A Duchess a Day (Awakened by a Kiss #1) - Charis Michaels Page 0,92

cousin’s sighting of Miss Snow does not come to fruition, I will go back.”

“What?”

“If this cousin cannot locate her—if no one can locate her—then Girdleston suggests that her family will revisit the charges.”

“But you believe that you could find her.”

“Yes. I could find her. I was this close!” He held out his thumb and forefinger.

“But you’ve not been able to search,” she realized, “because you were hired to mind me.”

“Girdleston offered me enough money to provide for my father and sisters for the rest of our lives. It is an inordinate sum. I need that money, Helena. There was no option but to take this job.”

“No wonder you resisted helping me,” she repeated.

“The money did not keep me from helping you.” He stopped walking and ducked into the shadowy gap between two buildings, pulling her with him.

“The real reason I didn’t help you,” he whispered, taking her by the arms, “is Girdleston’s threat of returning to jail.”

“But how can he—”

“The duke’s family is so powerful, Helena,” he exclaimed, his voice a harsh whisper. “This is what I’ve been trying to impress upon you. I’d been fighting for my innocence and he turned up with a story about someone seeing a girl resembling Knightly Snow—and I’m released in a day?”

Helena said nothing. She shook her head like a person denying the inevitable.

Declan continued, “I’ve been a pawn in their game since the beginning, and justice and fairness have no meaning. Who’s innocent or guilty makes no difference. Girdleston couldn’t care less about any of it,” he finished, “but he reads the papers; he keeps up with life at court. And when he needed a very desperate man to do exactly as he asked, someone with no sympathy for a very sympathetic young woman who is too beautiful for any sane man to resist, he knew who to ask. And how to manipulate me. His job offer was very clear: ‘Do just as I say or you won’t get paid. Oh, and you might also go back to jail.’ ”

“No,” said Helena.

“Yes,” he said. “And now you know.”

“But is that . . . it?”

Declan looked at the sky. Only this girl.

Relentless.

“What do you mean, is that it?” he asked. “Helena, do you hear? Your husband might spend the next twenty years in prison. I had one job: to see you marry Lusk. I have obviously failed at that job.

“Whatever machinations Girdleston played to get me out of prison will snap back into place as soon as we’re discovered,” he said. “If you fail to marry Lusk, I’m going to prison, likely the very same day.

“And that’s why I won’t be able to provide for you or protect you or even bloody see you. I will be locked up. Powerless. My father, my sisters—” His voice broke.

“Declan,” she said softly, putting a hand to his face.

“It’s terrible in prison, Helena. It is hell on earth. But I would have done it in a second if it meant keeping you from Lusk. I am running mad, worrying that nothing we’ve planned will work.”

“Declan,” she repeated. “We will sort it. We will hire new lawyers. We will send an investigator to France. I will go to bloody France. Girdleston is not God. He may’ve gotten you out of prison but there is no guarantee he can send you back.”

“Helena, you have been fighting him for five years. He hired an accused felon simply to get you down the aisle. The only reason he’s not won so far is because his accused felon is in love with you. But I assure you, our love is no match for the dukedom.”

“No. Stop saying that. The reason he’s not won is because his greed and entitlement have finally caught up with him. I will turn his nephew against him. See if I don’t.”

“Helena,” Declan sighed. “We cannot hinge everything on three young women who, based on everything we’ve seen, will be completely ignored by Lusk in a drunken haze.”

“They won’t be,” she insisted.

“They might. And then you will be forced to carry on with the wedding, until the terrible moment when you reveal that you cannot marry the duke because you’re already married—to me.” He dropped his head against the wall.

She slid into his arms, holding him tight. “We’ll run away.”

“What of your orchard? Or my father? If I return to prison, you must be able to provide for yourself. Your parents will disown you.”

“Stop,” she said, slapping both hands against his chest. She brought her face nose-to-nose