Page 99 of More or Less a Countess
The lease forCasa di Bella Mare,with his signature scrawled across the bottom, and dated the day after his marriage to Violet.
And underneath the lease…
Nick squeezed his eyes closed, but he could see the words as clearly as if he were holding the paper in front of his nose.
My dear Catalina, it feels like years since…
He’d signed the lease and written that fragment of a letter in some sort of petty, childish bid to return the hurt he’d felt over Violet’s sketch, but even as sotted as he’d been at the time, he’d known he’d never post either of them, so he’d shoved them into his desk drawer and forgotten all about them.
Until now.
“Burn these.” He thrust the crumpled papers at Gibbs, then turned for the door.
Gibbs clutched them to his chest as he followed Nick into the entryway. “But…where are you going, my lord?”
“To London, to bring my wife home.”
* * * *
“What thedevilis that infernal racket?”
The Marquess of Huntington wasn’t the sort of gentleman who enjoyed surprises, and he especially didn’t care for them when they were loud, unexpected, and arrived in the dead of night when he was enjoying uninterrupted private time with his wife.
“Bloody hell! Stop that hammering!” His lordship tightened the tie on his robe as he stomped down the few remaining stairs and marched across the hallway. He threw open the door, ready to leap upon whoever stood on the other side, but when he saw who it was, shock made him freeze. “Dare? What the devil areyoudoing here? I thought you were in West Sussex. For God’s sake, man, it’s the middle of the bloody night—”
Nick thrust Finn aside without a word of apology and shoved his way through the door. “Where’s my wife?”
Finn stared at him for a moment, his mouth wide open with shock, then he crossed his arms over his chest and fixed Nick with a cold stare. “You’re askingme?You mean to say you don’t know where your own wife—”
“Damn you, Huntington. Is she here, or not? Tell me at once.”
“No. She isn’t here.” Finn seemed to notice Nick’s wild panic then, and his anger faded to baffled concern. “Why should she be in London?” His eyes narrowed. “Oh, Christ. What have you done, Dare?”
Nick let out a bitter laugh. “Let’s just say your lack of faith in me has proved prophetic, Huntington, and leave it at that, shall we?”
He turned for the door without another word, but a voice pitched high with distress stopped him before he could escape through it.
“Lord Dare?”
Nick paused, and he and Finn looked up the stairs to find Lady Huntington standing on the landing above them, her face pale and her hand twisted in the silk dressing gown at her throat.
“Has something happened to my sister? Is she…is she all right?”
Nick dragged his hands down his face. “I—there’s been a misunderstanding between us, but if I can justfindher, I can set it to rights.”
Finn glared at Nick. “What sort of misunderstanding?”
“If it’s all the same to you, Huntington,” Nick replied with a scowl, “I’d rather discuss it withher.”
“Wait!” Iris’s voice echoed in the entryway. “Where are you going?”
“To Bedford Square, to Lady Chase’s. If Violet isn’t there, then to my aunt’s. Lady Westcott and Violet left Ashdown Park together.”
“And if she isn’t at either place? What then, Dare?”
Nick met Finn’s gaze without blinking. “Then the rest of London. All of bloody England, if I have to.”
Finn studied him for a moment, then to Nick’s shock, a corner of Finn’s mouth lifted in a smile. “Good man, Dare.”
