Page 37 of The Duke on Her List
And she rose up on her toes and whispered in his ear.
He drew back and stared at her in stunned amazement.
“I told you you would be shocked.” Her cheeks grew bright red.
And he was. But at the same time, he could see what she meant about this item being the easiest one on her list so far. It would require no outside help to do it. There needn't be any sneaking around or deception. It would require five minutes alone in his house.
That could be done.
She was right about something else, too. What she had said about this item requiring more trust than anything they’d done so far…that was accurate. Could he really put this much faith in her? Could he really take this risk?
But I did promise her that we would complete her list. That’s all she’s asking for here—what was promised. I can give her that much.
“All right,” he told her, hoping strongly that he wasn’t going to live to regret this. “I may be out of my mind, but…we’ll do it.”
CHAPTER 18
Saying it was easier than doing it.
Gabriel paced back and forth in his study the following day, trying to decide whether or not he was too great a fool to trust his own judgment.
It’s Agnes. I know her as well as I could possibly know anyone in this scenario,he reasoned with himself.I know how she’s going to respond. I know exactly what’s going to happen here. Yes, it’s easy to worry that something will go wrong—but nothing will. I’ll do my part, and she’ll do hers, and by the end of the day, everything will be exactly as it is right now. Nothing is going to change.
Still, his heart pounded with anxiety.
He had never thought he would find himself in the position he was in right now. He had never believed that something like this would happen to him as long as he lived. In fact, he had done agood job of going out of his way to ensure that itdidn’thappen. He certainly hadn’t wanted it to.
There was a knock at the door.
“Who is it?” he asked, his voice a little sharper than he had intended it to be. Could she be here already? He wasn’t ready.
“It’s me.” The voice belonged to Helena.
Some of the tension left Gabriel’s body. “You may enter,” he called back, and a moment later, Helena came into the room.
He couldn’t help noticing how much more grown- up she seemed with each passing day. When she wasn’t right in front of his eyes, he forgot sometimes. He fell back into the old memory of the nine-year-old girl who had come to live with him after the tragic deaths of her parents, wide-eyed and frightened and so very, very small. That wasn’t who Helena was anymore. She was nearly a lady, almost ready to go out into the world.
Her gaze told as much as anything else about her did. She was watching him shrewdly, clearly having noticed something. “You’ve been in here all day long,” she told him. “And I know that you haven’t been working, because when you’re working you don’t pace.”
“How do you know I’ve been pacing?”
“The floorboard squeaks,” she said mildly, pointing to the offending place. “My bedroom is just over this study, and I hear that board every time you step on it. Why are you pacing?”
“I have things on my mind,” Gabriel said. “The movement helps me to think.”
“What things?”
He shook his head. “Grown-up things.”
“You can’t keep saying that every time you don’t want to tell me what’s going on, Uncle Gabriel,” she said. “I’m not a child anymore. One of these days, you’re going to have to include me in grown-up things.”
Don’t I know it.“Today isn’t that day, though,” he said. “What I want you to do now is to go back to your wing of the house and remain there.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I think you’re having Lady Agnes over again. Are you?”
There was no point in lying. “Yes.”
“I heard the two of you were courting. Is it true?”
