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He inclined his head slightly, “Have you not guessed? I would have credited you with more intelligence.” He bowed gracefully. “You have the pleasure of making the acquaintance of your guardian, Brock Haydon, Duke of Margate.”
“You lie,” Mandy hissed. “Our guardian is a gouty old man.”
The duke’s brows went up with his surprise at this remark. “I have no idea where you received such an account of me. But I do assure you that I have never suffered from the gout, nor have I been thought old—though I certainly have some six or so years on both of you.”
“Hold on a minute,” Ned stuck in. “My sister is right on the mark. The duke was a friend of our grandfather’s. You aren’t old enough to have been one of his intimates!”
“No, I had not that honor, though my father did,” replied the duke. “You are speaking of my father, though he certainly was not gouty. He had every intention of coming up here to make your acquaintance. His illness prevented him from doing so, and I lost him last year, not long after you lost your grandfather. He passed your care onto me, and I am afraid I have been neglectful of my duty.”
The twins exchanged glances over this and Mandy shrugged, “So you know what has happened—you got Skip’s letter?”
He sighed and said, “I did and I am aware that I have done a poor job of looking after your interests. However, I intend to settle this affair as quickly as possible.”
Mandy stared at him and said, “We are not children and very capable of…”
He cut her off, first with a rueful laugh and then with a hand in the air, “My first mistake was thinking that. You have proven me wrong. This latest escapade of yours—breaking your brother out of prison, when in fact, you knew Skip had written to me, and that I would come and make things right, shows a lack of maturity beyond what I imagined.”
Mandy gasped, “I had no way of knowing you would come. Yes, I knew Skip wrote to you, but the preceding year gave me no hope of your attending to his request for help.”
“Again, it displays the fact that you did not think things out. While scandal is not something I enjoy it is more than avoiding that which brings me. Skip tells me young Sherborne is innocent, and as I trust my friend’s judgment, I must make a push to do what a guardian must do, and extricate you from this situation.”
“Well, you needn’t worry on our account, we are managing very well,” Mandy returned, her chin well up.
“Again, perhaps I have not made myself clear. I mean to extricate you from a situation of your own making. Had you not broken your brother out of prison, we might have been able to put this behind us quite easily.”
“Oh, you are more odious than I at first imagined,” Mandy declared in outraged accents. “They had all made up their minds to it that he was guilty. We didn’t have a choice.”
“No? Very well, let us leave that for now. The point is that I mean to exert myself on your account,” he returned blandly. “I have many reasons for doing so. One and very importantly, above all other considerations, I owe it to my father. He would have wanted me to help you out of your mess. Thus, I shall see to it for his sake and for the sake of your grandfather’s memory that you are cleared. It is my duty to see to it that this ugly business is dispensed with immediately, and that is what I shall do.”
“You owe? Your duty? No doubt, you are only afraid the scandal will come back at you!” Mandy seethed.
“Indeed, I would not like that at all,” he said watching her stomp about.
“You are a perfectly selfish and horrid man,” Mandy told him with a wag of her finger. “You did not bother with us, or how we went on, regardless of what you owed your father. Now, when it might come back to haunt you, when a scandal might interfere with your standing with the haute ton, you appear and think yourself a wonderful thing!”
The duke eyed her and looked as though he was about to deliver a set down when Ned interrupted them to say, “Look now, Your Grace, Mandy…let us move off the open road.”
“My intentions, exactly,” said the duke. “Pick up your pistol and my driver’s and mount up. Your sister and I shall follow on her horse.”
“I shall not ride with you,” protested Mandy. “I will ride with my brother.”
“No, Miss Sherborne. I have no faith in the pair of you and suspect at the first chance you would ride off without me. I don’t intend to allow that to happen, as that would put me to the trouble of searching every inch of land until I found you and let me assure you, I can be tenacious.” He eyed her deliberately, “Now unless you intend on walking…?” He was already in the saddle and reaching a hand down to her. “Come, ‘tis time you two show me where you have been hiding yourselves.”
Ned hoisted himself into his saddle and watched as his sister allowed the duke who had her hand, to use the stirrup and hoist herself up. He situated her in front of him on the saddle which she found extremely uncomfortable. She tried to hitch herself up and straddling finally found a spot that didn’t quite hurt.
He had the reins in one hand, and his left arm around her waist.
“You needn’t hold me. I know how to sit a horse.”
“So you do,” he said not easing up on his hold.
“This is not comfortable, you are holding me too tightly,” she announced as she tried to find a fit.
“Is it not? I have no complaint,” he murmured, not giving her an inch.
“Well, that is because you have the entire saddle under you, and I seem to be straddling poor Chester’s neck.
“I imagine we don’t have far to go…so buck up, you’ll do,” he answered.
