Page 27 of The Haunted Duke

Helena glowered down at him.

“Stop calling him that!” she snapped, grabbing his shoulder just as he was about to open the ballroom door.

“Why not?” Alex asked, raising a brow. “Is that not what the papers say he is? Nanny said that all the papers wrote about him.”

“Those were not the papers; they were gossip sheets, and you should never have been reading them,” Helena replied sternly. “Did Nanny give those to you?”

“No, Lord Ingram did,” Alex quipped, then shook himself from her grasp and pushed open the ballroom doors.

Helena’s stomach twisted as she heard Lord Ingram’s name, and she placed her hand on her stomach. The way he spoke to her and her mother frightened her. She could not even bear to think about the arrangement Lord Ingram and her mother had made in exchange for his financial support, or how he had forced himself to attend the wedding celebration. Helena was young and inexperienced, but she was not naïve.

That would end soon, though, she reminded herself. Once she was married to Jeremy, her mother could end her arrangement with Lord Ingram, and none of them would ever have to see him again.

If Jeremy came back, that is. Helena had not expected him to be gone so long. No one had, and thus far, he had not answered anyone’s letters.

Where is he? Why is he not back yet?

Surely his presence would soothe a calming balm over the tingling tension she felt with the Duke of Redgrave. When they were together, Helena could not help but notice the pulse of excitement in her blood, even when they argued. Yet when they were apart? That pulse moved from her blood to her mind, filling it with constant images of his handsome face and statuesque body. Or worse, reminders of how her heart beat faster when she was in close contact with him.

“Helena!”

Hearing Alex shout her name, Helena quickly forgot her own troubles and rushed into the ballroom to see what had scared her little brother so. She found him looking up at the tall, imposing man who had been stalking her dreams, his little face pale and his eyes as round as saucers as the Duke stared down at him.

“Alex, I told you to stop this silliness,” she demanded, walking toward them. “What has you shouting like that now?”

Alex raised a shaking hand, pointing at Evander’s neck. Her gaze followed his finger, and she found that Evander had untied the scarf he had been wearing at dinner, and it was now hanging loosely at each side of his neck. It was a look that made him appear rather smartly dressed in Helena’s opinion, what with the crisp contrast of his white, open shirt and thin, crimson scarf. However, she knew it was not the fashion Alex feared. It was the exposed ring of burn scars around Evander’s throat.

“Apologies. I did not mean to frighten him,” Evander’s deep voice broke through the silence. “I thought I had a few more minutes alone. I just needed a chance to breathe.”

“Your Grace, you do not have to apologize.”

“It is just like the stories say,” Alex breathed. “They cut his head off, and the Devil sewed it back on!”

His black-gloved hands then began to move toward the red scarf and fashion it back into a knot, but Helena moved and stayed his hand before turning her attention to her little brother. She hunkered down on her knees between them, grabbing her little brother’s shoulders and making him look her in the eyes.

“Alexander Nathaniel Robinson, you stop with this nonsense this instant!” she scolded. “You are far too smart to be believing such silly tales, and you were raised better than this!”

“The boy meant no harm,” Evander murmured behind her. “It was I who frightened him.”

“You are nothing to be afraid of,” Helena snapped, giving him a quick glance over her shoulder.

Her gaze lingered just long enough for her to see Evander’s brows shoot up in surprise before she turned back to Alex.

“Listen to me, Alex,” Helena told him with grave seriousness. “Your nanny’s stories are false, and I will have words with her later. His Grace is a hero. He rescued women like Mama and me, and that is how he got hurt. He is not the devil; he is not a beast; he is not a monster. Do you understand?”

Alex frowned at her scolding, no doubt embarrassed over being lectured right in front of such a large man, but he gave a begrudging nod.

“Now, what do you say to His Grace?” Helena asked.

She rose to her full height and stepped behind her brother, squeezing his shoulders in silent urging. Alex huffed, but bowed to Evander.

“Please accept my apologies for being so rude, Your Grace,” Alex muttered blandly. “I did not mean to hurt your feelings.”

“Apology accepted,” Evander replied. Despite speaking softly, his deep voice boomed in the empty space that was the ballroom.

Helena felt Alex tremble under her hands and wished there was something she could do to help him stop being so frightened.

“Go on now, off to bed with you,” she urged Alex.