.

Yet there was no alternative. It would be the only way for both of them to heal.

“I’ll try to help her.” With resolve, he pushed himself away from the fireplace, although he was certain the grim expression on Anthony’s face mirrored his own. “But you can’t be here. She’ll depend upon you to let her do whatever she wants, including staying holed up in her room, and you’ll never be able to resist her pleas.”

How he would be able to resist her pleas himself he had no idea. But he would find a way. He had no choice.

“You have to leave.” Michael soberly lifted his glass in a toast to his old friend’s imminent departure. “First thing in the morning.”

Wordlessly, Anthony tapped his glass against Michael’s in grim agreement.

CHAPTER FIVE

Nine Days Until Christmas

Clara fought to keep the distress from showing on her face. “But you can’t leave.”

Anthony carried her downstairs and into the drawing room. He already wore his greatcoat, boots, and hat in preparation to depart, with his leather riding gloves sticking out of his coat pocket. Despite the early hour, around them the house was already in a flurry of morning activity, made even more chaotic by the sudden change of plans and new orders Anthony had issued.

Theyweren’t leaving that morning for Kelso.Hewas.

And he expected her to remain behind.

“I have no choice.” He set her gently onto the settee and stepped back, putting half the room between them. “I’m taking one of Wakefield’s saddle horses and riding to Kelso, then north to Raleigh Hall. Marie needs to be told what happened and that we’ve been stopped here.”

“Then send a messenger.”

Guilt darkened his face. “I need to be with Marie to make certain she’s all right.”

Clara nodded stiffly. He was right about that.Of coursehe was right. But she also couldn’t stop the rising panic clenching her chest that he would go on without her.

“You don’t need to worry about Anthony,” Michael added as he stepped into the drawing room. “I’m sending my best groom with him, to keep an eye on him for you over every mile.”