Page 10 of A Duchess to Fight For
“No?” Frederick repeated.
“I won’t go with you.”
Frederick leaned back from his hug without releasing Hobart. “Why ever not?”
“I can’t.”
“You can’t what? You can’t put me in danger because you are in hiding? You can’t stand seeing the sight of me? What is it Hobart? What?”
Frederick hugged him again, tighter. He lowered his voice and whispered in Hobart’s ear, “I beg you. I’ve been searching for you since the day after you ran away.
“I’ve had one private investigator after another trying to find you. Please, Hobart, I beg you. Please don’t leave me again.”
Frederick stood in front of Hobart, hugging him, not letting him go, whispering, “Please,” in his ear over and over again.
Hobart blew out a long breath. “I’ll make you a deal, Frederick. I’ll come, clean up, eat a meal, and visit with you. But then I leave, and you don’t stop me. Deal?”
Frederick looked into his eyes. “Will you come once a week? You know, clean up, eat a meal, visit?”
Hobart looked into Frederick’s eyes. They were red and swollen from crying. “Maybe. Let’s see how today goes.”
Frederick looked at the closest footman. “Get the carriage.”
Hobart shook his head. “The carriage won’t fit down these streets. We’ll walk to the carriage.”
“Quinn, get us out of this maze.”
Frederick turned to Hobart. “Quinn found you when all the other private detectives I hired didn’t.”
Hobart nodded at Quinn.
The carriage ride back to the townhouse was awful. Frederick was jumping out of his seat wanting to get Hobart home. The London traffic was at a crawl.
Frederick instructed a footman to run ahead and have two baths prepared. “And tell Cook we are having roast duck this evening.”
Hobart lifted his head to look into Frederick’s eyes. “You remembered.”
Frederick snorted. “Don’t be so surprised; I remember everything about you. That is, up to the point when you were fifteen. And you know everything about me up to the point I was eighteen.
“You will meet my wife, Amelia, and my daughter, Louisa. They make me happy. Like you. You make me happy.”
Hobart put his head down and looked at the floor.
“There is nothing you can say and nothing you have done that will change how I feel about you. Nothing. It will be better once you bathe, though.”
Hobart met Amelia and Louisa then Mrs Reynolds, the housekeeper, brought Hobart to his room. A steaming bath beckoned, soap and clean towels waiting.
“His Grace has instructed the valet to bring you some of his clothes, and the valet will cut your hair and your beard. The clothes you are now wearing are to be burned.
“His Grace’s valet is named Mr Jakes.”
Frederick paid Quinn and gave him a bonus for his good work. He also gave him the reward money to pass along. “It was all worth it.”
Amelia came in after Quinn left. Her smile was bright, her eyes shone.
“You must be so pleased,” she said.
He smiled back. “I am. He didn’t want to come. I begged him.
