A traitorous voice in his head added,I would very much like to put her to bed. To my bed.
Sibyl blinked at him slowly as if she heard his thoughts, but then she ducked her head, nodding, and turned away. “Very well. But do not stay in here too long. It seems you need your rest, too.”
Gabriel nodded, but she had already left the room.
He turned to the window, looking out at the darkened landscape. He could just about make out the glimmer of moonlight on the lake in the distance, and he smiled, remembering the days when he and Letitia used to chase one another around it.
“I will push you in one day, Brother,”she had once declared, giggling. She had been only two-and-ten when she had first made that threat.
“Do it, and you will see what Father has to say about such unladylike behavior,”he had dared her in return.
She had made to grab him, but the two of them had tumbled into the lake, shouting and spluttering. Gabriel had pulled himselfout first and then gone back to his sister, whose head kept ducking under. As soon as her hand had grasped his tightly and he had seen the fear on her face, he had known he would always be protective of his little sister.
And now…
Now he would be protective of his stepdaughter. He would never let any harm come to her.
“Are you my second chance, Rosie?” he whispered. “Are you the girl I must protect to atone for failing to protect my sister?”
For a while, Gabriel stood at the window, holding Rosie in his arms. Now he understood a little more why Sibyl was overprotective of her daughter.
The loud, taunting voices in his head finally quietened, and thatterrifiedhim.
Chapter Thirteen
The following morning, Sibyl went down for breakfast, not wanting to avoid Gabriel for the first time in days.
An image had lingered in her head long before she had drifted off: Gabriel, intent on staying up with her daughter to make sure the fever did not get any worse. His figure had been striking, holding Rosie, illuminated softly by the firelight.
Lying in bed afterward, Sibyl had pressed her hand to her chest, feeling a strange, warm ache at the sight, not wanting to think too hard about what it meant. It was still there now as she looked at him from across the dining table.
He kept his eyes down, but she could still see the fatigue on his face. He truly had stayed up all night, reporting that Rosie’s fever had broken only by the time she woke.
“Did you see the invitation that arrived just before breakfast?” Sibyl asked conversationally. “We have been invited to a ball.”
“I saw it,” Gabriel answered.
“And we are going to attend, yes?”
He looked up, cocking an eyebrow. “You seem awfully eager about it.”
“I have not attended a ball as a duchess before,” she reminded him. “As nervous as I am, I am also a little excited. Edmund… he did not really like balls. He did not like the fuss of the events, as strange as that seems, knowing what I know about how he lived behind closed doors.”
“Those doors are kept closed for a reason,” Gabriel muttered, “and those people often become very good at faking dislike of anything of that nature. At least until they find the only scene they wish to insert themselves in.”
Like opium dens and boarding houses full of women.
Anger coated her tongue at the thought. She quickly pushed all thoughts of Edmund away.
“Either way,” she said, forcing cheer into her voice, “my sisters will be there, I imagine, so I will be happy to see them.”
“And you are certain you want to go?”
“Very. Although, do you not? I thought a duke must make appearances.”
“I do,” he admitted, nodding slowly as he ate a forkful of fluffy eggs. “But I would not go where you would not feel comfortable.”
Sibyl fell silent for a moment, taking a pointed interest in her tea. She could feel his gaze on her, but she suddenly felt too shy to meet it. Instead, she nodded down at her plate.
