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“As inmyParkvale House?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Xavier chewed on his lip a moment longer, then glanced at me. “Ces, didn’t you say that Frederick meant to call round the Orthams this morning?”
I frowned. “He did say something about it to Imogene, yes.”
“Christ.” Xavier pushed violently back from the table, causing the ice to rattle in our water glasses and the cutlery to clatter on the plates.
“Where are you going?” I asked, though I had a feeling I already sort of knew. “What do you think is going on?”
“I think Georgina is doing her very best to turn Ortham against me. Not hard if his daughter’s already feeling her worst.”
I cringed. Crap, that had been partly my doing.
Xavier held out his hand and helped me up from the chair. “Don’t feel bad. She had it coming, babe. And for what it’s worth, I’d give anything to have seen her face when you told her where she could go.”
I tried to smile, but it was hard. I honestly wasn’t sure of what to say.
“Gibson,” he barked. “You’ll tell anyone who asks that we’re still leaving for Mayfair.”
“Of course, Your Grace.”
“We’re not going to Mayfair?” I asked as Xavier started towing me out of the room. “And we’re leaving now?” We weren’t supposed to meet Sofia at the house until much later.
“We are,” Xavier confirmed both questions. “With a stop at Parkvale.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
That was the first day I realized how quickly things moved in Xavier’s world when he really wanted them to. Within fifteen minutes, he’d wolfed down the remainder of his lunch. Thirty more, and he’d left instructions for the staff in his absence, and another assistant of his had sent a helicopter to pick us up in one of the estate’s paddocks, of all places. Less than two hours later, we touched down on a heliport practically a stone’s throw from Mayfair just as the sun was starting to sink closer to the buildings guarding London’s skyline.
Both of us were jittery withsomething. Excitement? Nerves? I honestly didn’t know.
But there was a distinct feeling that both of our lives were about to change forever.
“What do you think we’ll find?” Part of me wondered if this wasn’t a bit too anticlimactic. Maybe we’d hurried a bit too much, rushing things without thinking. It had the feel of playing into someone else’s trap.
“I don’t want to give her time to scheme any longer,” Xavier said as Ben pulled up outside of the Parkvale gates. “Stop here, mate. We’ll let ourselves in. Make sure you’re there on time for Elsie and Sof.”
“Of course,” Ben said.
Xavier helped me out, then turned as the car pulled away. “I just want to be done with it. If she and the Orthams, or anyone else, are doing anything to interfere with our lives, it’s got to stop. The notes, the terrorizing, all of it.” He gripped me by the shoulders and touched his long nose to mine. “This is our time now, Ces.”
My heart thrummed in response. Xavier going to battle for his family? Yes, please. I’d never get sick of it.
“Then let’s tell the snooty jerks where to shove it,” I said and allowed him to lead me up to the house’s entrance, where he unlocked the massive front door and let us inside.
It was clear even then that this was certainly not a “quiet night in” for Georgina. Parkvale was by no means as large as Kendal, but it was still enormous by most standards. The labyrinth of rooms meant that in order for voices to carry through to the foyer, as they were now, there had to be quite a party assembled.
Which likely meant a lot of plotting afoot.
“Excuse me, may I help—oh! Your—Your Grace.”
After Xavier had helped me remove my trench coat, I turned to find the Parkvale butler, Bledsoe, approaching at a steady clip across the parquet floors. The pencil-thin man looked a bit frazzled—I wondered if he was as surprised by the night’s party as we were. Or if it was just us that had him in a tizzy.
“Hello, Jeeves,” I said cheerily to the butler. “Remember me?”
Xavier snorted. “Jeeves?”
