Page 7 of The Duchess Debt

Gabe wisely ignored his friend’s entendre. “I was clear with her this morning. Her concerns will focus on the house, not the village and tenancies.”

Laughter burst from Caleb. Letting the drawings fall back onto the table, he dropped into the chair opposite Gabe andstruggled to catch back his breath. “Good Lord… Your meeting with at the solicitor’s went that badly, did it?”

Badlywould have been a grandly optimistic description. “As well as expected.”

Caleb blew out a low whistle at that obvious dodge and asked bluntly, “What did you do wrong?”

Gabe’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think it was my fault?”

“Because I know you.” Caleb’s teasing amusement sobered, and he added quietly, “And I know the hell you’ve been through in the last few years because of your late wife.”

Hell…another grand understatement. Being cast into hellfire would have been a reprieve compared to life with Clarissa. “I’ve put all that behind me.”

“Have you? That’s not what I gathered from Putnam’s nervous arrival in the tavern after you’d sent him scurrying out of his own office. He kept mumbling into his ale about marriage banns and wedding dresses, and none of it seemed to be in your favor.”

Gabe shoved himself out of the chair and muttered, “Damnable village is too small.”

He strode to the tall windows overlooking the south lawn. The late afternoon sun still lit the home park, but on the distant horizon, gray clouds gathered like a portent of an oncoming storm.

Of course they did.

He rubbed at the hard knot in his nape. “No, the meeting did not go well,” he admitted. The look he’d seen on Helena’s face…Christ. Yet he would never allow himself to be put into a position of weakness again, certainly not by his wife, whomever she was. “In my defense, I never expected her to actually accept the marriage offer in the first place.”

“What did you expect, then?”

“I don’t know… That she’d simply say the whole thing was a joke? That she would ask for money to make amends for the last time she agreed to marry me and then go back home?” He blew out a long breath and confessed, “That she might have been looking for revenge and a chance to jilt me in return?”

“She’s not Clarissa,” Caleb reminded him quietly.

“No, she’s not,” he said, as much to himself as Caleb, yet it didn’t bring any comfort. In many ways, Helena possessed the power to wound him even more deeply than his late wife. For God’s sake, if Clarissa had managed to destroy his faith in marriage and love, what might Helena be capable of doing to him, a woman who truly knew him and had once possessed his heart?

He raked his gaze across the long sloping lawn and the fields beyond. He owned everything in every direction as far as he could see, and then some. The land gave him wealth, power, and position, and all of that made him one of the most influential men in the British Empire. The reach of his investments and business ventures, the effect he had on laws and every person living on English soil, the trust the prince regent and his ministers placed in him—Gabe couldn’t fathom it all. And yet, his world had once been put in jeopardy by the machinations of a single woman.

He would do whatever necessary to keep Helena from having the ability to do the same. He owed her and her family reparations, certainly, and he would provide them. But he wouldneverput her in a position to wound him the way Clarissa had.

“Auntie!” The pounding of running footsteps gathered steam in the hall and burst into the library with a shout. “Auntie Verity! I want to—”

The little girl saw Gabe and skidded to a halt.

Instantly, the excited light vanished from her face, and her smiling expression turned somber. She dropped her gaze to the carpet and twisted her little hands in her skirt.

“We do not raise our voices or run inside the house,” Gabe reminded her.

She replied softly, “Yes, Papa.”

“Say your greetings to Mr. Parker.”

She gave an awkward little curtsy. “Hello, Mr. Parker.”

Caleb climbed to his feet with a smile. “Good afternoon, Lady Alice.” He bowed formally at the waist, which earned him a giggle from the girl. “My! What a lovely blue dress you’re wearing today.” He winked at her and drew out another giggle. “All the London ladies would be jealous if you went to one of their teas dressed in such finery.”

Her face flushed bright pink at his teasing, and her gaze dropped shyly back to the rug.

With a frown, Gabe glanced past her toward the hall. “Where is Nanny Potts?” Alice should have been in lessons, although he had no idea what kind of lessons a four-year-old girl should have. But the nanny’s principal job was to keep Alice out of trouble and out of sight, and at that moment, she was failing at both.

“Upstairs, Papa,” she answered.

And most likely asleep. Verity would have to have a word with the woman. Again. “You were looking for Auntie?”