‘More than respected.Hallowed.Practically revered as a saint.’Lorelei stripped off a glove and took up the toast.The butter, a little burnt, melted into the crunch, and the first bites settled in her stomach.‘I wish I had known how to make him happy as a wife.’
Lorelei hid behind a sip and kept her gaze on the table.Damn fatigue, stupid warm kitchen, andhim, just sitting and listening to her… saying nothing… It was all far too comfortable.If she didn’t rein herself in, all the thoughts she’d been so careful to keep locked inside would tumble out as confessions.And when it came to the estate manager, with his slow drawl, patient words, and his hair all loose and tousled, confessions were a dangerous thing.Best to shift the attention from herself.
‘After he died, why did you stay?’she asked.
Tillman spooned a dollop of honey into his half-empty mug.‘I enjoy the work.’
She laughed.‘The work?Helping a clueless woman understand what you could do in your sleep?You owed me nothing.Your parents, your family, none of your kin live nearby.You could have found another position just as good, if not better, much closer to your home.You were William’s friend.Not mine or my father’s.What kept you from leaving?’
‘I’d worry about you if I wasn’t there.’He swiped the cup off the table and nodded at the toast in her hand.‘You can take that with you, if you like.I’ll hail a cab.Let’s go find your boy.’
Regents Park, Hyde Park, the British Library.The theatre, the docks, the rowing club.The cab crawled through the city, making a slow serpentine past all the places the caretaker could remember Arley asking questions about.It was a day for breaking with convention, because Tillman sat in the cab with her, albeit on the opposite side, facing backwards as they trawled the streets.Lorelei simply couldn’t bear the thought of sitting alone.He scanned the streets from one window while she looked out the other.At some places, he thumped the roof, and they stopped so he could lean out the window to speak with passers-by or leap down to chat with a doorman.
When he hauled himself back into the cab after another unsuccessful stop, a swell of warm gratitude rose inside her, so awkward and expansive in the normally tight, composed space of her chest.He turned to look out the window again.‘He may have already returned to the house.Do you want to head back and see?’
Lorelei pressed her fingers to the glass.The cab slowed into a corner, and they rumbled past some gentleman’s club with tall doric columns and marble stairs.As they passed a turning carriage outside, her eyes stuck to a golden crest painted on its door.
‘Father?’She followed the familiar shield.‘What is he doing…’
Lorelei scanned the street to find her father striding along the pavement.He was walking with a stiff posture and with purpose towards a small gathering further along the road.No, not a small gathering.Just two men chatting.Twoyoungmen…
‘That’s him!’she cried, half rising from her seat.‘Arley—he’s here!’
Tillman thumped the roof, and the hackney rolled to a stop.He opened the door, squeezed onto the street, pulled out the steps, and held her steady as she clambered down.‘Arley!’she called again, louder this time.Then she grabbed her skirts.She hadn’t run since she was a girl, and never in silk slippers,neverin London, but the rush of relief at finding her son roared louder than decorum.She was going to hug him.Then she was going to shout at him.Then hug him again.Then let him know, in no uncertain terms, just how worried she had been, and that he was to never, ever run away again.
Lorelei raced across the short distance, wrapped her arms around Arley, and tugged him against her chest.‘So worried.I was so worried.What were you think—’ Lorelei glanced up, over his shoulder.
‘…thinking,’ she finished, as all her insides melted.A ghost.He had been speaking to a ghost.There was no other explanation.The same dark hair, same jawline, same stature—even the same cocky assurance as his mouth stretched to smirking.
Her husband’s ghost stood here on the city street on a bright day.Her breath left her body so fast she crumpled with the force of it.Her knees hit the stones.The man Arley had been speaking to bore such a striking resemblance to William that hemustbe a ghost.There was no other explanation…
But no.No, that wasn’t it.He looked younger than any William she had known and far younger than the man who had left her.The realisation cracked her like a lightning fissure.This was his son, William’s other son.Her husband had no brothers, no cousins, had descended from a line of sole surviving male children for four generations.But the son she’d always thought of as a younger half-brother was not a boy, nor even close in age to Arley.He was a grown man wearing a full suit, top hat, and an air of condescension.
Bile burned as it rose in her throat, her stomach twisting.The tightening inside her chest was followed by a racking cough and indignant splutter.
The other son was older than Arley.The bastard.The other boy, William’s other boy.Older.
Chapter six
Astheyexchangedlooks,Tillman was sure Winton stumbled with a surprise as deep as that which made the duchess’s knees buckle and sent her to the ground, although Winton regained his composure faster.Winton William West, the duke’s first child, born out of wedlock to the woman William had loved fiercely but had never been brave enough to marry, surveyed the scene.He tipped his hat and bowed.‘It was a pleasure to meet you, little brother.Don’t be shy, now.’And he ascended the stairs and disappeared through the doors of the club like the man of wealth without responsibilities that he was.
The Duke of Stoneleigh grabbed Tillman by the arm.‘Take her away before she embarrasses herself further.And you.’He turned on the boy.‘We need to talk about expectations.’
‘Arley?’Lorelei reached for her son.She closed her eyes and drew a shaky breath, but when Tillman came to help her stand, she brushed him away.Her eyes had gone dull, and the soft light that had been shining in them as they searched the streets had evaporated.Once again, she appeared as she had for the better part of the past decade—thin, grim lips, raised chin, and a stiff stance.‘It must have been the heat.And the… and the worry.Get in the cab.Please.’
Arley hauled himself in, threw himself against the far window, and crossed his arms over his chest.Tillman helped the duchess into the conveyance, then jogged up the stairs of the club.He spoke a few curt words to the doorman to hopefully discourage him talking, then slipped him a coin as further encouragement.He threw the cab driver another.The Duke of Stoneleigh had disappeared, likely gone to smooth over any potential gossip circling inside.He certainly wouldn’t see to his daughter.Tillman cast his eye over the world before him to check that there was no mess he’d missed.
That’s what he did—he cleaned up William’s messes.
Back at the carriage, Tillman placed his foot on the step.The young duke’s voice rang out from inside with a formal, whiny edge.It wavered between high and youthful and the occasional dip into a lower register of almost breaking.‘There was no point asking you, because you don’t say anything when I do ask, and you would have said no.So would Grandfather, and I didn’t have much choice—’
‘Arley.Not in front of the staff.’Her Grace sat in the centre of the cab, facing forwards.She kept her eyes down.Her thumbs rolled one over the other, but apart from that small movement, she remained motionless.Silence descended in the small space as the boy huffed against the window.
Tillman slammed the cab door closed.He climbed up the side to sit beside the driver, ignoring the man’s confused look.‘Honeysuckle Street,’ he said, and the man nodded.‘The big house at the end.’
The cab door opened before Tillman could climb down and hit the gravel.The young duke launched himself out of the conveyance, shouted, ‘Leave me alone!’over his shoulder, and stormed through the front door, muttering something that sounded like, ‘Should have known, should not have bothered,’ under his breath.
Tillman descended from the seat and brushed himself off.He pulled out the steps and extended his hand.Waited.
