She turned slowly, meeting Mrs. Mildred’s worried gaze. “Frightened of what?”
Mrs. Mildred hesitated. “Of what people are saying. Of what has been printed.”
Several servants appeared and had paused nearby, pretending to busy themselves while listening closely to their conversation.
Deena’s voice sharpened, though it did not rise. “If any of you doubt your Duke so easily, then you should never have taken his wages. If ink on a page is enough to shake your loyalty, then you were never loyal at all.”
The servants exchanged glances, and some lowered their eyes shamefully.
Mrs. Mildred’s shoulders sagged slightly. “I never doubted him,” she said quietly. “Not for a moment.”
“Then stand by him,” Deena replied. “All of you.”
Silence followed.
At last, Mrs. Mildred stepped aside. “You may pass, Your Grace.”
Deena softened with gratefulness. “Thank you, Mrs. Mildred. I know this is difficult for all of us. I won’t be long, I swear.”
The housemaid nodded. “I hope you find what you are looking for.”
Deena did not answer. She moved swiftly through the familiar corridors. Her destination was clear, and she had to beat the setting sun or Austin, and her entire family was doomed.
The late Duke’s study lay exactly as it had been left. Deena closed the door behind her and went straight to the desk. She searched every drawer, her fingers skimming over ledgers, letters, and forgotten accounts.
“Where is it?” she hissed under her breath.
When she found nothing, she moved to the cabinets, then the shelves, pulling down books and scanning margins. Her resolve began to waver.
“Where did I leave it?” she whispered to herself.
Time slipped away, and her chest tightened as doubt crept in. Then she noticed it, a faint seam along the bottom drawer. Her breath caught as she pried open the drawer.
“There you are,” she breathed.
She gathered the leather-bound notebook where she had placed the letter to her chest, and her strength flooded back into her limbs.
Austin will not fall.
Not while she still stood.
Twenty-Nine
“Where is she?” Austin had worn a path into the carpet.
He paced back and forth across the drawing room with restless precision, his hands clasped behind his back, only to fall loose again moments later. Dominic stood near the window, arms crossed, watching the street below with a tension that mirrored Austin’s own.
“You are sure that that bastard did not follow her?” Dominic snarled somewhere behind him.
“I stalled him long enough after she had left. But…she should have returned by now,” Austin muttered.
Dominic did not answer. He had already said everything there was to say. Deena was capable. She was clever. She would not place herself in danger without reason. But none of it eased the tightness in Austin’s chest.
The door to the drawing room swung open, and Selina entered. Austin was hopeful that she had some good news, but one look at her face said otherwise.
He stopped short. “Any news?”
Selina shook her head. “She did not go to the country house. Nor to Greystone.”
