Cavendish Brothers 01 - An Unintended Journey Read Free Page B

mahogany chair at the head, and sat. He looked at each of them in turn, holding their gaze prior to moving to the next. Father always did this when there was something serious to discuss. He wanted their full attention. Abby couldn’t bear to look up. If she met his eyes, she might very well disappear like sugar dissolving in tea, or perhaps she’d burst into a fit of inappropriate, gauche laughter.
    “ Abby?” he said after several long moments had passed where she felt the weight of all of their eyes upon her. “Look at me, luv.”
    She knew she must. There was no escaping Father’s gaze…not when he intended to meet her eyes. It just wasn’t going to happen. Still, perhaps for a few moments, she could delay the inevitable. Staring studiously at her folded hands in her lap, Abby worried her lower lip with her teeth.
    Father’s rich baritone broke through the stifling silence of the room, startling her with his calm tone. “I’ll wait as long as I need to, Abby.”
    And if that wasn’t the truth of matters, she was the Queen of England. Finally, Abby forced her eyes up to meet the shining, glassy, eternally kind gaze of her father. As she did, a veritable flood spilled from her eyes and drenched the grey worsted of her frock. When she looked down at it, the fabric had darkened until it was almost black—to the very shade of Wesley’s hardened eyes. Drat, if she wasn’t thinking of him again.
    Thomas reached over and took her hand, squeezing with the ungainly sort of comfort only a brother who’d often caused such tears could provide.
    Once the worst of her sobs had subsided, Father spoke again. “Lord Pritchett has granted us all some time away from our duties to see to Grandmama’s affairs. We’ll have a small burial outside the village tomorrow morning. Mr. Langley saw no reason to delay matters and has agreed to perform a brief service in her honor. After that, we’ll all be off to Yorkshire for Christmas—”
    “ Yorkshire?” Mother interrupted in shock. “Why ever must we go to Yorkshire now?”
    Robert’s jaw hung slack. “Truly, Father, at Christmas?”
    “— Lord Pritchett has graciously offered us the use of one of his carriages for the journey,” Father continued, as though he’d not been interrupted at all.
    Abby shook her head, dumbly. Yorkshire? What was in Yorkshire? Grandmama would be here, in Macclesfield, deep in the cold, hard ground. And finally, after all these years, Wesley Cavendish was here again. While she could have no possible future with him, she still could not bear the thought of leaving him when he’d only just waltzed back into her life.
    Thomas leaned back in his chair and drew a hand through his wavy, brown hair. He expelled a pent-up breath slowly. “How long must we be gone? I don’t think I can be away from the stables too long right now. We’re already a man down…”
    Abby couldn’t be concerned about how long they would be away. She was more caught up with the fact that they’d be leaving at all. Dumbfounded by it, truth be told.
    “ I don’t know how long it will take, Thomas,” Father said gravely. “Lord Pritchett has assured me that we might take all the time we need, however. You see, as Grandmama was dying, she revealed something to me. Something she’s kept secret since before I was even born.”
    Mother gasped and leaned closer, a tear shimmering unshed in her eye. “She finally told you who your father is?”
    He nodded, but stayed silent for a few moments. “Aye,” he said at last. “My father is the Duke of Danby.”
    Silver clattered against china. Thomas dropped his glass. It shattered against the table, and a river of port spread over the mahogany wood. Mother whipped off her apron and mopped up the mess, but still Abby couldn’t move a muscle.
    A duke? Yet Grandmama had worked herself to the bone her entire life as a maid of all work for Sir Andrew Penthurst, right up until the day she died. And Father had been forced to work