Page 45 of The Duchess Debt

A sudden pallor gripped Helena’s face. She had realized it, too.

Verity hurried across the lawn from the tea table, just as surprised to see Adam as Gabe and Helena, but at least she had the presence of mind—or the fortitude—to hug him in welcome and deftly position herself directly between the two brothers.

“Adam, what a surprise.” Verity was breathless. “What a…greatsurprise. Will you be staying?”

“Yes.” He placed a kiss to her cheek.

“Long?” Gabe interjected.

Adam stilled for a beat, then let out a laugh and slapped Gabe on the shoulder. “Not too long. I’ve got opportunities waiting for me in the Caribbean.”

“Good.”

Adam’s eyes narrowed briefly at Gabe’s curt answer.

Gabe didn’t give a damn if he’d upset his little brother. He sure as hell wouldn’t welcome home this prodigal son with open arms.

“Then I should go speak with Mrs. Brimley and Larkin to have them make your rooms ready.” Verity held out her hand to the little girl. “Alice, come with me. Nanny Potts can take you back to the nursery for a nap.”

For once, sensing the tension between the two men, the little girl didn’t complain about having to nap, put her hand into Verity’s, and gave Adam a frowning, uncertain look over her shoulder as her aunt led her away. Instinctively, she knew it was best to leave the adults alone.

“You look well,” Adam commented, sweeping his gaze over Gabe from head to boots. His eyes moved to Helena as she went to Gabe’s side. “So do you, Duchess.” Then he smiled and cast a sweeping gesture with his arm at the gardens, house, and park around them. “You’ve taken great care of Grangely. Our father and grandfather would be pleased.”

Gabe said nothing.

“And is that the only child at Grangely?” He nodded after Alice as Nanny Potts and Verity spirited her away toward the house. “I would have thought you two would have filled the nursery by now.”

“She’s the only one,” Helena answered. As if sensing the growing fury inside Gabe, she reached down and slipped the mallet from his hand.

“Well, she’s a beautiful little girl.”

“Glad you think so,” Gabe replied sharply, squinting into the sun and clenching his jaw. “Because she’s yours.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Gabe leaned back against the large mahogany desk in his study and kept his gaze fixed on Adam sitting in the winged back chair in front of him. His little brother was feckless, spineless, irresponsible, lazy, incompetent…and now utterly stunned.

What Gabe had just told him about the events since he left for India had stuck Adam like a blow, and his face had drained to white, his hand shaking as he held a glass of cognac.Good.Gabe had lived with the pain of what Adam had done for the past five years. It was time his brother now shared the gravity of it.

Gabe casually crossed his ankles, his casual posture a far cry from the anger that seethed inside him. But he wouldn’t let his brother see how furious he was, how much his forced marriage to Clarissa had upended his life. He still had his pride, after all. Clarissa hadn’t managed to destroy that. The only thing stopping him from pulping Adam right there in the study is that Helena didn’t deserve to have her fiancée thrown into prison this close to her wedding day for killing his brother.

He narrowed his gaze over the rim of his glass as he raised the cognac to his lips and quietly asked, “And you knew absolutely nothing about any of it?”

“No—nothing—God, no.” Adam leaned back in the chair and raked his fingers through his hair as he struggled to fathom everything Gabe had just told him. “When I left, you and Helena were…and Clarissa wasn’t…Christ.”

Based on the pallor of his face and the incredulity that prevented him from forming complete sentences, Adam was telling the truth. For once.

“I never received any of your letters,” Adam insisted. “If you tried to contact me—”

“I did. Multiple times.” Dozens and dozens of times, in fact, in all manner of ways.

“Ineverreceived any of them,” he repeated, more forcefully this time.

“And you never tried to contact me or Verity to let us know where you were or how to reach you.” The only bit of information Gabe had been able to garner about Adam was that he had taken a position with the East India Company in hopes of making his fortune on the subcontinent, only to be fired six months later for gross incompetence. No one in the Company knew where he was or if he were even still in India. Or still alive.

“I did—I swear!” He sat forward, holding the glass in his hands between his knees. Gabe expected him to push himself out of the chair at any moment and start pacing. He pointed his glass at Gabe to emphasize his innocence. “I sent letters—several of them. But it was India, not Brighton, for God’s sake. You know how unreliable communications are from Calcutta, how long it takes any message to travel all the way to England, if it ever makes it here at all. They were probably lost or still in transit.” He smiled grimly. “They’ll turn up…in a few years or so.”

Gabe didn’t find that attempt at humor at all amusing. He kept his hard gaze leveled on Adam even as he took a large swallow of brandy.