Page 39 of The Duchess Debt

“She wasn’t particularly beautiful, either, not on the outside. But shewasthe smartest little girl in the kingdom and also the kindest, and so every morning at dawn, before she started all the fires in the palace, she would take a basket of little red apples out to the stables to feed to the horses. She always dreamed about being able to ride away on one of those horses.”

“Me, too,” the little girl whispered.

Gabe placed a kiss to the top of her head. “Then, one day, a terrible fire broke out inside the palace. Rose was all alone, afraid, and lost in the smoke. But then, she saw her favorite horse come galloping through the palace to save her, the same horse she’d fed all those apples to.”

Helena eased back in the chair and listened to the story, captivated as much as Alice about the little girl who rode away on her horse and became involved in one adventure after another. Rose and her horse met all kinds of people and saw all kinds of wonderful places, and unlike in fairytales, every last one of them was real—the king of France, Russian ballerinas, a maharaja…Venice, Denmark, India… The only magic in the story involved the horse finding her in the fire, and from the engrossed expression on Alice’s face, she didn’t mind at all.

Gabe continued on with his story, pausing only to answer any questions that struck the curious little girl as the story unfolded. Eventually, Alice’s eyes drooped heavy with sleep, and she fought to keep them open.

When her eyes closed for the last time and didn’t flutter back open, Gabe slipped carefully off the bed, leaving Alice tucked up tight beneath the blankets with her doll. He silently took Helena’s hand to help her to her feet, then blew out the bedside candle.

Just as they reached the nursery door, Alice stirred, and she called out in a sleepy-soft voice, “Tomorrow night…another story…promise, Papa?”

He sent Helena a questioning look, but she didn’t nod. She didn’t move at all. She wanted this decision to be his alone, wanted to see how much affection had grown in him over the past few days for Alice—

“I promise,” he called out softly.

“You, too, Mama?”

The little girl was only half conscious, already snuggling back down into the warm blankets to fall all the way into sweet sleep, and she had no idea what she’d just said. But Helena’s heart thumped wildly with joy at the small slip.

Helena could barely speak past the knot of emotion in her throat. “Me, too.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

16 Days Until the Wedding

Helena peered through the tall drawing room window, her lips curled into a faint smile.

On the expanse of green lawn stretching out between the house and the stable, Gabe stood with Alice and the gray Shetland pony he’d purchased for her just yesterday. The little horse, saddled and bridled, was standing patiently while Gabe gave instructions to Alice, who nodded vigorously in return with all the solemnity of an archbishop at service. The little girl was dressed in clothes she had borrowed from the stable boy until a proper riding outfit could be made for her. In tan breeches, brown waistcoat and jacket, tweed cap, and black boots, she looked like a miniature version of Gabe, right down to the obstinate way she placed her hands on her hips and jutted out her chin. He might not have been her father, but the family resemblance was undeniable.

She watched as the little girl practice mounting and dismounting without a block. At first, Alice’s effort proved clumsy, but with practice, she was soon scrambling onto the pony without too much difficulty, if not yet with grace. She claimed victory by throwing her hands in the air with a laugh. If only Gabe could find the same revolve to claimheras his own.

“And for the table linens,” Verity called out to her from the settee in front of the fireplace, “I thought we could use the white ones and drape squares of yellow damask over them to add color. What do you think?”

“That sounds lovely,” Helena answered, although her attention was on Gabe and his little girl. Alicewashis, in every way that mattered. Why couldn’t Gabe’s heart accept that?

“And we will hang streamers of green garlands interwoven with daisies from the ceiling of the orangery. I know it is the wrong season for greenery, but I think bringing inside the outdoors would be a fresh change to the usual wedding breakfasts."

“That sounds lovely.”

On the lawn, Gabe was showing Alice how to set the stirrup length and fasten the buckles. The girl nodded slowly, her attention rapt, as if Gabe was sharing the deepest secrets of the universe with her.

“And of course, we must paint the elephant blue.”

“That sounds lovely,” Helena answered and smiled to herself when Alice mimicked Gabe and stretched up onto her tip-toes to check the bridle band at the pony’s ears.

Verity turned toward Helena on her chair and corrected, “That sounds like a circus.”

“What? Oh!” Helena spun around, embarrassed that she hadn’t been paying attention. “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

Verity set down her pencil, closed the planning book where she had been jotting down notes for the wedding, and shook her head with a patient smile. “There’s nothing to forgive.”

Helena didn’t believe her. At that very moment, the household staff were in a flurry to have all the arrangements completed for the wedding breakfast, which would be held in the orangery behind the house. Her dressmaker was surely sewing her fingers to the bone to have her trousseau done in time, not helped by Verity adding all kinds of items to the list. Helena and Gabe had been sparring about the wedding celebrations, for which he wanted a quiet affair for family and close friends that would be over by early afternoon, while Helena wanted to throw open wide the doors of the house and invite the entire village to a party that would last long into the evening. And Verity hadgraciously given up her afternoon yet again to help Helena go over the list of details and finalize plans.

The only person in the whole affair who wasn’t rattled by the short time frame was Reverend Barlow because it mattered nothing to him if he gave the wedding ceremony to five people or five hundred, and he already knew what he was going to wear.

Verity came up beside her and looked out the window to see what had so firmly captured her attention. “Ah, I see. It’s understandable why your mind has strayed…to your future husband.” Not noticing the way Helena’s cheeks pinked, Verity added thoughtfully, “I have never known Gabe to spend so much time with Alice.”