Page 71 of It's All About the Duke
“I didn’t catch that, Hawk,” Griffin said. “I didn’t notice he was calling her by her given name.”
“A man doesn’t usually do that unless he’s shared a few kisses with a young lady,” Hawk said and then took a drink from his ale.
It was so damned hard to hide anything from these two. Rath didn’t even know why he tried.
“She’s your ward. Is that wise?” Griffin asked, spreading his cards between both hands.
No. Which was why Rath hadn’t seen her in almost two weeks.
He ignored their comments about kissing and said, “There has to be a reason Miss Everard faints every time she sees me. It’s not natural. Even her brother-in-law, Mr. Portington, said she never faints. So what is it about me that makes her collapse?”
“Everything,” Hawk quipped with a grin.
“Everard, you say?” Griffin asked, his eyes narrowing as a grimace formed on his lips. “And Portington?”
“Yes,” Rath answered, trying to make a connection before Griffin explained. “They are Marlena’s neighbors. Miss Everard lives with her sister Mrs. Portington and her husband. Why? Do you know them?”
“I can’t say I know them. I knowofthem. If her sister is Veronica Portington, she is one of the young ladies who received one of our secret admirer letters.”
Rath slid his fanned cards together and cupped them in his hand. “Are you sure? I don’t remember the name.”
“We each sent letters to four ladies, remember? Veronica Everard was one of my four.”
Rath’s hands stilled on his cards as he took in the impact of Griffin’s words.
Hawk added, “Yes, it was two years ago when we were trying to find out who’d started the rumor that someone might want to ruin Griffin’s sisters’ Season, so we checked on the twelve ladies to see how they were doing—if they seemed happy, settled. We did all we could do to make sure we hadn’t caused any one of them lasting harm by what we’d done.”
Rath would never forget that rumor. He still longed to get his hands around the necks of the men who started it and scare the devil out of them.
“Mrs. Portington was one of the ladies on my list and from what I could find out she seemed happily married. Her husband appeared to be in somewhat of a financial bind at the time, but she still attended social functions.”
“Every lady who received a letter from us was checked on and they all seemed to be carrying on with their lives,” Hawk added.
Rath tamped the ends of his cards on the table. Griffin took another drink from his ale, and Hawk leaned his chair back on two legs.
According to Marlena, Mrs. Portington wasn’t happy. It might appear she was to an outsider, but all one had to do was step inside her house to know that neither Mrs. Portington, Miss Everard, nor any lady Rath knew, would be happy living there. What lady wanted to reside where the rooms were filled to the rafters with stuffed birds, elephant tusks, dried bones, and fossils?
Rath could understand—maybe—Miss Everard fainting the first time she heard his name. Especially if she felt he’d wronged her sister. Mrs. Portington had definitely been distressed to see him in her home, yet she hadn’t fainted. Suddenly, what Rath was trying to do for Portington seemed even more important now and it would no longer be just for Marlena.
A few things were beginning to make sense, but notenough, Rath thought, as he fanned his cards again so he could look at them. Griffin and Hawk did likewise and their table quieted as they each decided which card to lay down.
An attendant stopped at their table and said, “Excuse me, Your Graces, I don’t like interrupting your game but I have a message for the Duke of Rathburne.”
“What is it?” Rath asked.
“There’s a young man outside. He says a Mrs. Justine Abernathy asked that you come to her house right away.”
Rath’s hands tightened on his cards. Was something wrong with Marlena?
“Isn’t that Miss Fast’s companion?”
Rath nodded to Griffin. Surely, if anything was wrong, Mrs. Abernathy would have said more. Still, a spiral of concern started in Rath’s chest. He looked up at the attendant. “Did the man make it sound urgent?”
“I can’t say, Your Grace. Only that he said right away.”
“We’ll come with you,” Hawk said, and pushed his chair back from the table.
“No.” Rath rose. “Mrs. Abernathy can make a small matter seem large. I’m thinking this isn’t pressing, but I’ll go and make sure.”
