Page 95 of Project Duke

Jane, who had only heard about this briefly as she’d joined the family recently, bit her lip. “Oh. Your poor brother.”

Penelope sighed, her eyes on Preston’s broad back. “Yes. Poor Spencer. I don’t know if he’s ever going to be able to forgive me…or Preston.”

“But everyone thought he was dead,” argued Jane.

“It wouldn’t make it easier, I imagine,” said Calliope. “Actually, I’m a little worried what it could do to our family.”

“We won’t let it break us,” said Penelope. “I won’t let the brothers become enemies because of me.”

Jane raised her eyebrows. “I’m afraid it’s not up to you, love. You will have to let them resolve it themselves.”

“But first, we need to find him,” said Calliope.

“Speaking of, Nathaniel has helped a lot with this investigation, hasn’t he?” asked Penelope. “He cares…even if he left.”

At the reminder of Nathaniel, a sudden onslaught of nausea rose in Calliope, and she pressed her gloved hand over her lips. She inhaled deeply and slowly, and it subsided. “I am thankful he took time to find out everything he could,” she said. “But he couldn’t even face me…couldn’t stand to see me and deliver all this news personally.”

How would they ever keep a pretense of being married if the very sight of her repulsed him?

“I’m sure that’s not true!” said Penelope. “Clearly he cares about you. I think he loves you, darling.”

“But why did he leave?” asked Jane.

Calliope looked at Jane and pursed her lips, thinking of how to reply.

“Because we shouldn’t have been together in the first place,” said Calliope. “It was just a matter of time before he would see me for who I really am and realize he had made a mistake.”

Jane and Penelope exchanged a worried look, and Calliope shook her head. “There’s truly no need to look at each other that way,” Calliope said.

“There’s every reason,” said Jane. “He was obsessed with you at the Royal Navy ball, and at your wedding he looked at you like you were a treasure he’d found and was afraid to lose.”

Jane could have no idea how those words hurt her. Because the memory of those first happy days was far away.

Lost. Never to be found again.

“He may have looked at me so once,” said Calliope, looking at the faraway bushes but not really seeing anything, “but he certainly won’t look at me that way ever again.”

“Calliope…” said Penelope, reaching for her hand and squeezing it. “If that is so, he is the blindest man alive.”

Tears began burning her eyes, and she looked up into the sky and blinked rapidly in an attempt to chase them away.

“I’m fine,” she said with a smile she hoped looked bright and cheerful. It was strange to try to stretch the corners of her lips apart when inside she felt as if she were collapsing on herself like a sinkhole. “I’ve always been fine. Do you remember us walking in Hyde Park just a few weeks ago when I told you I never wanted to marry exactly because of this reason?”

“And what reason was that again?” asked Penelope.

“Because no man would know about me dreaming of having my own sleuth agency and love me for it. I’m too odd. Too independent. I can’t be any other way, and I don’t want to be.”

“Nor should you,” said Jane.

“Yes, but that just means there’s no man who would love me for me. Lunatic ideas and all.”

Jane and Penelope squeezed Calliope’s hands from both sides.

“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Jane softly. “The right man will love you for who you are.”

“Is Nathaniel that man?” asked Penelope, then looked at Calliope carefully.

Calliope could feel it in her heart that he was the right man. At least, he had felt right. He had accepted her when she’d told him about William—and that was the most embarrassing and humiliating moment of her life.