“I’ll be fine.”
“Where will you go?” she persisted in a flinty voice.
“I’ll let you know.”
“You’ll disappear for fifteen years again. I hate to tell you, my boy, but I don’t necessarily have another fifteen years to wait for you.”
He said nothing for a long moment. “You’re a worthy adversary, Your Grace.”
“Grandmama,” she corrected.
“I promise I’ll tell you where I’m going. In truth, I have an old farm in Hampshire where I usually hole up. I imagine I’ll be going there.”
His grandmother said nothing for a long moment. “And I can’t dissuade you otherwise?”
“No.”
She sighed. “You always were a stubborn boy. The tea should be here by now—I don’t know what’s keeping them.” She looked around her.
“They’re probably listening at the door.”
The speed with which the door opened attested to the accuracy of his supposition, and his grandmother gave the butler a ferocious frown. “It took you long enough,” she said flatly. Rafferty surveyed him with professional interest. He was a much better butler than Rafferty was—adept at handling his grandmother and serving tea. Rafferty always managed to slop the tea slightly.
“I beg your pardon, Your Grace. There’s a young lady wishing to see you.”
“A young lady? How extraordinary! Did she come alone?”
Rafferty closed his eyes in frustration. There was only one possibility.
“Yes, Your Grace. She’s insisting?—”
The door pushed open behind him and Georgie rushed into the room, her hair coming down from its simple arrangement, her cloak barely clinging to her. “I beg your pardon, Your Grace,” she said, hurriedly curtseying, “but we need Rafferty back home. Immediately!”
Georgie was no match for his grandmother. “Do you indeed, child? I collect you’re the youngest Manning child. What urgent need do you have for your butler?”
Georgie blinked. “My mother requested him,” she said after a moment’s hesitation. “He’s needed.”
“So you said and your mother sent you out to procure him. How very strange. Sit down, child.”
“I can’t.”
“Sit down.” His grandmother didn’t raise her voice, but Georgie immediately sat, cowed, and it took a lot to cow Georgie. “Never mind the tea, Adams,” she instructed the butler. “It appears that Mr. Rafferty is needed at home for some desperate assignment, and he and Miss Manning won’t be staying. You may go.”
“But Your Grace...” Adams was horrified at this breach of good behavior.
“That is all.” The door closed behind the man with a little more noise than expected, as the butler evinced displeasure at his summary dismissal.
“And now you,” his grandmother said, turning to look at Georgie. “Do you always barge into things like a harum-scarum young lady? It won’t do at all, I’m afraid. You’d best learn to behave as soon as possible, and I doubt your mother could put any sense into you.”
“Why must I learn to behave?” Georgie asked, completely without guile. “I don’t matter.”
The Duchess sniffed. “I’ll have to leave it up to you, Rafferty, to calm her wild Indian ways.”
“I’ve tried,” he said wryly.
“Try harder. Otherwise even I can’t persuade the Duke.”
In another minute, she’d claim him as her grandchild, and he couldn’t afford to let that happen. Not if he were going to escape the trap he’d set for himself by coming here.
