He loved herbecauseshe was the wrong kind of duchess.
No. She’s exactly the right kind of duchess. For me.
Before he could say more, the front door swung open, the Dumpkins butler looking more than a little relieved. Theolder man stepped out of the way as Cash pulled Athena inside.
“Your Grace, I believe Mrs. McLaughlin has found a new clue.”
Cash nodded, the reminder of his son’s current predicament dragging his attention away from future possibilities. He hoped the butler’s announcement meant Athena’s theory was correct, and the lads reallywereat Dumpkins. “Upstairs?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Your Grace. He was surrounded by people who knew him as the Duke of Cashard, but Athena had called him, “Yer Grease.”The thought had him smiling as the pair of them hurried—her hand still in his—up the stairs.
“Your Grace!” The plump housekeeper waved as she hurried toward him. “Oh, Your Grace. Thank goodness—” She skidded to a stop and cocked her head at him. “Are you feeling well? Did you find the poor lad?”
He realized she was referring to his smile. Was he really that somber of a man?
He squeezed Athena’s hand, knowing anyone who could call himDisGraceduring an argument was someone who would always make him smile.
“We haven’t found him, but we have some new clues. As do you, so I’ve been told?”
Mrs. McLaughlin nodded hurriedly and thrust a hand into her apron pocket. When she pulled out what appeared to be an ancient scroll, Athena let out a relieved gasp and reached for it.
The woman took an alarmed step back, but Athena managed to grab the scroll after all. “This is from my father’s collection, I am certain of it! The two of us have been building a library of Oliphant history from the dark ages, and this was one that Da said had turned up missing after Callan’s filching.”
Cash’s fingers hovered over the scroll, not wanting to damage it. “Why would a young lad care about medieval history?”
“It ishishistory.” Athena looked up at him with something like pleading in her hazel gaze. “Da and I have been buying up what we can, because Oliphant history is the only family history Callan will have. And we have told him that—told him that one day he will read it all and understand his family’s past!”
The only family Callan will have. Because the lad was a bastard, and the Oliphant name was the only one he would bear?
But Cash personally thought Callan Merritt had a nice ring to it.
“If you’re certain this is from the Oliphant collection, then it’s a valuable clue,” he told Athena.
She gave a relieved sigh before jerking her attention back to Mrs. McLaughlin. “Where did ye find this?”
The housekeeper was glancing between the pair of them, as if startled to be addressed by a lady she hadn’t been introduced to. But when Cash made no attempt to correct the situation, she blinked and pointed. “On—on the way up to the third floor.”
The servants’ quarters!
“Come,” Cash barked.
Athena barely had time to thrust the scroll toward Mrs. McLaughlin and plead, “Please return it to my father’s estate—gently!” before Cash took her hand and pulled her toward the small staircase at the end of the corridor.
Together, they thundered up the stairs, but at the top, Cash pulled to a stop. Here, the hallway was smaller and the doors closer together. Faces—maids and footmen, dragooned into the search—stopped to peer at him.
“Have you found anything else?” he almost shouted; sure they’d understand what he was referring to.
Heads were shaking in denial when one young maid spoke up from the other end of the corridor.
“Here, Your Grace.” She lifted a small pillow. “I found this?—”
Athena pulled him down the corridor. “Nae one recognizes it?”
The young maid tried to curtsey and hand Athena the pillow all at once, and ended up tipping sideways before Cash righted her. It was obvious she was flustered over how odd it was for a strange lady like Athena to be wandering around the servants’ quarters at Dumpkins.
With a duke, for that matter.
