The Duke's Fated Love

by Emily Bow

  Chapter 8

  The duchess was waiting for my response. Which would I choose of her possessions? What had the most worth? Her son. Ha. Where had that thought come from? I held in a snicker. Thorn wasn’t even looking at me and had done nothing but piss me off since he became king of the castle.

  I needed to focus.

  The envelope called to me as the most valuable. But I couldn’t think why. They’d think I was saying that because Thorn said so or because the professor was analyzing the family letters. They’d think I couldn’t form an opinion of my own.

  The envelope was the answer though.

  I couldn’t justify the envelope. I dug for my inner diplomat like I had to do when my younger sisters fought. “Thorn and Regina are both right.”

  Regina and Thorn’s heads cocked in similar aristocratic prideful ways. Like lions hearing the mewl of a smaller weaker creature on the jungle path ahead.

  I shifted on my feet. “We need more information. The costume jewelry could have matching pieces and be by a famous designer. The letter could contain an ancient secret or the answer to a historic puzzle.”

  “The last thing we need,” Thorn said, sounding extremely heartfelt, and then his face blanked. “Inheriting this castle was enough of a surprise for this decade.” He spoke the last part in a rush as if to cover the sentiment in the first sentence.

  It made me curious, but he didn’t explain further, and I wouldn’t quiz him in front of his mother. I could barely look at him in front of his mother. My gaze might reveal my thoughts, or I might stare too long trying to understand him. The duchess might read something into this situation that wasn’t there.

  “But if you had to pick only one, Imogen?” the duchess asked me.

  I’d pick the letter, but I couldn’t back up my theory or side with Thorn. Maybe I was refusing to agree with Regina over the jewelry because she was Regina.

  That left me with only the third object to choose. “I’ll go with the wooden box.” I lifted the box with a cloth and placed it on my gloved palm. “What’s in it? How old is it? Why did they keep it?” The questions sparked my enthusiasm, and my voice took on more sincerity. “As a symbol of history alone, it’s fantastic.” I tilted the item toward them. “See the intricate carvings? This was someone’s treasure. Now, it’s our mystery.”

  Regina yawned. “The box probably held the fake toe bone of a fake saint for someone to pray over.” She turned to Thorn. “Clearly, you need to bring in experts. Not students.”

  A totally unjustified attack on me that made the hair on my arms raise. I had my bachelor’s degree. I wasn’t a student. But one didn’t hire someone with a bachelor’s degree to do this level of work. My mouth dried, and I said nothing.

  “Mmm.” Thorn didn’t disagree with Regina, but from the flash of his dark blue eyes, he didn’t love being told what to do.

  Words burbled up inside me to defend our position here.

  Let it go. Let it go.

  “He did bring in an expert,” I said and breathed out in a rush. “Professor McCrary. She is an expert. And there’s nothing wrong with bringing only a few of us. If the castle were mine, I’d catalog everything before I allowed a boatload of strangers to prowl through my rooms. Anything could happen.”

  “You are strangers. Wanting to be locals doesn’t make it so,” Regina said as if she were stating the obvious. “What do they call those people who obsess over the English? Anglophiles?”

  One dose of Regina would cure any English lover’s obsession, but we needed their support to stay so I couldn’t one up her. “I’m not here for profit. Just to learn. Experts have biases. I’m cataloging every object as if it has the same worth.”

  Regina tugged the letter from the envelope. Barehanded. “It looks like a grocery list. How is that valuable? Obviously, my choosing the earring was correct.”

  Regina was ignoring the envelope in favor of the letter. Stamps had value. I took the paper from her carefully with a cloth and laid it back on the table. “The oil in our skin can damage things.” My tone matched hers in levels of snootiness. “I read an article once that said they found pineapple on an old menu list. But pineapple wasn’t known in England at that time. So, that one fruit changed the timeline of imports. You can see how that would cascade and change other research.”

  Regina held up her hands, closed her eyes, and shook her head. “None of that matters or has consequences. Maybe if you had found a seating chart with guest names listed. That may have been interesting. Seating order matters. Closest to the head of the table shows rank. What you found…” She opened her hostile hazel eyes. “Shows how many pigs we needed to slaughter for the feast.”

  One strong shove and she could be in the moat. I looked at her and tried to blast her from the room with my eyes.

  The duchess sighed. “We’re in the way here. We’ll leave you to get on with these interesting things.” The duchess shepherded Regina and Thorn toward the door.

  Right as they reached the exit, Lily rounded the corner with a bottle of water. Her timing was so on cue that I bet she’d been waiting outside and listening, lurking.

  Regina looked at the plastic bottle but didn’t take it. “Oh. Water. Why water? It’s afternoon. I’m English,” Regina said. “I was wanting tea, of course. Wouldn’t that be nice? With a few cakes.”

  Ungrateful intruder. Lily shouldn’t have been sent on Regina’s errand in the first place. Shyness didn’t mean servitude. And Lily was brilliant. An internet guru who was here because her mother insisted she take a break from computers. Anger her, and Lily could erase Regina from the World Wide Web.

  Lily mumbled something and came over to me, clutching the water in a tight grip, crunching the plastic.

  Thorn paused without leaving. “Are you scanning in the letters?” He spoke generically to the room, and his question could have been for either of us. “Before the transcriptions?”

  “Yes. And summarizing them. Who they’re to and from, the date, and general contents,” I answered without emotion.

  His mom moved beside him in the doorway as if she wanted to hear what he had to say to me or to move him along. I couldn’t tell which.

  “I’ll have a look at the summaries, before they go to anyone else.” Thorn paused. “You’ll alert me if you find anything of…a sensitive nature?”

  “Sensitive? Not to interrupt you two, but what can be sensitive in ancient history?” his mother asked. “Surely, we know the family legends already? And if we don’t, what would old finds matter to this millennium?”

  Thorn’s mouth tightened like he didn’t want to justify his suggestion.

  I felt as protective of my own family. Anytime Dad made the news, I braced myself against social media trolls. Even though rationally I knew it shouldn’t matter. Sick people typed sick things. “I’ll let you know if I uncover anything. Especially before I let the professor put them into a research paper.”

  Thorn blinked, and I couldn’t resist teasing him. “For example, I read an anecdote about the fifth duke’s fondness for streaking. It’s a fun ancient anecdote. Now, if the current duke,” I gestured to Thorn, “likes to streak, then it’s a modern scandal. I can see why we need your input.” My voice was half teasing, half sarcastic.

  The duchess covered her mouth and laughed.

  Thorn straightened taller, something almost impossible because his posture was already perfect. “I do not run naked around the castle.”

  Just upstairs at the local pubs. I erased naked thoughts of Thorn from my mind.

  “Wise. It’s far too cold here. Any bad behavior applies though. The old duke likes his…scotch…say… The young duke likes his scotch.”

  His nostrils flared and his blue-gray eyes met mine. “Enough.”

  Enough? What was he? Ninety? “It was just an example.” Okay, I was poking at him. I hadn’t liked his not looking at me.

  “Just finish. I have final approval on anything the professor writes. She’s been at this task a
ll summer. Surely she’s wrapping up by now?”

  I shook my head. If the professor were taking a few pictures of each room, sure she’d be done. But cataloguing everything in the castle? This was a massive project that could go on for years. My goal was to finish this one room. Go through the boxes we’d put in here, then through the tall Victorian hutch. Not wrap up the whole compound. But I didn’t even go there.

  “Come along, dear, or she won’t even finish those three artifacts,” the duchess said.

  Thorn moved to follow her but turned back to me. “I have confidentiality agreements with the professor.” He stared hard at me. “And her staff. You won’t like the outcome if such is breached.”

  I saluted him.

  He’d been easier to tease at the pub.

  Chapter 9

  When I returned from break, Thorn was in the workroom alone, digging through a cardboard box labeled kitchen. He thumped a silver teaspoon against his palm.

  “Careful.” I took the teaspoon from him. “Seventeenth century.”

  “You understand I own everything in here? We did establish that, right?”

  Now he was quoting Regina. Charming. Those two would be very happy together. “Mmmhmm.”

  “Is that doubt? Because the lawyers assure me that I do. Should you know something I don’t, I can spend my time elsewhere.”

  Go ahead. As soon as I thought it my body rejected the idea. Grr. My feelings about him were so freaking mixed I didn’t know how to handle the irritation, the wariness, the memories of him in a towel, and yeah, the freaking attraction. “You’d rather damage your spoon than be told what to do?” I handed him gloves. “You’re a preserver of the past. Do it right.”

  He rolled his eyes but put on the white gloves and moved to another crate. He paused over random curiosities, an old book, a metal hinge, a wooden bowl. I could help him if I knew what he was looking for, but from his closed-off expression, he wouldn’t welcome the inquiry.

  I picked up a 20th century butter knife and logged it in. Silver. Worn.

  “So, your parents live in America?”

  “In Houston, yes.”

  He wasn’t looking at me. Just going through the boxes. “And they’re together?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what does your father do? Is he an historian too?”

  I shot off my usual answer. “Pilot.” That career was simple and didn’t lead to more probing questions that would lead me to say astronaut, which would lead to drama. People’s reactions got excessive whenever I said astronaut.

  “Air? Land? Sea?”

  “Air.” Space was air.

  He raised his dark blue gaze to me. “Hmmm. A girl in every port then.”

  Ha. Yeah. So many girls on the moon. I drew back and smirked despite the odd rudeness of the question. Of all the things we worried about, Dad’s safety, his health, distance…women in other ports didn’t make the list. The Space Station wasn’t that populated.

  Thorn misread the expression on my face. “Yeah, well, that’s the way of it. Isn’t it?”

  I didn’t know where he was going with that, so I set him straight right there. “It’s not going to be the way of it in my relationships.”

  Thorn’s friend Sebastian strode in. I recognized him from the pub from the night I first met Thorn. I wasn’t sorry for the interruption.

  Sebastian was tall, thin, and fair. He wore skinny jeans and a dark blue Henley. I saw little if any resemblance to his sister. “Hiya, neighbor,” he said to Thorn and slapped his hand on the side of the entryway. “This is the heap? Can you believe I’ve summered in this county my whole life and have never been in this castle? And you’re getting rid of it?”

  Thorn put an iron horseshoe back into a crate. “This legacy is entailed. So, no.”

  They both spoke as if I weren’t in the room. Not that I cared. Whatever. I focused on work. I zoomed in on the bottom of a teacup, searching for a hallmark. There. English. Part of a set. Now I’d found a teapot, creamer, sugar bowl, and milk jug all with the same marking.

  Sebastian moved in front of me. “That needs a polish.” He reached barehanded for a tarnished silver tray.

  For all I knew, he was the type to rub the surface for a wish. I held up my hand. “Please.” I’d researched it. Expensive. “That’s an heirloom.”

  Sebastian dropped his hand away, and he backed up. “My mother would like it. Let us know what the appraiser says if you’re getting rid of any of the shiny stuff. You know her fondness for silver.”

  Thorn frowned. “There’s time for that later.”

  Sebastian motioned at me but spoke to Thorn, “You said they were wrapping up.”

  Why would he say that? We were nowhere near finishing.

  Thorn half lowered his eyelids. “The project may take longer than I thought.”

  “Not that I’m complaining. Got you down to my part of the kingdom. But there’s only one history professor and two students going after the task, right? The other student. Lily, is it? Er, where is Lily?” He voiced the question like he was trying to be casual which made him sound anything but casual.

  Interesting.

  Thorn frowned. “How would I know?”

  I reigned in my pleasure at his response and tried not to over analyze my reaction. The last thing I wanted to hear was Thorn rhapsodizing about his dynastic intentions. I typed on my keyboard pulling up a distraction for them. “I have a file you’ll find interesting.”

  Thorn turned to me, and his eyes flashed. “Do you?”

  He could be so intense. Which was wonderful when he focused on me. My find wasn’t that worthy though. “It’s an aerial view of the castle lands.” Neither voiced an objection so I projected the image on the one wall we’d cleared of tall boxes and then rose to turn off the light so the image brightened.

  They pointed out land boundaries and where Thorn’s thousand acres bordered Sebastian’s family property. Thorn wasn’t wrong, they lined up nicely for a merger. I should be happy for him or stir up some cultural interest in how the natives conducted marital negotiations. Instead, the thought of him marrying caused a pang in my chest. Maybe that was natural given that his lips had been on mine.

  Regina came in with a brisk stride. She stopped inside the door as she took in the darkened room. “Is it naptime?” She asked in a sharp voice no guy would want to hear in the dark. She hit the switch and turned the light back on, blinking as she spotted the guys.

  Now there were three workroom visitors. Three too many. My jaw tightened. Shouldn’t they wander the castle or have tea and scones in the parlor or play polo in the park? Wasn’t that what the aristocracy did?

  Regina put a hand on her hip. “What are you lot doing up here? Why are the lights off?”

  She knew what I was doing here. What the guys were doing here was her actual question.

  I turned a laser pointer on a structure in the image which was much dimmer with the lights up. “A Victorian stable runs along there,” I said. “Very large. I haven’t been through the building though, so I don’t know its condition.” An old barn didn’t hold my interest, but it might move these three outside.

  “A stable, you say?” Sebastian snickered. “Regina’s horse-mad. She’ll take a look.”

  Excellent. Exactly what I wanted. Her peach perfume would wear better out in the fresh air.

  Regina moved to Thorn’s side. “You can show me.”

  “Go off with you, Regina. I just got here,” Sebastian said.

  “Shut up, Sebastian.”

  Thorn shook his head. “Things to go through here. Sorry.”

  He was rejecting her, what did that mean? My heart gave a tiny bounce.

  Regina pivoted on the toe of her short boots. “Fine then. What’s the lad outside called? The fair-haired lad?” Regina asked as she pouted. “He can show me.”

  Billy Wilson, the barman’s son, was the only one I knew of who fit that description. He’d shown up in response to my job suggestion back at the p
ub. “Billy. He prefers being outside to working in here with us.”

  Thorn frowned.

  Why was he frowning? Over Regina leaving? Over the thought of Billy showing Regina around? My insides rejected the thought of me being an onlooker in their love match.

  Regina smiled. “Billy. Fine. I’ll find Billy to show me the stables.”

  Thorn turned to me as Regina left. “How do you know Billy?”

  If he was jealous, he should muck around in the stables with Regina himself. “Billy works here. I met him at the bar.”

  Thorn frowned harder. “Where?”

  “Do we have more than one bar in town?”

  Lily came in for another load of objects and walked through the projected image. She blinked, and her silhouette darkened the space. “Sorry.”

  I shut the projector off.

  Sebastian straightened and smiled. “Hi. Uh, you’re Lily, right?” Straightening seemed to be the British male’s standard acknowledgement of new people. Maybe he was bracing himself? Was he anticipating a blow? Anticipating dealing a blow? Who knew how the foreign male mind worked?

  Lily smiled and nodded but moved to one of the crates by the window. Once there, she stared down at the packaging, but I didn’t think she was seeing the stuff inside.

  “We’re off to London,” Sebastian said to the room.

  We? Him and Regina, I hoped.

  Sebastian pointed at the window. “I live over there. At Hopewell Manor.” He’d shifted his whole body toward Lily. “I’ll be back in a few weeks.”

  Lily grabbed a random box and started toward the door. “I’ll sort these in the ballroom.”

  “I’d love to see that,” Sebastian said.

  Lily hesitated and then kept going. Sebastian followed her.

  Thorn raised the lid on a crate. “I’ll be gone for a few weeks also.”

  My heart hated that, and I didn’t get why. Distance was exactly what I needed. Time would break the pull he had over me and help me realize that we may have had a connection, but he’d severed our ties. It was good he’d be going.