Undressed with the Marquess (Lost Lords of London #3) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,95

she did, she knew he wanted to. He wanted to flee any and all connection, even one that hadn’t yet occurred with the woman who was his sister.

But then Rose pressed a fistful of gravel into first Dare’s hand and then Kinsley’s, urging the pair to hurl those “rocks.”

And then, brother and sister began to skip those stones . . . the halting strains of their conversation drifting over.

Tears blurred Temperance’s eyes. She’d feared he’d fall back on his old ways . . . the only ways he’d known for so very long. She’d begun to doubt that he was willing to make a go with the family he’d been taken from. Only to see he could open himself to a new way . . . a new life, here in Mayfair.

And with Kinsley’s revelation, and the gift Temperance could never give Dare . . . a life that she could never, ever be part of.

Chapter 17

Dare had been without a family for so long he’d not thought he’d missed any aspect of it.

He’d been wrong.

As Temperance, Kinsley, Gwynn, and Rose rushed on ahead through the front doors, he stared after the happy quartet.

It was the singular most terrifying thing in the whole of his life. Belonging to . . . something. And yet there was also a conflicting sense of . . . rightness to it, too.

He stared up after them as they climbed the stairs to the nursery. Temperance paused at the top of the landing to look back. She briefly waved before hurrying after his sister. And that lightness filled his chest again.

The moment they’d gone, Spencer cleared his throat. “You have a visitor, my lord,” he said as he accepted Dare’s cloak.

The reverie from Hyde Park forgotten, all his senses went on alert.

“Mr. Swift,” his butler expounded. “I took the liberty of showing him to your office.”

His brother-in-law. With the grueling hours he worked, the younger man wouldn’t seek him out. Not at this time of day. Unless there was a matter of urgency that merited the meeting.

When Dare still didn’t speak, the butler cleared his throat. “That is, Mr. Chance Swift . . . Her Ladyship’s brother. Should I not have . . . ?” the other man asked haltingly.

“No. You were right to have him wait. Thank you, Spencer.” Reversing his direction, Dare quickened his strides, heading for his office.

The moment he entered, he immediately found his brother-in-law.

Seated with his elbows propped on his knees and his head in his hands, Chance tugged at his close-cropped curls. The distressed young man gave no hint that he’d heard Dare enter. Those warning bells blared louder than the ones hanging over St. Mary’s.

Dare pushed the door shut behind him with a quiet click; that sound seemed to penetrate Chance’s distractedness.

The other man jumped to his feet. “Dare. Forgive me for arriving without any notice—”

He waved off that apology. “You’re my brother-in-law and closer than blood. You need never apologize for paying a visit.” Urging Temperance’s brother back to the chair he’d vacated, Dare claimed the seat nearest him and drew it closer. “What—”

“They’re going to hang Joseph,” he said hoarsely.

All Dare’s muscles seized. “What?”

“They moved up his trial, and apparently it was not enough to deport him. They scheduled him to hang.” The younger man’s words all rolled together. “And I’ve not heard from Mr. Buxton. I’ve no idea if he’s even received my note, but I”—Chance swiped his palms over his face—“I don’t know how to help him, and then Rose will be an orphan, and Lionel will be left with only his father for protection, which is . . . none.”

Here he’d been busy playing at life while others were struggling just to survive.

Dare sat back and considered all those words. Wylie. Wylie was the one with all the control of Joseph’s fate.

He firmed his mouth. And there was only one thing that Wylie wanted and answered to . . .

Which meant there was also one person whose help he required . . .

Coming to his feet, Dare called for Spencer.

The butler immediately appeared, indicating he’d been standing in wait. “I require help,” Dare explained as he wrote directives on a small scrap of paper.

Spencer examined the instructions written there and then folded them. He tucked the page away in the front of his jacket pocket.

“Do you have any questions?”

“None, my lord,” Spencer said, and then took his leave.

While he and Chance waited for the other man to return, Dare resumed his examination of