Page 63 of The Duke is Wicked

“Yes, we do.” Sebastian elbowed to a sit from his perch against the tree. Glancing at the ground with a soft smile, he beckoned the group to his side.

Finn stood and pulled Simon to his feet. On his way past her, Case grabbed Delaney’s arm to move her along. Julian and Humphrey followed just behind. They closed in on Sebastian, a family united in purpose. A League of Lords.

And ladies.

Circling Sebastian, they peered at the spot he pointed to. On a grassless patch beneath the tree, the girl had left a clue. Her name scrawled in the dirt.

Emma.

“She stole the Soul Catcher,” Delaney murmured, fearing how Sebastian would take this. Half-asleep still, she didn’t know if he’d grasped this fact.

Her husband straightened from his slouch, patting his empty pocket. “So, she did.” He glanced at her then, his duchess, his smile growing. “Maybe Emma needs it more. Now that I have love to protect me, I find I don’t require it as much. From the look of the girl, she needs it more.”

“I’m going to find her. I am. And no one is going to stop me,” Simon vowed, cutting his gaze Julian’s way.

Simon hadn’t learned that part of a father’s job was preventing their children from taking on hurtful, often impossible challenges. Julian hadn’t learned that sooner or later, fathers were forced to let them.

Humphrey and Finn shared a troubled look Delaney was glad Simon didn’t see.

Eyes stinging after witnessing the naked agony on the young man’s face, Delaney stepped in, looping her arm through Simon’s. If nothing else, she would give him hope. She would give him what she’d been given in generous measure. Family. “I’ll help you. I recorded every detail I could, a picture of this girl in my mind that Julian can certainly recreate on canvas. Her manner of dress, her hairstyle. All of those things will point to the time period she arrived from. We can start there.”

“She, Emma, has eyes as blue as Finn’s,” Simon whispered, allowing emotions he usually buried deep to filter past his placid countenance and twist his features. A calm exterior concealing profound feelings. “But it’s impossible unless she wants to be found. I recognized her in a way that I know will make it the hardest of searches. She’s cunning, like the blokes I used to run with in the rookery. Street smart, because we had to be. Did you see her filch the Soul Catcher? I know those moves. Practiced until they’re perfect, or make a mistake and die trying. She had a look, too. We have one—the cutpurses, the gamblers, the fraudsters—that we can’t erase, despite the many layers of varnish you try and slap on us. The desperation always shines through.”

Sebastian rose to his feet and bumped against her back, crowding her in the best possible way. He couldn’t be near her without touching, nor she him. “Nothing is impossible. How about a duke making an American termagant his duchess? Did any of you imagine I’d marry one of the Terrible Two when we started looking for her a year ago? Or that a bee sting would, instead of killing me,savemy life?”

Simon slipped his arm free, laughing disingenuously beneath his breath, his gaze roving toward the vast woodlands bordering the estate. When he shook them off with a curt gesture and strode in that direction, they let him go.

Humphrey threw his arm out to block their path when Julian and Finn would have gone after him. “Leave him be. He’s getting to be a man now. Has to work some things out for himself, without one of his papas doing it for him. Here’s my advice, given, once again, for your pleasure. You make the path too smooth for the boy, sweep it free of stones, he won’t know how to manage a pebbled one when he gets to it. Which we all do.”

“But he’s in love with a bloody ghost!” Julian yanked his hat from his head and beat it against his thigh. “Did you see the look on his face when she disappeared? I knew we’d have to deal with this at some point, but Emma isn’t even…”—he whipped his arm in a wild circle—“here. She isn’treal.”

“She’s real,” Finn said, his gaze centered on Simon as the boy disappeared into the thicket of English oak bordering the lawn. “I can’t read a dead person’s mind, thank God. But Emma’s thoughts came to me. Like her visage, faint and faded, but there. Fragments of panicked reflection and fond emotion when she looked at Simon.” He rubbed the heel of his hand over his chest. “She feels strongly for him, too.”

“A time traveler,” Humphrey said in a weary voice. “Just what we need around here to liven things up.”

Sebastian linked his fingers with Delaney’s and tugged her in the direction of the orangery, away from the growing debate about a girl named Emma. He leaned in, his breath whispering warmly past her ear. “How long do we have until the next feeding? My darling girl is on a rather tight schedule for her meals, I’m proud to say.”

She caught her husband’s gaze, a spiral of heat darting between her thighs at the look in his eyes. “An hour, maybe less.”

His hand clenched around hers as he strode ahead, gently pulling her along behind him, his signet ring glinting in the light. “Not ideal, but acceptable.”

Delaney dipped her head, her joy limitless, but her embarrassment real. “They know where we’re going. Everyone knows what we do amongst your orange trees.”

Turning to walk backward, Sebastian dragged her into his arms and captured her mouth, making her world tilt. “I’m fine with that, Temple.”

She grinned up at him, her smile almost matching the brilliance of his. “Me, too, Tremont.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

Lifting her skirt, she broke into a run, a challenge he wouldn’t be able to ignore. “Nothing, my wicked duke, absolutely nothing.”

~ END ~