Page 80 of The Duke of Deceit

Amanda and Matilda swung their gazes to Jess, and even from several feet away, Jess could hear them both catch their breaths as they waited to see what she would do.

But what could she do? “Please…send him away,” she managed to force out around the knot in her throat. “I’m not accepting visitors.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’m not here to see you,” Lucien countered as he swept into the room without waiting to be announced.

The three women scrambled to their feet in surprise.

A tall, blond man Jess had never seen before followed immediately on Lucien’s heels. He halted when his eyes landed on Amanda, who let out a soft gasp.

“We’re here to see Miss Amanda,” Lucien explained. “Well,he’shere to see Amanda.” He jerked a shoulder in a gesture that was half shrug, half point at the blond man. “I’m just the coachman.”

Matilda’s mouth fell open, Amanda and the stranger stared with locked gazes at each other, and Jess didn’t know where to look…except that she was terribly glad to see Lucien, despite the ball of anguish weighing on her chest.

“Your Grace,” Auntie demanded, too flummoxed to remember to curtsey, “what on earth…?”

“Apologies, Miss Davidson, for my bad manners.” He gave her a shallow bow, then one to Amanda and Jess, who saw the determined glint in his eyes. “But I had important business that couldn’t wait.” He gestured toward the man, who hadn’t moved his gaze away from Amanda for a single moment. “May I introduce you to Mr. Henry Graham, formerly of the East India Company?’

Amanda darted her eyes to Lucien. “Formerly?” Then she took a hesitant step toward Mr. Graham before she realized what she was doing and halted in her tracks. “I don’t understand…”

“Which is why I think you ladies and Mr. Graham should have a long conversation,” Lucien explained.

“Yes,” Amanda whispered, her face paling as she sank onto the settee.

“Yes, yes! Of course.” Aunt Matilda hurried forward to take Mr. Graham’s arm to lead him toward the settee. “Simms, please bring a tea tray.”

The butler nodded and hurried away, but not without a parting look of curiosity over his shoulder at the scene unfolding in the drawing room.

With the gravity of the situation electrifying her limbs, Jess moved to join Amanda on the settee. The man who had fathered her sister’s unborn baby had arrived, materializing out of thin air, with Lucien of all people, and she needed to be here when—

Lucien took her arm and stopped her. “Not you,” he said in a low voice. “This is between Amanda and Graham, and your aunt can work out anything else that needs to be settled.”

“But—” Jess threw a look back at the three of them as they settled in before the small fire. Then she watched breathlessly as Mr. Graham sank to the floor on one knee. “But that’s—”

“Come with me. I’ll explain everything.” He tugged her gently from the room, then snatched up a bonnet and pelisse from the hooks beside the door before leading her outside. “They don’t need us interfering. Let’s take a drive around the park, shall we? You can congratulate your sister on her impending wedding when we return.”

He didn’t release her arm as he hustled her down the front steps to the waiting town coach. The tiger flung open the door as they approached.

She glanced, baffled, at the bonnet and pelisse in Lucien’s hand and blinked. “Those aren’t mine.”

“They are now.” He helped her inside before she could stop him and climbed in after her. “Go!” he ordered the driver as soon as the door closed.

Jess sat back against the velvet squabs in the rocking coach and leveled a hard look on him. She drawled, “I have the suspicious feeling that I was just kidnapped.”

He quirked her a half-grin from the bench across from hers. “Then we should drive straight on to Gretna Green.”

That wasnotamusing. She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. “Lucien—”

“That man is the father of Amanda’s baby. I managed to track him down through contacts at East India House. Right now, he’s proposing, Amanda is apologizing, and your aunt is gleefully planning the wedding, although someone will have to break the news to her that the ceremony will need to be held by special license, in secret, and so soon that your cook most likely won’t even have time to bake a cake for the wedding breakfast.”

Jess’s head swam. “But he’s supposed to be in India.” Then a happy thought hit her. “Formerlyof the East India Company?” Followed rapidly by a second one that instantly deflated all her hope. “Then…he has no way of supporting them.”

“I’m providing a dowry of sorts that will help them on their way—a position for Graham, a place to live, and a bank account to help them establish their household.”

Her mouth fell open. She knew he wasn’t the scapegrace society believed him to be, butthis… “Why would you do that?”

“Haven’t you heard? I’m turning good.” He leaned forward, elbows on knees, and met her gaze. “And as for you, Jessamyn…” All teasing suddenly vanished from his handsome face. “Good Lord, how I’ve missed you.”

He sat back and held open his arms in invitation for her to come to him.