Heiress in Red Silk (Duke's Heiress #2) - Madeline Hunter Page 0,44

just enough to indicate he no longer merely comforted her. She tasted a new power coming from him, and noticed how her own body responded. She became very conscious of his hold on her. She lingered just long enough to give herself a small, distracting indulgence. Then she moved her head and leaned away.

He gazed down, his dark eyes still looking into hers, reflecting unfathomable thoughts as they so often did. His face, handsome and firm with its angles chiseled by moonlight, remained close enough to kiss her.

Instead, he released her. “Let us go find Minerva.”

Chapter Ten

The summons came early. Kevin received it at once because he had barely slept. His fitful night left him in no mood for the message he read.

Whiteford House. Nine o’clock. Hollinburgh.

Nicholas used his title with the rest of the family, but never with Kevin or Chase. Seeing it now, and reading the terse command, turned Kevin’s bad mood darker.

He did not have time to indulge Nicholas today. He had things to do, once the world was up. He was supposed to see Rosamund at ten o’clock unless she was too upset by last night to call. By then he needed to be past several decisions he faced, and already putting plans into place to execute them.

All the same, he rode to Whiteford House on Park Lane. As he handed his horse to a groom, Chase rode up.

“You too?” Chase said, dismounting. “If it couldn’t wait for morning calls, it must be important.”

“I hope so, if I am supposed to tug my forelock for him.”

“I see your mood has not improved much from last night.”

They followed the servant up to the ducal apartment, with Kevin thinking again about last night. The sorry episode had been on his mind a great deal during the last hours.

“Did Miss Jameson find some solace with Minerva?” he asked Chase.

“As I heard it, which means it may have been otherwise, she entered her home much composed. I think Minerva may have been more distressed than Miss Jameson by the time they parted. She certainly sounded both appalled and irate when she returned home.”

“Filled your ears, did she?”

“She wants Philip drawn and quartered.” He paused on one of the steps so the servant got farther ahead of them. “It was unfortunate the others were there. Otherwise, I would have stood aside and let you at him.”

They reached the landing that led to the apartment. A forest of precious urns and vases stretched in front of them, placed on pedestals in rows that begged for accidents. “I thought he would sell these by now and get rid of this eccentric display that Uncle set out,” Kevin said.

Chase began negotiating his broad shoulders through the fragile display. “He concluded that it discouraged Aunt Agnes from intruding on him, which normally she would feel free to do even if he sent down word he was not receiving. Her ample bosom is not happy among these rarities.”

Kevin took a different path, one that brought him past a Chinese pot that he admired. They met up outside Nicholas’s door. The servant opened it and ushered them in.

Nicholas waited in his dressing room. He had not changed it at all since he inherited Melton House. Still the same carved chair near the window, which Nicholas favored for reading. Still the blue upholstered divan and chairs in a circle, where he entertained friends and the relatives he could abide.

Now he greeted them from where he stood near a window, looking out on Park Lane. “Thank you both for coming.”

“The hour is early,” Kevin complained. “We both know Chase is up near dawn, and I am often not yet in bed if I am occupied, but what causes Hollinburgh to be awake and dressed?”

Nicholas’s expression noted the emphasis on his title. “A matter of regarding the family’s honor. Which means Hollinburgh’s honor.”

Kevin thought that odd, mostly because Nicholas had not been especially glad to find himself with the duties of being a duke.

“I have almost made a decision,” Nicholas said. “I only need to know if either of you object.”

“Oh hell, you are getting married,” Kevin muttered. “Who is she?”

“You don’t have to make it sound like it is a sorry fate,” Chase said.

“Of course not. I am delighted for you, Hollinburgh. Who is the duchess-to-be?”

“Are you going to address me like that the whole time you are here?”

“I was summoned by Hollinburgh, so I am addressing him.”

“I don’t mean the title. I mean the sneering way you say