But he needed them now. He needed them for his wife and the family he’d begun envisioning. No sane man would reject something that so clearly benefitted the people close to him.
Loving Kendra had changed everything.
“Who would get Amberley if not you?” Always direct, his Kendra.
“I don’t know. My fa—the man who raised me had no brothers…some distant cousin of his, I imagine. Someone I’ve never met.”
“And do you imagine he’d use that dukedom for the same good that you do? Do you imagine he’d shelter orphans in the old manor house?” Always straight through to the heart.
“I don’t know that, either.”
She rose and walked close. “You know I didn’t want to be a duchess any more than you wanted to be a duke. But you earned that dukedom, Trick.”
“Did I?”
“Yes. With your sweat, and I suspect with your blood and your tears.” She leaned up to press a soft kiss to his lips. “Legally, it’s yours, and I see no reason on earth it shouldn’t stay yours.”
Maybe she was right, and there was no reason he shouldn’t be able to keep it.
No reason except his monarch’s threat hanging over his head if he failed to finish the job he’d started.
He kissed her back, a kiss filled with all the hope he had for their future. “Come, leannan, let’s traipse down these endless stairs one last time. Let’s go home and get started on our brand-new life.”
SIXTY-ONE
KENDRA HELD Hamish’s arm, thrilled that he was strong enough now to accompany them outdoors along with Niall.
They paused on the drive where the Amberley servants waited. “What will you tell King Charles?” Hamish asked Trick.
“I’ll think of something.” Trick looked up to the single chest he’d had lashed to the top of the ducal carriage. “At least nobody will suspect I’m carrying anything of special value.”
He’d told Kendra that when they stopped for the night at an inn, they’d simply bring it with them into their room. They didn’t need all the extra guards he’d been envisioning. Four Amberley outriders stood ready, and that should be enough. They planned to travel directly to London.
Her gaze followed his. “I want to see it,” she said.
“See what?” Niall asked.
“The Royal plate that brought about all this treachery and heartache. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t know.” Her brother-in-law shrugged. “I’ve never seen it myself.”
“In all those years?” She hadn’t pegged him as being so uncurious. “I would have begged until my parents let me look.”
“Oh, I did. But it was pointless. There’s no key to the padlock.”
Hamish gave her a hard hug. “I tossed all the keys into a loch years before Niall was born. After one of those bitter quarrels. To keep the pieces from disappearing one by one.”
So he’d distrusted his friends even then. Unfortunate that he’d failed to take those feelings to heart—it might have saved Elspeth’s life.
L’amitié ferme les yeux, Kendra thought with a pang of regret. Friendship closes its eyes.
Drawing her from her brooding, Niall stepped forward and planted kisses on both her cheeks. “God willing, I’ll see you soon.”
She was surprised to feel tears welling up. “I expect you at Amberley before too long.”
He nodded. “After the harvest.”
Trick embraced his brother. “I thank you for taking care of that for me.”
“We—Da and I—thank you for allowing us to stay.” Niall’s gaze flickered over to the castle’s open doorway, where Annag and Duncan stood glaring, her children behind them. “And allowing them to stay, too.”
Trick shrugged. “They’re harmless.” And he was right. For all Kendra’s wild imaginings, Duncan and Annag had never done anything to hurt either of them. “Besides, they’re my siblings. I won’t pretend to like them, but if it makes Da happy to give them a home, then I’m happy, too.”
Tears welled in Hamish’s eyes as he took Trick by both hands. “We don’t deserve you, lad.”
He shook his head. “It’s I that don’t deserve you—a father and a brother that would do any man proud. Family, after all these years.” Blinking back his own tears, he wrapped the older man into his arms for a long moment. “We’d best be going.”
“Aye, I suppose you must.” Hamish forced a smile and watched them climb into the carriage.
Trick closed his eyes until they rode away, then opened them and pulled Kendra across the cabin for a gentle kiss. “When we get to London, I’m going to ask my solicitor to deed Duncraven over to Hamish, with Niall as his heir.”
If she’d had any remaining doubts that her husband was a good man, they vanished then. “That’s wonderful, Trick.”
“Not wonderful, only decent.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Besides, the last thing I need is an estate in Scotland. My father—the duke,” he corrected himself, “left me more than I can deal with as it is.”
Maybe he could fool himself into thinking his actions were less than generous, but Kendra knew better.
SIXTY-TWO
IT FELT STRANGE to Kendra to be back in London but at Trick’s town house instead of the one she’d always known in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. And Caldwell House, a dark monstrosity built before the Civil War, was every bit as disgustingly opulent as he’d said. Standing in the master bedchamber, where she was dressing before attending court, she was reminded of an overdecorated cake.
A blue and orange one.
“Ghastly,” she said, kicking off her shoes.
“I told you that you would hate it.” Trick shrugged out of the surcoat he’d worn for travel. “Feel free to redecorate.”
“I imagine I have better things to do that will keep me busy a while.” Peeling off her garters and stockings, she frowned at the lavender gown that Jane had selected. Too insipid for her mood. They’d sent a messenger
