Page 11 of Claiming His Lost Duchess
Graham knew the other man thought him mentally ill for searching for a woman whom he couldn't prove was without a doubt a figment of his imagination. But he didn't have any other choice.
She had ingrained herself into his mind and skin that night they had met. He had made attempts — feeble and reluctant, but attempts nonetheless — to erase her from his mind, but that was when she took to appearing in his dreams, not just haunting his thoughts.
Try as he might, he was unable to forget her, forget the feel of her skin against his, the sweet taste of her lips, the warmth of her breath as she clung to him, her body quivering with pleasure.
Graham had woken up after their night of shared passion to an empty bed and a missing coin purse. He had later deduced that she had likely told some untruths during their conversation, but he did not wish to believe that she had told him a fake name. He needed at least one thing to be true.
If he was able to find her… then perhaps he might be able to fill the hole in his life that had become apparent when he let her slipout of his grasp. But that was a mistake he wasn’t willing to make twice.
Graham tried to step forward, already bored of the conversations that centered around work and his estate — he managed them all splendidly, and he didn't wish to spend his free time speaking about them. But then he noticed that something was clinging to his leg, and when he looked down, he found a child clutching at the bottom of his trousers.
The first thing he noticed was her auburn hair, a striking color that shone as brightly as his own. Then he noticed an insect buzzing around her face, and she screamed, hiding her face against him in panic.
“H-Help,” she whimpered, still hiding behind him.
Slowly, he lowered himself to speak to her gently.
“Hush, dear. It’s all right. You are perfectly fine,” he told her, ushering the bee away carefully with a wave of his hand.
She shook her head, her eyes still squeezed shut as she trembled in his hands.
“The bee won’t go away,” she wailed, refusing to reveal herself to the nefarious creature. “It stung my friend Gracie and Graice said it really hurt!”
It was probably silly, and likely mean, how he found he found her so absolutely precious in that moment, even in her distress. Graham couldn’t help but feel relived that a bee was her only problem, because if she desired his inheritance, that look might have pushed him to sign it over.
Graham continued to swat the air around it and the bee finally realized it was not welcome and flew away, and Graham continued, gently rubbing his hands over her arms.
“There. It is gone now, you may open your eyes.”
She cracked one eye open and, after a peek, told her that the coast was clear. She heaved a sigh of relief, opening her eyes carefully.
“Thank you, sir,” she said quietly.
Graham was struck by how utterly precious she was, something in him longing to continue to speak with her.
“You are quite welcome. It was an honor to protect a lovely maiden such as yourself,” he stated, bowing with a flourish.
She giggled, clutching his trousers again with one hand and the other pointing at him as she said,
“You sound funny. Why do you sound like that?”
Graham felt his lips pull into a smile — a genuine one — far too endeared by this little creature than he was willing to admit. He couldn’t tell if it was because he missed his younger sister or if it was because of something else, but he suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to protect this little child.
Still smiling, he reached down to pay her hair as he replied,
“Well, that is because —”
A sudden commotion caused him to pause, as a woman walked around and called out a name. At first, he thought nothing of it, but the voice drew nearer, and at a particularly loud and desperate cry, he felt his instincts tell him to look up.
“Sophia!” she called out, emerging from a crowd.
A single look at her was enough to cause him to go still where he stood.
Graham couldn’t believe his eyes… after so much time, years of searching for her… here she was. He was so stunned, he could not speak, even as the girl who was standing next to him held her hand up and waved, calling out,
“Mama!”
The woman turned in the direction of the girl's voice, her face flooding with relief when she spotted who Graham had deduced was likely a child. Without hesitation, she ran forward and liftedthe girl into her arms, hugging her tightly with her eyes shut as tension bled off her shoulders.
