“My pleasure.” Nell turned her eyes back to the strings and started playing. It was her passion, the harp, and she used to pester her neighbor to borrow hers before her father had been elevated.
Nell played the hymn to the end and looked at her father, who nodded with a secret little smile.
Nell flipped the levers on the harp and launched into a Lake Country reel. Duchess Graves looked startled, but Duke Graves looked suddenly pleased.
And her father was bobbing along with the music. That was why she’d learned all of this, to help her papa with his stress levels while he’d been struggling so during the war. She’d helped him with far more than a bit of music, but even her Mama didn’t know that.
And then Mary knocked on the doorframe and announced luncheon with a curtsy.
Nell stilled the strings, put the levers back into position and rose, tucking her harp back into the corner and putting the dust sheet back on.
Her father escorted Duchess Graves; her mama was escorted by the Duke, and Nell followed like a terribly awkward extra wheel.
Luncheon was horribly polite, but that was what her Mama would have wanted. Duchess Graves seemed strangely interested in Nell, asking her all sorts of questions and, once luncheon was over, pulling her to one side out of earshot of her mother.
“Come for tea tomorrow, dear.” Duchess Graves smiled at her. “I would like to discuss something with you.”
“Yes, your Grace, I would be happy to.” She flicked a look over towards her mother.
“Your Mama is welcome of course,” Duchess Graves said. “After all, we must discuss your coming out, as I have agreed to have Duke Graves sponsor you.”
“Your Grace, that is too generous.” Nell nearly fell over. Her mama had been worried about that for weeks, and to have a duke sponsor her would open so many doors to her mama. “Thank you so much.”
Duchess Graves patted her on the head and smiled, leaning close. “Your papa is a hero to the nation; it is the least I can do.”
Chapter Five
Nick was beyond furious with his feckless coward of a brother, with his idiot father who hadn’t ever curtailed his brother’s stupidity, and yes, even with his mother who was likely far from ignorant of what had been happening and should have done something about it before it had reached critical mass.
Because now Nick was Duke Graves, and he had the plaster on his hand to prove it. And as such, he was about to go and rain hell on his father. He was now Lord Graves, and everything was Nick’s responsibility now. He’d spent the afternoon with the secretaries for the palace, knew precisely how much in arrears the estate was and had needed to come up with a plan to fix it on the spot.
He slammed through the doors of the townhouse, marched up through the halls and threw open the doors to his father’s office. Only to be faced with an empty room. Had they fled? That was strange. He turned, only to nearly run into their butler.
“Their graces are dining with friends.” The unflappable man said calmly. “They should return shortly.”
“They still have friends?” Nick shut his eyes hard and inhaled. “I will be in here, alert me when they return.”
“Yes—”
“Your Grace,” he supplied, watching the man blanch and held up his bandaged hand.
“Yes, your Grace.” The butler bowed before turning and vanishing back down the hall.
“Saints all preserve me.” Nick turned back to the office, his office now, and clenched his hands into fists. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it properly.
He was sitting at the titanic oak desk going over a file when Lord Graves walked into the room with fury on his face.
Nick rose, raising his bandaged hand and holding it out towards his father. “By order of the king, I am now Duke Nicholas Graves.”
His father sputtered, blanched, and grabbed for the chair in front of him.
“And by order of the King, you are hereby ordered to remain under house arrest until the investigation concludes.” Nick pushed an envelope across the table towards him. “If you do not comply, you will be taken up, and we both know what that would do to Mother’s constitution.”
His father picked up the envelope and sat heavily, tearing the seal away and reading the letter. “I thought,” he set the letter back on the desk. “I thought with your brother having been taken up, that this would end.”
Nick sighed, “I cannot help you. Not without risking the duchy and Mother and I always swore I would do nothing that would risk her.”
“You need to talk to her.” His father sounded faint. “I was to escort Miss Warrick at her come out, but if I cannot leave the house—”
