The Duke of Morewether’s Secret (26 page)

“If anything does, it’s you who’ll pay for it .”

Thea narrowed her eyes on her adversary. “I suggest you keep your dog away from my family.” Then she had a moment of inspiration. “And I’ll thank you to address me with the proper respect.”

Mrs. Barsdon snorted. “How does one address a no-account bumpkin?”

As if dropped from Zeus above, Hudson bustled over to Thea, out of breath. “Your Grace.” The maid gave a deep curtsey. “We seem to have a bit of a scuffle.”

The look on Mrs. Barsdon’s face was classic. Thea thought she could kiss her maid for her perfect timing.

“Your Grace?” Mrs. Barsdon squeaked. She opened and closed her mouth once or twice without making another noise, then she finally managed, “I had no idea.”

Thea tossed her head with imperious indignation. “Now you do.” She turned away from the gaping Mrs. Barsdon to face Hudson. “What seems to be the trouble?”

“Well … You see …” Hudson gestured behind her. “The boys …”

My word. It had only been five minutes. What could they possibly … Thea huffed out an exaggerated breath and followed after her harried maid.

“Thank you, Your Grace,” Mrs. Barsdon called after her.

The last thought Thea had before she entered her cabin to find complete chaos was, while he might be a complete reprobate, at least her husband’s title was handy. This latest problem was immediately evident. “Where are your shoes?”

Hektor gaze didn’t meet hers even when Thea stooped to be more even with his eye line. “I don’t know.”

“This is a small cabin.”

Hektor shrugged and stared at his stocking feet.

Thea rubbed her forehead. “You’ve been the only one wearing your shoes. Surely you can remember where you left them.”

“I do know where I left them,” her younger brother assured her.

“Where?” She asked in Greek. Maybe this mind-numbing conversation was due to Hektor’s lazy grasp of English. She’d been hoping a full immersion while on the ship would have the boys better suited for life in London.

“Here. By my bed.” He pointed to an empty spot of floor.

“Then where are they?” Frustration was making her short-tempered.

Again, Hektor shrugged, and pointed at his brother who stepped into the room.

“Hektor seems to think you know where his shoes are.” Thea gave Georgios a hard stare. Her brothers didn’t seem to have any fear of her at all, and why should they? She was their sister, not their mother. Still, she was charged with their safety and education. Something she’d expressly asked for, she should remember. Unfortunately, the only experiences she and her brothers shared prior to this trip were fun so they didn’t see her as a disciplinarian. Things were going to have to change.

“Aye.” Georgios had picked up the sailor slang.

Maybe her first act of discipline would be to wring both of their necks. It’d been two weeks of being run ragged and she was bloody well tired of it. “Then where are they?”

Georgios could barely speak through giggles. “I threw them overboard.”

She stared at him for several long seconds. Hektor joined in and soon they were both giddy with laughter. “When?”

“This morning.” Hektor wheezed.

“After breakfast.” Georgios added between guffaws.

There was no point in asking why. The only explanation they would come up with would be because it was fun. She turned to leave the room but paused at the doorway. “Get ready for bed.”

Hektor’s laughter ended with an abrupt cough. “It’s light out?”

Thea nodded and raised her eyebrows high in challenge, waiting for them to protest further.

“But that’s not fair. We haven’t had dinner.”

“Sadly, no one is allowed in the dining room without shoes.” She twisted her lips in a wry smile. “Perhaps you both will come up with a solution before breakfast, or you’ll be awfully hungry come lunch.” She whirled out the door and slammed it behind her.

She swung into her cabin and flopped onto the bed. The journey since leaving Greece had been so disappointing. She’d thought the three of them would be like a real family. From the beginning it had been Hektor and Georgios in one prank after another, designed to make her feel foolish. She also felt left out. At twenty-six she should be well past the need to fit in, especially with her brothers.

Her father’s refusal to allow her to build a relationship with her half-siblings, the bastards as he’d called them, had only made her desire it even more. It had taken a year for Alexios to tolerate her much less befriend her. He’d seen her as the pampered daughter who lived in the mansion. The reality was she was the lonely child with no friends and no siblings to play with or fight with or to even have rivalries with.

She’d have gladly given up all her schooling and even her belongings if it meant Alexios would be her friend. He was half English, too, wasn’t he? The argument got her nowhere — not with Alexios and not with her father. Being forbidden only made her more determined.

And now she was trapped on a boat with two brothers who hated her. Surely she was dragging them all to London for more unhappiness. Hektor and Georgios were sure to hate stuffy English schools, and Zeus only knew what unholy torment her husband had planned upon her return. She was miserable, and she was dragging everyone down with her.

This had been an awful idea from its conception.

~~~***~~~

Why was every single house in Greece on a hill? It was a beautiful place and Christian had no trouble whatsoever in seeing why Thea had missed the islands so much, but none of these hills ever went down. Up, up, up. They should have hired one of the donkeys at the dock.

“Come on, Luce, don’t lag so far behind,” Christian called over his shoulder. Trudging seemed to be the only task his daughter did not do with boundless enthusiasm. “Not much further.”

Along the main road and turn at the church. Turn again at the big tree. Giant white house on the hill. The directions seemed simple enough even when given in halting English by a food vendor at the pier when asked for the Viscount’s house. The man didn’t know if the family was at home, but that was the only place Christian could think of to start.

The countryside itself was a rolling landscape, taupe and sage green, broken up by stunning flowering bushes and succulents which appeared as if by magic to flash dazzling color on the earth. Each time they reached the summit of a hill the view below was breathtaking. He’d never seen such brilliant blue. Cerulean blue. He’d heard of oceans of such clarity a man could see to the bottom, see every fish and plant, but he’d never experienced it himself.

When he and Lucy finally crested the hill, which was more like a mountain, the house came into view. A massive square structure squatted at the top, white washed walls in what Christian recognized as the Mediterranean style, but with a huge blue dome in the center. A bright pink vine scaled the archway into the garden and wound its way over the exterior, its long ropey tendrils holding fast to the block until it reached the tiled roof.

He imagined a warm summer evening lounging on the upper veranda, the sweet scent of the flowers mingling with the salty dampness of the ocean wafting over him on a soft breeze, the sun sinking into the bluest water. It was quiet like the English countryside, but that was the only thing about the place that reminded him of home at all. There was no traffic noise, no filthy soot cloud hanging over the city. Not even the countryside of his farm was as calming.

He might be in love with Greece.

“Pretty,” Lucy said when she caught up to him. “Is this her house?”

He looked at his daughter out of the corner of his eye. “No, I think it’s that one on the hill.” He pointed to a house some distance away atop a small mountain.

Lucy tossed her head back and whined. “That’s too far.” She threw herself on a boulder next to the road with great dramatic flair. “You go ahead. I’ll wait here.”

“I’m teasing. This is the one.”

Somehow she managed to drag herself to her feet with almost as much drama as before, grumbling the entire time and giving him a hateful glare. “I thought the donkey was precious. Why didn’t the man say how far it was? Can we stop here and rest?”

Christian tuned her out and took in the estate. A long drive led to the front of the house, the magnificent façade spanned wide across a manicured meadow just this side of tamed. Behind the manse, the meadow stretched onward towards the rolling hills on the right and the sea on the left. A herd of horses grazed.

A polite rap on the door brought no one. Christian knocked with more force. A house this big, where could all the servants be? He used his fist the third time and banged hard against the wood. “Hallo,” he called out. Christian peeked in the window and saw that the furniture was covered with sheets. Was the house closed? Where was Thea if her house was closed?

Lucy had found a bench and was lying on it with the crook of her elbow over her face. Christian rolled his eyes. He left her there and followed the driveway until it rounded the house. Once Christian was clear of the house he saw the meadow held a training ring and several paddocks. Along with the four horses he’d seen, there were also two foals. A man he hadn’t noticed before was out in the field with the horses.

“Ho, there,” he called as soon as he was in flagging distance. He waved his arm in a friendly manner. The man was dressed in workman’s clothes and had a cap pulled low over his forehead. He turned to fully face Christian as he tromped his way through the scrubby grass, but he did not return the salute.
Perhaps he doesn’t speak English.
“Good morning.”

The man nodded which still didn’t clarify whether he spoke English or not. He was unusually tall, over six-feet. Christian rarely encountered men as tall as he was.

He charged ahead. “Is this the home of Viscount Ashbrook?”

The man shook his head. Either he understood English or he simply preferred non-verbal communication.

“Hell.” If this wasn’t the house, maybe it really was the one on that further hill. He had no idea how he was going to convince Lucy to climb up there. Perhaps he could hire one of this fellow’s horses. “Can you give me directions to Ashbrook’s? Is it that the one?” Christian pointed to the far away shape.

“Ashbrook is dead. He doesn’t have a house anymore.” So English it was, spoken in an accent exactly like Thea’s.

“Was this his house then?”

Another nod.

Thank God.
“I’m looking for Miss Ashbrook. Is she at home?”

The man’s lips pressed into a line even grimmer than before, if that was possible. “Why?”

Christian was tired and thirsty but maintained an affable smile. “She and I have business.”

He couldn’t be certain but it seemed as though the other man’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of business?”

“Private business.”

The man’s hands went to his hips. “Then I don’t know if she’s at home.”

“Is there someone else with whom I can inquire? A butler perhaps.”

“No.”

“No, there is no one else, or no, there isn’t a butler?” He inhaled through his nose in an effort to calm himself. Getting angry was not going to convince the taciturn man to help him and at this point there was no one else. “The house seems closed up, but I must speak with Miss Ashbrook. I’ve traveled very far and time is of the essence.”

“Who are you?”

“I am the Duke of Morewether of London, England, and you are?”

“What business do you have with Miss Ashbrook?”

Christian’s temper was running short. “Who are you?” he repeated and wiped the smile from his face.

They measured each other’s resolve for several tense moments, then finally the man spoke. “I am Alexios.”

“Do you work for Miss Ashbrook’s family?”

“No.” The man’s eyes definitely narrowed. “Now tell me what you want with Althea or I’ll have you removed from the property.”

Christian didn’t like the idea of this man referring to his wife with such familiarity. When did this conversation veer so far out of hand? All he wanted was to find his wife and instead he was dealing with a volatile Greek, and he was in no mood. “I’d like to see that since there’s no one here but you.”

Alexios removed his cap and shoved it in the back waistband of his trousers. He was a handsome man in a swarthy sense, very Mediterranean. He also looked remarkably like Christian’s wife, only his skin was darker from days in the sun. It was the eyes though, that gave him away. Any person with remarkable blue-gray eyes as striking as Thea’s would have to be related to her in some fashion.

Christian let his smile slide back in place and the frown melt away. “Ah, you must be one of her brothers.” Again he extended a hand this time as a peace offering.

His hand was ignored. “You have until I count to five to tell me who you are, sir.”

Christian understood overprotective brothers. He was one himself. He allowed his hand to drop back at his side. “I’m her husband.”

Alexios didn’t count to five before his heavy fist swung. Christian didn’t remember anything after the grass came up to meet his face.

Chapter Twenty-six

It turned out only the public rooms in the Viscount’s house were closed. The family rooms were well lived in, especially the old Viscount’s study where Christian was nursing a sore eye and a glass of whiskey.

“Is it turning color yet?” he asked his attacker.

Alexios quirked an eyebrow and gave a one shoulder shrug. “It’s red.”

“It’ll be black and blue before dinner.” Christian probed at the flesh and bone with gentle fingertips. The man had a mean cross. Christian had only been out for a second. He’d never lost consciousness before; not during the countless fights and scrapes he’d been in during his youth and not when he sparred for exercise at Gentlemen Jim’s. He’d had a reputation as one willing to tussle at the slightest provocation and that came with the guarantee that Christian never went down.

He only received a mute Greek glare in response. Alexios had extended a hand and yanked Christian off the ground when he’d come to. Then, he wordlessly made for the house. Christian followed not knowing what else to do with himself. The glass of liquor had been offered, and he’d collapsed on the leather sofa. They’d passed the last twenty minutes or so in relative silence. Christian contemplating the million questions he had for Thea’s brother, and he assumed the man had as many questions for him as well.