Page 76 of From Rakes to Riches

“Er, no. That is, she didn’t hide it, but…” She hadn’t divulged it, either.

Lady Cross laid a hand on his arm. “I beg you won’t hold it against her, Lord Hawke. There’s been so much gossip, you see, and all of it dreadful, and Helena is a bit more sensitive than?—”

“Please, Lady Cross. You needn’t worry. I would never…I think the world of Helena. I’m in lo…that is, nothing could ever make me think badly of her,” he finished lamely, his face heating.

“I understand perfectly, Lord Hawke.” Lady Cross bit her lip. “Forgive me, my lord, but has Helena mentioned to you that she’ll soon be obliged to leave Hawke’s Run?”

He stared at her. “Leave Hawke’s Run?”

“I’m afraid so, yes.”

Helena wasleavingHawke’s Run? Leavinghim? “When?”

Lady Cross and her husband exchanged uncertain glances. “As soon as the Christmas holidays are over. My elder sister needs her in Herefordshire, and?—”

“Forgive me, Lady Cross, and Lord Cross. I must…” He didn’t stay to finish the sentence, but turned on his heel.

“She’s in the stable, my lord!” Lady Cross called after him.

Adrian strode from the ballroom, ignoring the guests who tried to get his attention.

Did Helena truly believe she could just walk out the door without a single word of explanation, and leave him and his sons heartbroken? Did she truly think he was going to let that happen? Maddening, impossible woman!

He’d made a mess of this, and it was time to put it right once and for all.

Helena wasn’t going anywhere.

16

Another thousand years passed as Adrian raced from the ballroom to the corridor, then down the stairs and through the kitchens to the stables. By the time he pushed the stable door open and stormed inside, his lungs were heaving and his heart was throbbing with hope, fear, anger, tenderness, and thwarted desire.

Because love was all of things at once and more, all snarled tightly together inside him, just waiting for the one person who could tear it apart and launch it springing like a wild thing from his chest.

“Helena!”

In that moment of madness, nothing could keep him from flying to her, dropping to his knees and begging her not to leave him.

Nothing, that is, but what he found.

Helene was hunched over the side of Hecate’s pen, but she whirled around when the stable door slammed open, and he stopped in his tracks, his heart plummeting as if it had turned to stone in his chest. Her face was red and blotchy, and she was struggling for breath, her eyes were streaming with tears.

“Helena? Dear God, what is it? What’s the matter?”

“It’s Hecate! The kittens are…oh, there are so many of them, Adrian! Eight at last count, and…” She went on, but between her hiccups and gasps and sobs he couldn’t make sense of what she was saying.

“Helena, listen to me. It’s alright, sweetheart.” He dropped down into the hay beside her and stroked soothing circles over her back. “Take a deep breath. Yes, that’s it. Now, tell me again what’s happening.”

“I—I thought she’d had all her kittens and was resting, but then she started trying to push again, but she’s been pushing for a long time without a kitten coming, and now she’s gone very still.” She turned big, watery blue gray eyes on him. “There’s a kitten lodged in the birth canal, but she’s too exhausted to push anymore.”

He glanced into the pen. Eight damp puffs of ginger fur with tiny pink paws were crawling on top of each other in the hay, and beside them was Hecate, lying on her side, her eyes closed and her rib cage jerking with quick, panting breaths. “How long has she been like this?”

“An hour? Perhaps longer. I thought of coming to fetch you, but I didn’t like to leave her, and I didn’t want to drag you away from the ball?—”

“The ball doesn’t matter, Helena. Don’t you understand? Nothing matters to me but you and Ryan and Etienne, and at the moment, Hecate.” His boys werenotgoing to wake up on Christmas morning to find their beloved pet had died.

It simply wasn’t going to happen.

“Right, then.” He tore off his evening jacket and handed it to her. “Here, tuck this around the kittens,” he said, silently bidding goodbye to another Weston coat. But it was cold, and Hecate was in no state to care for her kittens yet.

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