The unmanageable pair climbed into the carriage. “Can we give you a lift somewhere?” Hetty asked with a sweet smile.
“No!” He slammed the door. “I shall call on you both tomorrow.”
“Why not call this evening,Gee?”
Guy ignored Genevieve’s question. He instructed the coachman to take them directly home.
Hetty stared back at him from the window with a worried expression as the carriage trundled away down the street.
*
Hetty watched Guystride away. “He’s very angry,” she said. “Will he ever forgive us?”
“Pooh!He was bluffing. I know my brother.”
“But you believe him to be in danger?”
“Oui. His eyes are evasive. When he was a boy and up to no good, he looked just like that. And what other reason would he have for not coming to visit one of us this evening?”
Hetty studied Genevieve. She had no way of knowing if the duchess’s opinion could be relied upon. Guy had been very angry. She shivered, his eyes had pinned her in place. But… He was worried and tense, otherwise he would have recovered his good humor, laughed, and joined them. She recognized the way he’d clenched his jaw, and he had avoided her eyes when questioned. “There is nothing we can do.”
“We shall follow him again this evening.”
“He may not be going out this evening,” Hetty reasoned.
“He must be, otherwise he would call on us,” Genevieve said with French practicality.
“But, he’ll be on the alert for us now.”
“We’ll dress in costume,” the duchess said promptly.
“What kind of costume?”
“Men’s attire, and we’ll hire a hackney.”
“Where will we get… Oh!” Hetty bit her lip. “I do wish I’d brought them to London.”
Her Grace stared at her. “Quoi?”
Distracted by the sudden likeness to her brother, Hetty muttered, “It is nothing. I’ll explain later.”
“I can borrow some clothes from my staff. The footmen are huge, but the younger servants aren’t so big. No one visits before nine in London. I’ll come to you at eight of the clock.”
An alarming thought struck Hetty. “W-what if Guy is visiting a woman?”
“A mistress?” Genevieve asked, in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Yes.” Hetty swallowed a lump in her throat. Had she driven Guy into the arms of a Cyprian?
His sister shook her head. “She would not keep him from me for days at a time. And he is in love. A man in love does not visit a courtesan. NotGee. I may not have seen much of him for years, but I remember him as a loving son and a kind brother. He rescued our Maman and me when our chateau was burning, and my papa had gone to find Vincent. Gee fought a man much bigger than he, who tried to attack us. I don’t know where he found the strength, but he punched him to the ground and he led us to safety.”
That was the man Hetty knew.
“Gee wrote to me when he could,” Genevieve continued. “As a child he was honorable. Vincent never was. The twins were opposites. The light and the dark. This does not change.”
The coach drew to a stop in King Street. Hetty alighted as another problem faced her. What on earth was she to tell her aunt?
Hetty walked in and found the house in upheaval. A maid scurried past with her arms full of linen. “What has happened, Sarah?”
