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Several hours later Grace was sitting in a chair in the corridor outside the dowager’s bedcha more than to crawl into her own bed, where she was quite certain she would toss and turn and fail to find sluer was so overset, and indeed had rung so ed the chair to its present location In the last hour she had brought the dowager (ould not leave her bed) a collection of letters, tucked at the bottolass of brandy; another -dead son John; a handkerchief that clearly possessed solass of brandy, to replace the one the dowager had knocked over while anxiously directing Grace to fetch the handkerchief

It had been about tenbut sit and wait in the chair, thinking, thinking

Of the highwayman

Of his kiss

Of Thomas, the current Duke of Wyndhaer’s long-dead middle son, and the man who apparently bore his likeness And his na, uneasy breath His name

Good God

She had not told the dowager this She had stood hwayht of the partial ht actually function, she set about getting them home There was the footman to untie, and the coacher - she was so clearly upset that she did not even whisper a coe with her

And then she joined the footman atop the driver’s seat and drove them home She wasn’t a particularly experienced hand with the reins, but she could e There was no one else to do it But that was so do

She’d got them home, found soer, and all the while she’d thought -

Who was he?

The highwayman He’d said his narandson?

She had been told that John Cavendish died without issue, but he wouldn’t have been the first young nobleitimate children

Except he’d said his name was Cavendish Or rather, had been Cavendish Which meant -

Grace shook her head blearily She was so tired she could barely think, and yet it seehwayitimate son bear his father’s name?

She had no idea She’d never ins But she’d known others who had changed their naone to live with relatives when he was small, and the last time he’d been back to visit, he’d introduced hiitimate son could call hial to do so, a highwayman would not trouble himself with such technicalities, would he?

Grace touched herto pretend she did not love the shivers of exciteh her at the memory He had kissed her It had been her first kiss, and she did not knoho he was

She knew his scent, she knew the warmth of his skin, and the velvet softness of his lips, but she did not know his name

Not all of it, at least

"Grace! Grace!"

Grace stumbled to her feet She’d left the door ajar so she could better hear the dowager, and sure enough, her naer must still be overset - she rarely used Grace’s Christian na h

Grace rushed back into the roo not to sound weary and resentful as she asked, "May I be of assistance?"

The dowager was sitting up in bed - well, not quite sitting up She wasdoith just her head propped up on the pillows Grace thought she looked terribly uncomfortable, but the last tiot her head bit off

"Where have you been?"

Grace did not think the question required an answer, but she said, nonetheless, "Just outside your door, ," the dowager said, and she didn’t sound as iitated

"What is it you would like, your grace?"

"I want the portrait of John"

Grace stared at her, unco

"Don’t just stand there!" the dowager practically screa back, "I’ve brought you all three of the er cried, her head swinging back and forth on the pillows "I want the portrait

Froallery"

"The portrait," Grace echoed, because it was half three in the , and perhaps she was addled by exhaustion, but she thought she’d just been asked to remove a life-sized portrait froer’s bedchaer said "He’s standing next to the tree, and he has a sparkle in his eye"

Grace blinked, trying to absorb this "There is only the one, I think"

"Yes," the dowager said, her voice alency "There is a sparkle in his eye"

"You wantit here"

"I have no other bedchaer snapped

"Very well" Grace sed Good Lord, hoas she going to accomplish this? "It will take a bit of ti a chair over and yank the bloody thing down You don’t need - "

Grace rushed forward as the dowager’s body convulsed in a spas her arht "Please, ma’a to hurt yourself"

The dowager coughed a few last ti s of her warm milk, then cursed and took her brandy instead That, she finished entirely "I’lass back down on her bedside table, "if you don’t get me that portrait"

Grace sed and nodded "As you wish, ainst the corridor wall once she was out of the dowager’s sight

It had begun as such a lovely evening And now look at her She’d had a gun pointed at her heart, been kissed by a allows, and now the dowager wanted her to wrestle a life-sized portrait off the gallery wall

At half three in theh," Grace mumbled under her breath as she made her way down the stairs "There couldn’t possibly exist enough money - "

"Grace?"

She stopped short, stue hands immediately found her upper arh she kneho it had to be Thoer He was also the Duke of Wyndham and thus without question the most powerful man in the district He was in London nearly as often as he was here, but Grace had got to know hi the five years she’d acted as coer

They were friends It was an odd and coiven the difference in their rank, but they were friends

"Your grace," she said, even though he had long since instructed her to use his given naave him a tired nod as he stepped back and returned his hands to his sides It was far too late for her to ponder matters of titles and address

"What the devil are you doing awake?" he asked "It’s got to be after two"

"After three, actually," she corrected absently, and then - good heavens, Thomas

She snapped fully awake What should she tell hi the fact that she and the dowager had been accosted by highwaymen, but she wasn’t quite certain if she should reveal that heabout the countryside, relieving the local gentry of their valuables

Because, all things considered, he ht not And surely it did not make sense to concern hiave her head a shake "I’m sorry, what did you say?"

"Why are you wandering the halls?"

"Your grand well," she said And then, because she desperately wanted to change the subject: "You’re home late"

"I had business in Stamford," he said brusquely

Hiselse, he would not have been so oblique It was odd, though, that he was here now He usually spent the night Grace, despite her respectable birth, was a servant at Belgrave, and as such privy to alht, she generally knew about it

"We had anexciting evening," Grace said

He looked at her expectantly

She felt herself hesitate, and then - well, there was really nothing to do but say it "We were accosted by highwaymen"

His reaction ift "Good God," he exclairandmother well?"

"We are both unharh our driver has a nasty bu him three days to convalesce"

"Of course" He closed his eyes for a ies," he said "I should have insisted that you take more than one outrider"

"Don’t be silly It’s not your fault Who would have thought - " She cut herself off, because really, there was no sense in assigning blame "We are unhurt," she repeated "That is all that hed "What did they take?"

Grace sed She couldn’t very well tell hi Thohtly, deciding that vagueness was the order of the day "Not very ine it was obvious I am not a wo ed

"She earing her emeralds, wasn’t she?" He shook his head "The old bat is ridiculously fond of those stones"

Grace declined to scold hirandmother "She kept the emeralds, actually

She hid them under the seat cushion"

He looked impressed "She did?"

"I did," Grace corrected, unwilling to share the glory "She thrust them at me before they breached the vehicle"

He shtly, and then, after a moment of somewhat aard silence, said, "You did not mention why you’re up and about so late Surely you deserve a rest as well"

"Ier" There see else, he’d notice the rande request"

"All of her requests are strange," he replied immediately

"No, this onewell" Grace’s eyes flicked up in exasperation Hoas it her life had come to this? "I don’t suppose you’d like to help allery"