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Rafe snapped his mouth shut At least the whiskey see the conversation "Damn me pink," he said

"I’m afraid that the money cannot be--"

Rafe waved his hand "Our father, for all he kept his real faered the estate We could endow three such colleges, and not feel more than a pinch"

"That is some consolation"

Rafe narrowed his eyes and saw precisely what the probleht you a place, if you hadn’t been the very best there was," he said roughly

Gabe nodded

Rafe searched around for another topic "What did Griselda say to the story of your dead wife?" he asked

"She accepted it," Gabe said "I told her that my wife’s na lies"

"This is an important one," Rafe said "There’s no a Mary that could eable parti if the truth were known As it is, we’ll have to throw the entire weight of the Holbrook narin--"is quite formidable"

"Not," his brother responded, with no smile, "if the duke has succue"

Rafe sed

"You have no wife in the wings," Gabe said "So who is the heir to the estate?"

He tried to remember

"There must be an heir?"

"Of course there is! My cousin Roderick Twice re, but he’ll make a decent duke"

"Hehis silver fruit knife over and over in his hand, "but he will not throw the weight of the Holbrook nae My Mary, in other words"

In his happiness at finding a brother, Rafe had forgotten that family entailed more than pleasure But even when drunk, he had never failed to recognize the truth when it was presented to hirirateful" Gabe looked at hi himself in a mirror "Not just for Mary and her future For ht be co to his eyes He rose froe so as not to topple over "You haven’t introduced me to my niece Shall we?"

"Lady Maitland expressed a wish to meet her as well"