“What could you possibly tell me that I wouldn’t like? Unless—you haven’t informed my sister you’re with child or some such nonsense—right?”
“No, nothing like that. This is… it’s about Xander.”
“Oh,” he said quietly. “The reason we’re here.”
“Yes,” I breathed.
“No, I won’t tell anyone.”
“Even if it’s… illegal?”
He sighed and rolled over to face me, but I couldn’t bear it. Not for this. I may have been convinced that he wouldn’t betray my confidence. But I wasn’t so certain that I would risk watching an expression I couldn’t unsee cross his face.
“Xander needs our help—your help—really. He’s… he has a child that he is raising. And the boy will need to inherit.”
“And the boy is not his?” Kit asked.
“He is. In every way that matters he is.”
“I don’t suppose your brother has wed in his absence?”
“No… Well, sort of.” Lord, this was difficult to explain.
“Sort of?”
“There’s no wife. And two husbands. More of a living arrangement, in truth.”
For an infinite moment, there was only the sound of his breathing. My breath was trapped in my chest, tightening everything there to the point of pain. And then he said, “Oh.”
“Oh? That’s all you have to say? Oh?” I asked, incredulous and shrill.
“Well, it does explain a few things.”
“Like what?” I demanded.
“A single, wealthy duke with two failed courtships isn’t overly common. And his willingness to abandon town—and the accompanying marital prospects—for a property in Scotland. Is the babe’s mother in the picture?”
“She is alive, if that is what you are asking.”
“And the father?”
“He’s not involved,” I murmured.
“Is the babe’s mother opposed to wedding your brother?”
“We have reason to believe she is Gabriel’s natural-born daughter. So I expect there may be some objections on all sides, yes.”
“It is a conundrum. Let me sleep on it. There has to be a solution, somewhere,” he said, then rolled back over to face the ceiling again.
“That’s it?”
His head rolled back to face me, but his body remained unmoving. “Well, you’ve not given me very much time to consider the problem. One so significant you felt the need to abduct me and take me to Scotland, I might add. If you give me a few hours, I might think of something.”
“That is not what I meant,” I insisted and flipped on my side to face him.
“What did you mean?” he whispered.
“You don’t… You’re not…”
