“And I assume you don’t wish her to return to Lister’s arms.”
“No.” Alistair gulped the rest of his glass and grimaced. “I do not.”
He waited for Vale to make some snide comment, but the other man merely looked thoughtful. “Interesting.”
“Is it?” He paced to a small case of books, staring at the titles sightlessly. “Lister won’t receive me. Helen he doesn’t mind seeing, but I don’t want her anywhere near that bastard. I need to find out where he’s keeping the children. I need to find out how to pry them away from him, and I need to be able to talk to the man.”
“And do what?” Vale asked quietly. “Do you intend to reason sweetly or call him out?”
“I doubt very much that he’ll respond to reason.” Alistair glared at the bookcase. “If it comes to that, I have no problem calling him out.”
“Not very subtle, old man,” the viscount murmured. “You usually have more finesse than this.”
Alistair shrugged, unable to explain his emotions even to himself.
“I can’t help but wonder what this woman means to you. Is she your mistress perchance?”
“I… no.” He turned and frowned at Vale. “Did not your wife tell you she had sent Mrs. Fitzwilliam to be my housekeeper?”
“It’s quite amazing what a wife will keep from her husband,” Vale mused. “My innocence has been crushed since our marriage. But, yes, she did indeed finally deign to tell me why she was looking so pleased with herself recently.” Vale splashed more brandy into his glass. “The lengths to which you’re prepared to go to please a housekeeper make me wonder about the servant situation in Scotland. Good help must be thin on the ground.” Vale widened his eyes and took a drink.
“She’s more to me than a housekeeper,” Alistair growled.
“Wonderful!” Vale slapped him on the back. “And about time, too. I was beginning to worry that all your important bits might’ve atrophied and fallen off from disuse.”
He felt unaccustomed heat climb his throat. “Vale…”
“Of course, this means my lady wife will be near impossible to live with,” Vale said to the bottom of his glass. “She does get a trifle self-satisfied when she thinks she’s pulled something off, and I’m sure you’ve realized by now that she sent Mrs. Fitzwilliam to you with a purpose.”
Alistair merely grunted at that and held out his glass. Women and their mechanisms were no longer a shock to him.
Vale obligingly refilled it. “Tell me about these children.”
He closed his eye and inhaled, recalling their small faces. The last time he’d seen Abigail’s face, she’d been red with hurt and near tears. Dammit, he wanted a chance to make that better. Pray God he’d have it.
“There are two of them, a boy and a girl, five and nine, respectively. They’ve never been away from their mother.” He opened his eye and looked frankly at the other man. “I need your help, Vale.”
* * *
“SO THE DUKE of Lister found you,” Lady Vale murmured.
“Yes,” Helen said. She gazed down into the delicate dish of tea in her hands.
Lady Vale had ordered a tray of tea and cakes brought into her garden. All around them flowers blossomed, and bees buzzed lazily from bloom to bloom. It was a lovely setting. But Helen had trouble keeping the tears from her eyes.
Lady Vale laid a hand on her arm. “I am sorry.”
Helen nodded. “I thought I’d fled far enough away that he would not find me or the children.”
“As did I.” Lady Vale took a very small sip of her tea. “I think, though, that between my husband and Sir Alistair, there is hope that your children will be returned to you.”
“God willing,” Helen said fervently. She didn’t know what she’d do without her babes, couldn’t imagine a life lived without ever seeing them again. “Lister has offered to give them back to me if I return to him.”
Lady Vale went very still, her back straight, her light brown eyes clear and focused on Helen. She wasn’t a beautiful woman—her face was too plain, her color too ordinary—but her countenance was pleasing. Then, too, she had a new serenity about her since the last time Helen had seen her, a little over a month ago now.
“Will you go to him?” Lady Vale asked quietly.
“I…” Helen looked down at the teacup in her lap. “I don’t want to, of course. But if it’s the only way to see my children again, how can I not?”
“What about Sir Alistair?”
Helen looked at her mutely.
“I noticed…” Lady Vale hesitated delicately. “I couldn’t help but notice that Sir Alistair has come all the way to London for you.”
“He has been very kind to my children,” Helen said. “I think he may’ve grown fond of them.”
“And of you?” the viscountess murmured.
“Perhaps.”
“In any case, I think he must have an opinion about the matter.”
“He doesn’t like the idea, naturally.” Helen looked frankly at the viscountess. “But should that even matter? My children need me. I need them.”
“But if he can rescue them?”
“And then what?” Helen whispered. “What kind of life might I have with him? I don’t want to be another man’s mistress and yet there doesn’t seem to be any other way that I can be with him.”
“Marriage?”
“He hasn’t mentioned it.” Helen shook her head and smiled slightly. “I can’t believe I’m discussing this so bluntly with you. Don’t you disapprove of me?”
“Not at all. I did send you to his castle in the first place.”
Helen stared at the other woman. Lady Vale had a slight frown between her straight eyebrows, and one hand was rubbing her middle. But at Helen’s glance, she looked up and smiled very slowly.
Helen’s eyes widened. “You… ?”
Lady Vale nodded. “Oh, indeed.”
“But… but his castle was so filthy!”
“And I take it not anymore,” Lady Vale said complacently.
Helen huffed. “Most of it. There are still corners that I’m not going into without boiling water and good lye soap. I cannot believe you sent me there knowing how awful it was.”
“He needed you.”
“His castle needed me,” Helen corrected.