“I’mthe one with the money,” Bran charged on. “I own Smythson.I own it alland it could have been yours—becauseIwas going to be foolish enough to ask you to marry me. I would have given you everything including my name. And yet, once again, you made the wrong choice. So be happy with Winderton. I don’t want someone so faithless. And to think I loved you—” He released his hold and turned away, but Kate grabbed his coat.
“What are you talking about?” she demanded.
“You leaving with Winderton. Go. It doesn’t matter.” He couldn’t even look at her.
“Have you gone daft?” Kate took a step back.
“He hasn’t gone daft,” Lucy said, stoutly jumping in. “We know what you and the duke have planned. We are here to stop it. Release my son from your clutches,youschemingharlot.”
The dowager’s words rang out in the air and that was when Bran started to retrieve a bit of his sanity. His sister’s language snapped him to his senses. “Lucy, please.”
“I will notpleaseanyone,” his sister countered. “I will shout what this woman has done from the rooftops until I see my son. Until I know he issafefromher.”
“I’ve done nothing to Winderton,” Kate answered.
“You have stolen his heart,” the dowager declared to one and all. “Now you wish to steal his birthright.”
“Obviously I have not because he isnothere,” Kate said.
The thought that she did not have the duke had not apparently occurred to the dowager.
Or to Bran.
After a momentary confusion, Lucy asked, “Then where is he?”
“I have no idea.”
“Where have you been? You were not in your play.”
Their little drama had collected far too much interest from the lingering theatergoers. Lucy acted unaware of the audience they had drawn.
“She was with me,” Mars said. His appearance startled Bran. He looked up to see the earl standing at the tent’s back entrance.
Bran frowned. Mars had wanted her from the very beginning. He’d assumed Mars had stepped back because of their friendship. What if he hadn’t? A new jealousy sprang up. “What are you doing here?”
“Miss Addison sent for me.”
“Because?”
Mars’s gaze narrowed. “Because I am the magistrate. Or have you forgotten, along with your manners?”
Bran was both confused and alarmed. “Why would you need the magistrate? Has something happened to Winderton?”
Lucy gave a huge gasp and swung around, her hands flying up in the air as if she would swoon.
Bran took her arm. “Not now, Lucy. We need you with us.”
“But my son—?”
“There is nothing wrong with Winderton, Your Grace,” Mars said. “Or at least, not as far as I know. Miss Addison came for me because one of her actresses is missing. We were out making inquiries.”
“Which actress is missing?” Bran demanded.
Kate stared at him as if she was seeing him for the first time. She did not answer.
At her silence, Bran removed his hat and raked a hand through his hair—and then it hit him. Perhaps Winderton hadn’t been writing about Kate in his note?
The thought shocked him.
