A Perilous Perspective (Lady Darby Mystery #10)(86)

“Nearly.”

My brow furrowed quizzically. “Then?”

He cleared his throat, clasping his hands behind his back. “Well, I . . . I saw you leave the manor, and when you disappeared from sight, and well . . .” He shifted his feet. “I know Gage worries for your safety, so . . .”

I arched a single eyebrow. “So, you followed me?”

“Yes.”

I wanted to feel disgruntled at his presumption, but I knew he was merely concerned with my well-being and his brother’s favor. It wouldn’t be fair to snap at him given those considerations.

“I didn’t intend to walk so far,” I told him. “I simply needed to clear my head, and this is where my feet led me.”

He nodded and then, after a pause, ventured to say more. “I like to walk, too. It’s easier to think when I’m alone. Easier to breathe.”

Whether he intended to or not, his last statement and the manner in which he’d wistfully murmured it had been rather revealing. For no one would classify the massive castle in which he’d grown up with the rest of the Duchess of Bowmont’s children, or their palatial London mansion in Grosvenor Square, as stifling. That he still needed to escape its confines from time to time said much about his state of mind. I knew he loved the family to whom he’d been born, including the duke, who had claimed him. But evidently, he was still searching for something. The duchess had told me as much when I first confronted her with my knowledge of Henry’s true parentage.

I wished I knew how to help him find it, but I recognized it was something he had to discover on his own. Unfortunately, I was afraid that part of his hope of finding it involved initiating a relationship with his natural father. Every bit of my experience of Lord Gage told me that Henry’s hopes of that would be utterly dashed. All Gage and I could do was try to help him find resolution another way and bolster him when Lord Gage ultimately failed him.

As if reading the bent of my thoughts, Henry broached the subject of many of our anxieties. “Sebastian hasn’t heard from his father, has he?”

I was surprised but also pleased to hear him use Gage’s given name in private conversation. Only his father and I ever said it with any regularity, and the tone in which Lord Gage uttered it left much to be desired. “Not for at least two months,” I admitted, deciding I wasn’t breaking a confidence by telling his half brother this. After all, the topic of their father must be a fraught one between his sons at the moment, and I suspected they were both eager to spare the other that pain in bringing it up.

“Then he doesn’t know whether Lord Gage has followed through on his threat.” His threat to reveal certain secrets about the duchess if Sebastian was told about Henry’s real parentage and his relationship to him.

It was an implied question even if he uttered it as a statement, and I shook my head in answer, unable to ease the concern reflected in his eyes. “But . . .” I hesitated a moment before concluding that if my husband had not intended for his brother to know what I was about to reveal, then he would simply have to forgive me, for it was done with the best of intentions. “I do know that Sebastian has made various counterthreats against his father.”

Henry’s eyes widened in surprise.

“After all, Lord Gage is not without his own secrets. Several of which he might find very . . . inconvenient to become known. So, I would not fret much over the matter.”

He turned to gaze out at the loch, I suspected at least partially to conceal how stunned he felt. Clearly, he had not anticipated Gage doing such a thing—further jeopardizing his own relationship with his father to protect Henry and his mother—the woman who had helped Lord Gage break his marriage vows to Gage’s mother. But then Henry was still coming to know Gage. Coming to understand his fierce loyalty and code of honor, his desire to protect the innocent, no matter who they were or how he felt about them.

I wondered if he was also thinking about his brother, Lord John Kerr, whom he’d escorted somewhere overseas to escape potential punishment for the crime he’d committed at Sunlaws Castle seven months prior, during the winter holidays. Gage and I knew the predominant reason he’d given into familial pressure to do so was out of love and loyalty, as well as the fear that his brother might do himself harm on the journey, and so we’d made peace with that. But that didn’t mean Henry had.

Deciding it was time to change the subject, I returned to the most pressing matter at hand. “Then you still can’t summarize for me what you’ve found in the records?”

His lips pressed together as if weighing his options, and then he sighed, as if resigning himself to fate. “I can tell you what I’ve uncovered so far.”

I smiled. “You don’t like being rushed into giving a pronouncement until you’ve gathered all the facts, do you?”

Hearing the teasing note in my voice, he huffed a laugh. “I suppose it comes from growing up with older brothers who were all too hasty to rush everything.”

“I can understand that.” I tilted my head. “And I promise to not presume that whatever you have to tell me is your complete and final word on the matter.”

He grinned more easily. “Fair enough. I was able to match all the items you specifically requested I find records for to some sort of purchase agreement, including the harpsichord. However, there is something . . . inauthentic about some of them.” His brow furrowed as he tried to explain. “The same names appear over and over. Which is not entirely surprising, as it seems he used the same dealers many times, and they often have sellers who are eager to part with multiple items. But . . . I question whether there are actual people behind some of their names.”