Page 32 of Dukes All Night Long

“You!” The baroness stood in the doorway of the water closet. She was still in her mask, ostrich feathers erupting from her coiffure, trembling with the rage shown in her balled fists. “How dare you!”

Cold air rushed into the room. Sibyl slunk down in the tub. Archie got to his feet, slipping on the wet floor. “Baroness, why are you in my rooms?”

Archie’s valet ran up behind the baroness, obviously alerted by screams. The man sagged in mortification.

“You liar, you, you—” she struggled to find a word, her face under her white mask turning dark, mottled red. “You seducer !”

Archie cocked his head at the insult. He was a seducer, yes. That had been his profession, and the baroness had once seemed quite pleased at the prospect. “Can we please discuss this somewhere other than the bathing closet?”

“What is there to discuss? You bring some harlot with you? Who is she? Where did she come from? Is she a servant?”

The baroness continued to list questions that grew ever more insulting as Archie shepherded them out the door to give Sibyl some privacy.

He hazarded a backwards glance to see Sibyl’s rounded eyes staring at him in abject horror.

At least she hadn’t been recognized. He didn’t know if she could hear him over the baroness’s racket, but he whispered, “I’ll take care of this. ”

Now in his room, he found that it was not just the baroness and his valet. Her screams had brought the butler, the housekeeper, and Feltonbrough himself. Because Archie was nothing if not unlucky.

A clock downstairs chimed midnight, but its clanging did nothing to change the situation. The party downstairs had hours to go, and Feltonbrough was not drunk enough for a favorable outcome in this situation.

“I say, old man, what is this about?” Feltonbrough barked through the baroness’s ranting.

“A disappointed lover,” Archie said, which was, apparently, the worst thing he could have said as it set the baroness off on another rant of fidelity.

“Madame,” Feltonbrough said, holding his hands up. “If you had no intention of stepping outside your marital bonds, why did you come up to Lord Grabe’s room in the first place?”

She narrowed her eyes at the duke. “This house is a den of iniquity!” She stormed out of the room, which was frankly, a relief.

“Shall I go after her, Your Grace?” the butler asked, leaning forward.

Feltonbrough put one hand over his eyes, as if the woman gave him a headache. “No, let her go.”

Archie watched Feltonbrough fuss with his mask. “Oh, the damn thing,” he said, flinging the mask off his head and onto the floor. Archie’s valet immediately picked it up and smoothed it over.

The sound of water splashing against tiles caught the duke’s attention, and he stared at Archie. Despite being the larger, Archie suddenly felt fearful. The duke had power and money and influence—and had far more control over Sibyl’s life than even Sibyl did.

“Who is in there?” the duke asked, almost bored.

“No one,” Archie said immediately, and then kicked himself mentally. That was not a way to prevent more questions, and he was smarter than that. But something about that instinct to protect Sibyl made his brain no longer work properly.

“The baroness was shouting about sneaking someone in here, or perhaps cavorting with a servant of mine. Neither of those sound like you.”

Archie nodded. “Indeed.”

There was the sound of a footstep in water. It should be a quiet sound, a soft sound, a sound that disappeared into the normal commotion of daily life. But just now, it was louder than the Salisbury bells.

“Tell me the name, Grabe.”

Archie’s mouth opened, hoping to form some kind of meaningful answer that protected Sibby and himself, but he couldn’t think of anything.

The water closet door opened and Sibby stepped out in her damp and dirty clothes, her wet hair pinned up. She looked as imperious as her brother. “Hello, William,” she said, her hands clasped in front of her. “It’s only me.”

Feltonbrough staggered, as if he’d been shot. “Sibby? What are you doing here?”

“That is an excellent question. As it happens, I was having a bath.”

“Why are you not at Mrs.—”

“I never went.”

Feltonbrough shook his head. “But you must. I’ve been receiving reports—”

“I am not without friends or resources,” Sibby said coolly, and Archie was so impressed with her calm under fire that he would have nominated her for general of Her Majesty’s armed forces.

“Well, you look terrible. Half-starved at that. Did you have something to do with this, Grabe?” Feltonbrough had the temerity to look at Archie.

“Absolutely not. I only found her two days ago.”

“Found her? Found?” Feltonbrough glared at his sister. “Where are you staying? Are you ruined? Is there some bastard child I need to worry about? Was that whole business in Scotland—”

Sibby’s dramatic sigh interrupted her brother’s speculations. “I am not ruined, there is no child. My options were limited, and I have no intention of becoming a governess or tutor. I’m not good with children, William; you know that. I told you I didn’t want to go to Switzerland, so I didn’t.”

“Then where have you been staying?”

Her lips formed a grimacing flat line. “Here. But I’ll not let you punish anyone who knew about it.”

“Here? Knew about it?” Feltonbrough exploded. “Hastings!”

The butler must have crept off to the passageway, because he appeared almost immediately. “Yes, my lord.”

“Did you know that my sister was living on the property?”

“No, sir.” The butler, very wisely, did not put himself in the eyeline of the duke.

“On with you.”

The butler again vanished from the room as Feltonbrough stared down his defiant and willful sister.

“When you say here, where, exactly.” It was technically a question, but Feltonbrough did not state it as such.

“The hermitage.” Sibby’s chin jutted out, proud.

“That old cave?” Feltonbrough spat. He began to pace. “That hovel isn’t fit for a dog!”

“It’s a bit musty in winter, but with proper blankets—”

Archie cringed inwardly, thinking of her huddled there in the winter. My God, she could have frozen to death. Feltonbrough stopped pacing and held up his hand to stop her.

“No. No.” He turned his back to her and unbuttoned his coat, throwing back the coattails as he put his fists on his hips. “Grabe. How do you fit into all this?”

Archie looked to Sibby, who nodded in encouragement. “I, er, I was searching out the old hermitage the other evening. Sibby clocked me on the head with a frying pan when I entered.”

Feltonbrough faced him. “Ah, yes, the evening you somehow got ‘lost.’”

Archie bowed his head.

“Knew you couldn’t get lost here. The idea is preposterous. And why are you in Grabe’s rooms, Sibby?”

“I haven’t had a hot bath in well over a year. Grabe offered to let me use his bathing closet.”

Feltonbrough rolled his eyes, landing them on Archie. “This is how low you’ve bent on your seductions? Really, Grabe.”

“It wasn’t a seduction!”

Sibby looked at him quizzically. Yes, true, they had been embracing and his hand had been tantalizingly close to her breast, and were declarations of love made? Yes. But this hadn’t meant to be a seduction .

“A seduction is vapid and empty. I was trying to give Sibby something she needed. Love and attention, and yes, a hot bath.”

Feltonbrough got very close to Archie. Uncomfortably close. And even though Archie was taller by a full head, and wider by half, it still unnerved him. Of the three of them, Feltonbrough had all the power. “What did you say?”

“I was trying to give her something that she needed. Which, in this case, was a hot bath.”

“Was I wrong to warn you off all those years ago, friend? You said love. Do you mean it as she is akin to a younger sister? Or is it something different?”

“Why would you warn him off?” Sibby demanded.

Feltonbrough turned to look at her, but didn’t move away from Archie. “Is it not obvious? He was a seducer of women. Men like that bounce from bed to bed, and I was not going to stand by and let him bounce out of yours.”

“But—” Sibby started to protest, but Archie waved her off. There was no defending the actions of the past.

“I gave up a relationship with the baroness to help Sibby tonight. The baroness is wealthy enough to outfit me with a new wardrobe and better rooms for a year, at least. Enough that I could return to the marriage mart and find some American heiress to help my dilapidated estate. But I gave it up because I would rather be with Sibby, have her live with me in my rented flat. Or in my ancestral dilapidated estate, for she clearly doesn’t mind living in humbled circumstances.

” He looked over to her, and finding her glowing as he explained his love to her brother, bolstered him to continue.

“I would rather be penniless with Sibby than promiscuous with wealth.”

Feltonbrough folded his arms over his chest, which closed the gap between them. His arms brushed Archie’s chest, a subtle push to make him take a step backward. But Archie would cede no ground when it came to Sibby.

“And you have not given up your girlish obsession with him?” Feltonbrough drawled, spinning to look at his sister.

She shook her head.

“You would go with him? To some ramshackle manor in the country?” Feltonbrough chewed on his cheek.

“Of course I would.”

Feltonbrough let out a dramatic sigh and hung his head.

The room was silent, heavy with the weight of their personal histories and failures.

Finally, the duke’s head snapped back up.

“Fine. I’ll have my solicitor bring a contract tomorrow.

For now, however, I forbid whatever this is—” He waved his hand between Archie and Sibby.

“You will have your own room, Sibby, and I’ll have the maids pull out some of your old gowns so that you can burn that. Dear God, it’s filthy. Hastings!”

Sibby rushed to Archie, and he folded her into his chest. This was not how he’d wanted a proposal to look. It was not how he’d wanted this evening to go, but he’d take what he could get.

“I said none of that!” Feltonbrough hissed. “Sibby, come on. You can see him at breakfast.” He ushered Sibby out of the room and then turned to look at Grabe.

“I never thought you unworthy of her. Just unready,” Feltonbrough said, buttoning his coat again. “I didn’t know. Didn’t understand.”

“I only ever wanted her. But I needed the money.” Archie’s teeth ground, the humiliation of the admission washing over him.

Feltonbrough’s face worked through a smattering of emotions that clearly made him uncomfortable. “Yes, well. We’ll see what we can do.”