“Happy?” She was happy? When he was steeped in misery and frustration?
“She sends her regards, my lord. She is very aware that you saved her life in more ways than one. She knows that you had nothing to do with her abduction, but she has found her feet…so to speak. She is well and…” His voice trailed away.
“And what?”
“And she wants no more to do with men of any kind.”
“I’m not any kind!” he snapped. “I’m… I’m…” What was he to say? He was the one who touched her in ways that had thrilled them both. He was the one who planned to set up her apothecary shop. And he was the one who alternated between nightmares of what might be happening to her and memories of what they had shared. “I’m her fiancé.”
“She believes—rightly, I think—that with her disappearance, the prince will not hold you to any engagement. You are free, my lord, to marry whom you wish.” The major frowned at Max. “She gave me the impression that was exactly what you wanted.”
“What?”
“To marry someone else. Lady Kimberly, I believe.”
“Kim has thrown me over.”
“My condolences.”
Max dismissed that with a sloppy jerk of his hand. “She was right. We don’t suit.” But he and Yihui always had.
Logically, he knew that was a ridiculous thought. He’d only known Yihui for two weeks, probably the most difficult weeks of both their lives. It had certainly been an impossible one for him. Together, they’d found a rhythm. He’d always been able to talk with her. She made him smile and he thought he’d brought some lightness to her.
Though, damn it, the truth was that she’d been in an impossible situation. Any man who didn’t hurt her was an improvement on her situation. So whereas he’d found her to be a delight, she had probably been grateful to survive until the next day.
“I have to speak to her,” he said. He had to see if what he felt for her was a reflection of his unsettled life or if there was genuine feeling between them. “She’s still my fiancée.”
The major’s face tightened. “My lord,” he began, then he softened. “Max, what are you about? She’s a foreigner, and you’re a duke’s son. There can be nothing between you. I came totell you that she is safe and happy. You can ask for no more than that.”
“How did you find her?”
“How is your father?”
“The same. By which I mean he is debilitated and furious. As far as I can tell, his mind is whole which makes it all the worse. He can think, he can want, but he cannot express himself well. The only mercy is that he tires easily.”
The major nodded even as his gaze swept across the disaster that was his father’s desk. “Do you need help with this lot?”
“This?” he asked and pointed at the piles of treaties, proclamations, and whatnot. All of his father’s most important political maneuvering. “It can go to the devil, for all I care.” He’d never enjoyed his father’s politics and couldn’t care less about them now. “But this lot…” He pulled up one stack of unopened mail from their various properties. “This shall require a man with a steady hand, clear head, and a mind for figures.” Unfortunately, he seriously doubted he was such a man. He understood it, could eventually sort through it, but the sheer volume of work defeated him.
He poured himself another glass.
“You need help with it, my lord.”
“Do you know anyone?” He knew the major was too busy with his work for Lord Benedict to spare the time.
“I might—”
“The person you find can’t be political. The last thing I want is one of my father’s cronies pressuring me or anyone who works for me—”
“I know of a man. He’s common but brilliant with numbers. Don’t know anything about his education, but he was damned brilliant in the army.”
“What did he do?”
“Quartermaster, mostly, but not in the usual way.”
“What does that mean?”
“He found things that weren’t there, stopped things from going astray, and never failed to have another plan with things went bollocks.”
