Page 86 of The Duke of Deceit

“And mine,” Devlin added, joining them.

Only Shay hesitated.

“You don’t have to be part of this,” Lucien told him quietly.

Shay slowly came forward, the lamplight revealing the terrible scars that had turned him into a hermit over the past few years. No—it wasn’t the scars that had done that, Lucien knew; it was how he’d gotten them.

“You know I would help you in any other way I could,” Shay answered. “But not that, not going to Parliament. No one in London can see me.”

Lucien knew why not.Sophie Winter.He knew of no other man in the world who was haunted as much by a woman as Shay was by Sophie.

“I understand,” Lucien said. “That’s why I need your help with something else.” He arched a brow. “How good are you at planning weddings?”

Shay stared at him as if he’d just sprouted a second head.

But Lucien explained his plan, and when he finished, Shay held out his hand to agree to play his part. When he took it, Lucien pulled Shay to him and briefly embraced him. He had no words for the sacrifice Shay was making for him—that all three of them were making.

Lucien loved these men. They were brothers to him, as close to his heart as Phillip, no matter that they didn’t share the same blood. He would do anything for them, including laying down his life. They would do the same for him.

But God help him if they didn’t win this fight.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jess frowned outthe carriage window at the gray day, puzzled, as the hackney stopped in front of Westminster Palace. “Why are we stopping here?”

Henry Graham sat opposite Jess and Aunt Matilda, with the same serious expression on his face that he’d worn since he arrived to collect them that afternoon. Last evening, just before supper, he had sent them a message to request their help in creating a special wedding surprise. Something that had to be kept secret. Something that absolutely couldnotbe done without Jess and Matilda.

We need to make Henry feel welcome in our family, Auntie had said when Amanda called Jess down to the drawing room last night to deliver the message. She’d been up in her bedroom, no longer crying her eyes out simply because she no longer had any more tears left to shed, and had come downstairs only because the two women absolutely refused to leave her alone until she did. So she had agreed to come along today, if only to make them happy.

When the afternoon arrived, cold and dark and bleak as a winter’s day, Jess wanted to change her mind and stay in bed with the covers pulled up over her head.

I can stay and take care of Amanda, she’d offered as a feeble excuse.

But Amanda was more than willing to let them go without her, so as to not ruin whatever surprise her fiancé was planning and so she could rest, although Jess suspected her sister would spend more time eating than napping, given the strange cravings she’d been experiencing. Matilda had been happier and more excited about the wedding surprise than she’d been in weeks—and oddly happier than Amanda about it.

Oh, you must simply come along to help Henry, Auntie ordered as she practically shoved Jess into her coat and bonnet, then pushed her toward the front door and the hackney waiting in the drizzling damp.

That wasn’t at all the carriage Jess had longed to see.

Yesterday in Lucien’s coach had been the most wanton, most wonderful experience of her life. She had never thought about how much a woman could want a man until then, when need for him simply consumed her.

But when it was over, nothing had changed. A mountain of secrets still stood between them and always would.

Now, she’d been swept up into the misery of helping to plan her sister’s wedding instead of her own. Oh, she was happy for Amanda, she truly was. Henry was a good man who deeply loved her and wanted to provide a happy life for their child and all the others to come. But Jess couldn’t help being envious, or wanting to burst into tears of utter anguish when she should have been shedding tears of happiness for them instead.

Even at that moment, she resisted the urge to swipe the back of her gloved hand over her eyes.

“I thought we were helping with a wedding surprise.” She forced a smile for Henry. “I would think the gentlemen in Parliament had collectively ended more marriages than they’d helped to create.”

“An important meeting has been called,” Henry answered enigmatically. “You’ve been asked to attend, and I’ve been asked to escort you.”

“Me?” she squeaked.Asked?More like kidnapped. “Why would—”

Before she could finish her question, he opened the door and jumped to the ground, then reached back to help both women from the carriage. He paused only to retrieve the leather portfolio he’d been carrying with him before paying the driver and sending the carriage on its way.

“Oh, this is going to be such a lovely day!” Matilda beamed and patted Jess’s arm. Overhead, from a thick layer of low clouds, a low rumble of thunder disagreed. So did the fat drops of cold rain that began to fall.

Lovely?The day was perfectly miserable, just as cold and bleak as her future. How could Matilda not realize that? Jess slid her aunt a sideways look and saw a barely concealed excitement radiating from her.