Page 34 of Earl on the Run (The Duke's Estates 2)

A moment later, Harriet’s mother rushed into the room. She headed directly for Harriet, scarcely seeming to notice Cecelia’s presence. “There you are!” She grasped Harriet’s hands and held on so tight, her fingers were crushed.

“What’s wrong?” asked Harriet, fearing some upheaval or accident.

“I couldn’t find you!” Her mother’s face was creased with distress.

Was it no more than that? “But you did find me, Mama,” Harriet replied. “Here I am. I left word I was coming to visit Cecelia.” She pulled her hands free and gestured toward their hostess.

“Oh. Yes.” Her mother managed a tremulous smile. “Good day, Your Grace.”

“Mrs. Finch, how nice to see you.” Cecelia met Harriet’s eyes, a question in her own. Harriet didn’t know how to answer it. “Won’t you sit down?” Cecelia added.

“No, I…I said I was going for a drive. He might ask… Harriet, you must come with me!” She grabbed Harriet’s hands once again. Hers were trembling violently.

“Has something happened?” Harriet asked her.

“Everything is fine.”

It obviously wasn’t. “Wouldn’t you like to stay for a while?” Harriet asked, pulling her mother toward the sofa. Surely she would calm down if she sat quietly with them. “Have you eaten?” Mama had been picking at her food lately.

“No, no! I must go for a drive. And then back home.” Her mother’s voice had risen to a frantic level.

“Very well, Mama. That is what we will do.” Harriet exchanged another perplexed look with Cecelia as her mother tugged at her arm. There was nothing to do but go. When Mama grew so agitated, she required time and a great deal of soothing to regain her equilibrium. Cecelia would understand, as far as anyone could.

Harriet didn’t know why her mother was increasingly fragile. Grandfather was a trial, but his ill temper didn’t explain why Mama was growing worse. He’d been just as unpleasant in London. She would not see this as a burden, Harriet told herself as they went out to the waiting carriage. Even though it tugged her back just when she had been feeling so free. She would find a way to help.

***

“That man is in the camp again,” Samia told Jack as the sun was lowering late that afternoon.

“What man?”

“The handsome one.”

“Handsome? Isn’t that me then?”

“He’s handsomer than you.”

Jack put his hand to his heart, pretending to be wounded.

“The one you tried to fool by talking silly,” Samia added.

He noticed thetried.

“He asked about you,” Samia added.

Of course he had, just when things had begun to go well with Harriet Finch but before he’d had the chance to settle things with her. Jack considered fading into the forest until the irritating duke had gone, but who knew what the man would do if he couldn’t be satisfied. Jack couldn’t leave the Travelers at his mercy. He straightened his less-than-fashionable coat and went to find the man.

Once again, a wide circle of male Travelers surrounded the fellow. The duke seemed as unaffected as ever. He looked about as if he had every right to walk among them. Discouraging stares had no effect. Jack crossed his arms, took up a post near the central fire, and waited.

“Ah, there you are,” the duke said, stopping a short distance away.

“Here I ahm.”

“I was able to examine that letter from the earl.”

“Were you and all?”

“Sir Hal Wraxton lent me his copy. It appears valid.”

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