Page 56 of A Lady of Means (Roses and Rakes #1)

Chapter Forty-Three

“Are you sure this is it, Dev?” Calum asked, eyeing the stylish townhouse they’d been knocking on for two minutes. It was the only question his friend had asked, not the elephant in the room of why Pembooke didn’t retrieve it himself, why Devyn was still retrieving it when she hadn’t chosen him.

“It’s the address her brother and Miss Kelley sent me.”

The door opened with an aging butler on the other side. “Gentlemen, do you have an appointment?”

“Miss Herring, does she live at this address?”

“Who’s asking?” said a masculine voice from the foyer.

“Captain Calum Sterling,” Calum answered.

“How do you know my daughter?”

“She’s acquainted with my fiancé,” Calum answered again.

“Katie!” The graying man bellowed, motioning for the two men to step inside.

“You can wait in the parlor.” The man led them to a room literally filled to bursting with books.

There was barely room on the furniture, as it was also covered in books.

A few moments passed in awkward silence and a redhead young woman appeared.

Devyn recognized her from the opera, the Duke’s box.

“The Pages, where are they?” Devyn demanded as soon as she entered.

Miss Herring shook her head, straightening her shoulders. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Devyn wasn’t a man who’d hurt a female, so instead, he grasped her father by his lapels.

The man dangled above the upholstered chair he’d been sitting in.

His fleshy face started to take on a purple hue, Devyn cinched his grasp.

“Your daughter is a snake, just like her father. And I’ll wager what she did with that book, it was at your behest, wasn’t it?

You thought she could use it to ruin her and steal the Duke. ”

The man’s eyes bulged, looking at his wife standing in the doorway. “Hector, you didn’t,” the woman breathed.

“A lesson, if I may,” Devyn said, moving his face closer to the other man’s. “Reverends aren’t supposed to hand over their subjects to traders. And fathers are supposed to protect their children,” he looked to Kate, “Not whore them out or ask them to betray their friends.”

“She was no friend to me,” Kate spat the words. Calum shook his head and grimaced.

Devyn tightened his hold on the man’s smoking jacket. “Say that again, I dare you.”

Kate rushed, “I’m sorry, I’ll go and get the book, just please put him down. His lungs are still weak from travel.”

Devyn released the man with a shove into the chair. “She’s better than you deserve.”

When Miss Herring returned, he snatched the pink and black book from her hands.

“And you’re better than she deserves,” Kate said as she slammed the door in his face.