Page 83 of The Insufferable Duke
“Perhaps I could have done more,” Christopher confessed.
* * *
Helena raced up the small spiral staircase, hurrying toward the room where she had heard the sound. On the floor above, there were just two doors to choose from. She opened the first at random. It opened onto a small chamber that overlooked the driveway. It was completely empty with the bed not even made up.
Abandoning the room, Helena turned to the second door and turned the handle, but it didn’t move. She threw her bodyweight against it, only to find the door was locked.
“Julia? Julia, are you in there?”
“Helena!” Julia’s voice came from inside. She hurried to the door and could be heard banging on the other side. “Oh, Helena. Thank God you are here. This is mad. All of it! I fear our uncle has lost his good sense.”
“He lost it to anger and fury. He is calming down now,” Helena struggled to explain. Laying a hand on the wood between them, she wished she could see her sister’s face. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. It is just that I… Oh, Helena. What will Robert think?”
“He knows you did not leave of your own accord,” Helena assured her sister. “He is downstairs right now. He has quite lost his mind out of his fear for you.”
“Bless Robert. He is the kindest man.”
“Don’t swoon now,” Helena called to her sister. “I am hardly in there to catch you if you do.”
A relieved laugh escaped Julia’s lips. It was all Helena needed to know her sister was all right. “He has locked you in.”
“He did,” Julia said, her voice growing quiet. “He said, I had to be certain, that I needed time away from everyone else telling me what it was I should do, and I should think for myself of what I wanted to do. Misguided and odd… It is as if he has never noticed what love there is between us.”
“That is exactly the point.” Helena sighed heavily. “For so long, like our father, he ignored what affection there was, persuading himself it was all an act on Lord Robert's part.” She searched the top of the doorframe, hunting for a key, but there was nothing there. She crossed the landing and picked up two vases from a small stone window ledge, tipping out their contents as she hunted for the key.
They were empty, except for one that had a spider inside. The spider panicked to be released and scurried closer to the window frame.
“Helena, you don’t have a key, do you?” Julia muttered in realization.
Helena stopped what she was doing and returned to the door, laying her hand flat on the wood.
“Not yet, but I’ll get one. Worry not, sister.” Helena assured her with a soft tone and hastened for the stairs once again.
She was in danger of falling on the stairs, she ran so quickly, and she burst into the sitting room of the hunting lodge once again. Not much had changed; Gibbs and Benjamin were still talking together in low tones by the fire.
She recognized the struggle in her father’s face, for the skin around his eyes was pulled taut. She had seen it often enough when she and Julia were young, and her father was lost in his rage. He wanted to rant at his brother, to be fuming, but he was keeping himself under control and trying to resolve the situation in a much quieter manner.
“You know the mess you have made, do you not?” he asked Gibbs quietly. Slowly, Gibbs nodded.
Lord Robert stepped toward Helena as she appeared in the room.
“Well?” he asked, with impatience betrayed in his tone. “Have you found Julia?”
“I have —” Before she could say anymore, Gibbs’ voice broke over hers, louder.
“Can you not see why I did it though?” he appealed to his brother. “It was for her safety.”
“Are you really still this blind?” Benjamin was exasperated now, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You didn’t make her safe. You were the danger to her. You kidnapped your own niece, you fool.”
Gibbs stiffened in his seat, his jaw slackening so far, he looked in pain.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Christopher’s voice called her attention back to this end of the room. His deep tones made her step toward him. She did it on impulse, and his eyebrows shot up, clearly startled she had come so close at all.
“The room is locked,” she whispered. “I cannot get inside.”
“I’ll break it down.” Lord Robert said determinedly.
