“Do we have a way to get his signature?” Stratton asked.
“If he has been spending freely, he might have given it to the proprietor so his account becomes a note.” Gabriel stood. “I think I will go below and see if the place is as quiet as it seems. If so, I will poke around for the book I signed.”
“I will come watch for you,” Stratton said, rising as well.
The two of them left the room. Which meant Amanda was alone with the Duke of Brentworth.
* * *
Brentworth took the chair that Stratton had used. “There is wine here. It may help if you are having trouble sleeping.”
“Thank you, but I do not want any wine.”
“You must have been relieved to rescue your mother, and happy to see her again.”
“Relieved, yes. Happy—” She shrugged.
He raised an eyebrow at that.
“I sound like a terrible daughter, don’t I? Only during these last few hours with her, the child in me was overjoyed, but the woman I am—let us say that I saw all too clearly what I had begun to see even before we parted years ago. She is my mother and I love her as such, but—” Again she shrugged.
“If you are angry about how she pulled you into her dilemma, do not feel bad. We are allowed to be angry with family.” He smiled and it softened his entire face so he no longer appeared so severe. “In some ways, we can only be truly angry with family. Even friends—the cost might be too high. Family is stuck with you no matter how you feel.”
“And we are stuck with them in turn.”
He nodded.
“There are limits to that loyalty and love, however,” she said. “There are things no one should have to do, even for family. That no one should expect.”
“Did you have a choice, Miss Waverly? Langford says you did not. The presence of the man in the chamber above us indicates you did not lie about that. The fact you had to break into a house to free your mother proves it as well.”
“Is that what Gab—what Langford said? That we broke in?”
“He did not, nor did I ask. However, I can think of no other way to free a woman held in captivity.”
“It was not as hard as you make it sound. Fairly easy, actually.”
“I find myself believing that. A second-story window might present challenges, but not a normal door.”
He. Knew. Everything. She realized that with shock. Gabriel had confided in his friends in a bid to obtain their help. Had he also insisted on discretion? No doubt. She guessed how he had secured that.She will go away once this is over. She will leave England. She already knows I insist on this.
Her situation suddenly struck her as very precarious. Hopeless. If she had harbored any dream that Gabriel would change his mind about that, it disappeared while she looked at Brentworth’s kind but knowing smile.
The door opened, and Gabriel and Stratton strode in. Gabriel carried a blue account book. He waved it. “One signature, delivered. Now, who is going to write the letter?”
“I think we should let Miss Waverly dictate it,” Brentworth said. “I think she knows what to say better than we do.”
* * *
Gabriel read aloud the letter he had just penned according to Amanda’s instructions.
“Come at once to Colton’s Black Knight Inn. Bring a carriage to transport me back. I’ve been injured and a surgeon sent for. I hardly made it this far what with the pain, and a traveler here agreed to write this down for me.
“You need to get the item I brought before the surgeon comes. A servant is eyeing my valise, and if I’m given laudanum or some other dose I’ll not be able to guard it.”
“Sounds fine,” Stratton said. “Not too formal, not ignorant but not concerned, in his pain, with the niceties of tone and form. The concern about laudanum is a nice touch, Miss Waverly.”
Brentworth opened the blue account book, paged through, and stopped. “Here is Pritchard’s signature. Can you manage this too, Langford?”
