Page 93 of Last Comes Fate

His Grace, the fourteenth Duke of Kendal, is officially summoned to the House of Lords to attend an inquest by the Committee of Selection to address questions regarding the entail of the dukedom of Kendal and its line of succession, including but not exclusive to the potentiality of alternative heirs and accusations regarding the veracity of marriage entail between the thirteenth Duke of Kendal, His Grace Rupert Parker, Baron of Cholmondeley and peer of the realm, and one Masumi Sato….

I looked up, barely able to parse the language that never seemed to contain more than a single extremely long sentence. “What is this? What does this mean?”

“I’m summoned to Parliament,” Xavier said through his teeth. “It means Georgina has succeeded in getting enough lords to question whether I am Rupert Parker’s legitimate son. She’s convinced them the marriage certificate is a fraud. Just like she said she would.”

“Oh, shit,” I muttered. “Xavi, that’s horrible. How can she do that?”

“I’ll have to go back for an interview with the queen herself,” he said before grinding his teeth loudly. “Not to mention an inquiry with these tired old men who have been looking for ways to get rid of me since I was born.”

He exhaled heavily, hard enough to disturb the covers over his waist. Even then, however, he straightened. Naked and tattooed, more warrior than chef, he still looked as noble as he ever had. As much a duke as anyone could be.

“Maybe I should just let them have it,” he said.

“You can’t do that,” I replied. “Then Georgina would win.”

“Ces.” Xavier turned to me with eyes as blue as the sky. “I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to ruin things between us again. You and the babes are more important to me than any fucking title!”

“And you are more important to us than some stupid British bullies,” I countered.

He leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. “I swear to God, I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, I do,” I said. “This is your birthright. It’s up to you what you do with it, but you can’t let someone take it from you. Much less that horrible woman.”

Xavier just shook his head, then keeled to the side until he could rest his head on my chest, allowing me to comfort him and stroke his hair.

“Go,” I told him softly. “You have to go back. Your family needs you.”

“Not without you. Because my family does need me. Right here.”

I swallowed. I didn’t want to go back to England. I didn’t want things to be like they were before.

But he had to have learned. He swore he had.

I had to give him a chance.

“Your family will go with you,” I told him. “We’ll be at your side. It’s called making a choice.”

That light returned. Not a lot, but a little. Some glimmer of hope that warmed my belly and every other part of me.

“All right,” Xavier said, sitting back up, full of resolve.

Solemnly, he lifted my hand to kiss my knuckle and the ring he’d placed there. Like the duke he was. Like so many noblemen before him.

“We’ll stay in New York,” he told me. “But first, you’ll come with me to take care of business in Kendal.”

“I will,” I said with a small smile, though a bubble of dread formed in my stomach.

He kissed my hand again and smiled. “You will. But this time, you’ll go as my duchess.”

INTERLUDE II

Xavier

“Nothing more from the selection committee? Or Bernard?”

I adjusted the buttonhole flower on my lapel. A pink camellia, of course. It wouldn’t be anything else. I peered at myself in the floor-to-ceiling wardrobe mirror—one of the perks of my suite at The Plaza was a mirror large enough for me. There was something wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it. My hair was all right. Not too much product, since Ces liked it soft enough to run her fingers through. Tie straight. Cufflinks on.

I bared my teeth. Bright and white, nothing in them.

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