Page 51 of Nothing Compares to the Duke
“I know you’re eager to be on our way.” Lady Yardley gazed at her husband with a reticent smile. “So we should begin preparing, my dear.”
“Excellent.” Bella nearly bounced on the cushion beside him. “We’ll keep you updated on the progress at Edgecombe and with Lady Margaret’s Season.”
When the servant arrived with a tea tray, Lady Yardley helped the girl arrange the dishes on the low table between settees.
Lord Yardley leaned forward, laid a hand on Bella’s, and whispered to her, “Your mother is disappointed.”
“Greece will soothe her,” Bella whispered back.
“I hope you know what you’re about, my girl.”
Bella clasped her father’s hand tightly. “I’ve waited years to make this choice, Papa. I’ve had the opportunity five other times and refused.”
Lord Yardley patted her hand. “Then I trust you know your heart.”
“I do, Papa.”
Rhys realized he was holding his breath and his fingers ached because he’d clenched his hands into fists. This wasn’t about Bella’s heart. He wouldn’t let it be. Once before, he’d been careless with her feelings. Never again.
He’d agreed to help her because he needed her help. Because he owed her and needed to know he’d done as right by her as he’d once done wrong. Their agreement would be mutually beneficial and then, when the time was right, it would be over.
With any luck, in a couple of months.
Rhys never made a deal he couldn’t walk away from. This one would be no different.
Chapter Twelve
“There must be some way I can be of use.” Rhys sat on the edge of a wingback in his father’s study, bootheel thumping against the carpet as he watched Bella peruse a ledger with care and patience. “Give me something to do.”
How could she sit hunched over staring that long at a page without her eyes blurring? The lack of movement alone would have had him out of his chair and fencing shadows just to get some blood pumping in his veins.
She lifted her head and looked at him when he began tapping his heel against the carpet.
“You could take notes as I find things of interest.” She gestured toward a piece of foolscap at her elbow. “I’ve started but it might work better if you assist.”
Anything but sitting useless on his arse.
“Of course I will.” He stood and dragged the wingback closer to the desk.
Bella pushed the notes she’d begun toward him, then the ink pot and a pen. Once he took a seat, she met his gaze a moment. He couldn’t read her thoughts as easily as he once had, and there was some inscrutable emotion brewing in her pretty green-gold eyes.
“Ready?” she asked, returning her gaze to the columns of numbers and notations.
“Always.” Rhys caught the flicker of her thick lashes as she glanced at him once more out of the corner of her eye.
“There was a significant purchase in June of last year,” she told him. “A cottage called Tide’s End at the seaside. Near Margate. Did you know anything about it?”
“Nothing at all. Father and I didn’t keep in touch.”
She shot him a curious frown. “Was there a falling-out?”
“You know how he felt about me.” Rhys didn’t need to explain. She’d seen enough. Heard the epithets his father tossed his way. “When I went to London, we stopped speaking. But a seaside cottage is far too whimsical for him. He never liked the seaside and he wasn’t keen on spending money on anything but fashion and frivolity.”
“He purchased property in London too.” She flipped through the ledger’s pages. “Back in October of last year. A town house in Gordon Square.”
“That makes no sense.” Rhys shook his head as he noted the fact on the foolscap. “My father owned Claremont House in Belgravia and a second townhouse in Grosvenor Square inherited from an uncle. He had no need of more London property.”
“Perhaps he rented them for income.” She tapped her finger against her lower lip. “Yet there are no notations indicating rent from either property.” Her eyes widened as she continued scanning the page. “Here’s another one. It’s so strange.”
