“Who are these people?” Nora demanded. She waved the calling cards she held. “I mean, I see names, but I don’t understand.”
“This personage, Nora, is Richard Hayden, the Marquess Glenaire,” Jamie said, never taking his eyes from the man.
“But it says Duke of Sudbury here,” Nora corrected, indicating the card.
“You’ve been gone three years, Heyworth,” his erstwhile friend said. “I’ve come into my title.”
“Do I wish you happy or offer condolences?” Jamie asked with a sad smile.
An aristocratic eyebrow rose. “Whichever pleases you. You’ve missed many things your friends might have wanted to share.”
Jamie looked sick. He turned to the other man. “This man, Nora,is the duke’s brother-in-law, Andrew Mallet. Plain Mister. I don’t think he’s come into a title since I saw him last.”
Mallet chuckled. “No, but you did miss my second son’s birth. Bad of you, Jamie. We wanted you for godfather.”
“And this,” the duke said, “Is Lord James Heyworth, 7thBaron Ross.”
The words did not make sense.My Jamie? The man they seek? Nora’s heart stopped momentarily then jerked to life erratically.How,she wondered,can Jamie call the duke by his first name?Her husband’s familiar face belonged to a stranger. She didn’t know him at all.
“Did you think we would give up?” Mallet asked without malice.
“You? Yes. Richard? Never,” Jamie said.
“Quite right. We have much to discuss,” the duke said. He looked at Nora with raised brow.
Nora believed no aristocrat, no matter how exalted his title, had the right to order one about without even speaking. Resentment rose in her throat. She would not be ordered from her own drawing room by the raise of a ducal eyebrow.
“Is there an office or study we might use?” the duke asked as if he had read her mind.
“Yes. The way you came. On the right,” she felt a fool for babbling.Damn the man. Damn them all.
“Thank you,” he said with a slight bow. He pinned Jamie with a look and went the way she described.
Mallet’s mouth quirked up. “Don’t mind Richard,” he told her. “Rudeness was bred in his bones. He fears you’ll see the good heart under all that ice.” He winked and limped to the door.
Jamie rose to follow.
“Jamie,” she called after him. When he turned, she hesitated. “Your name is Jamie, isn’t it?”
He squeezed his eyes shut.
“Yes.”
“Why are they here?”
“They worry. Richard makes it a profession.”
“What…” she began. Questions rushed into Nora, one crowding out the others.Who are you?
“We’ll talk later,” he said with the air of a dying man, and left her.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Take help from your friends,” Andrew repeated for what felt like the twentieth time.
The interview had gone on far too long. Desperate to get to Nora, Jamie tried to cut it short.
“There is nothing to discuss,” he said.
