Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

She was going to go back to Arrow Woods, and she was going to break Olympia’s heart in doing so.

And there was a very good chance she was going to hurt mine, too.

Adelaide rocked her head side to side, and her face formed an expression of mild pain. “Oof,” she breathed, fluttering her eyes open. “Oh, Jesus.”

“Good morning, darling.”

She looked over at me with sleepy eyes. “What are you doing in here?”

“I woke up and couldn’t find either of you, so we all went on a hunt until I found you having a slumber party in here.” I smiled, leaning back in the armchair. “Do you want to tell me how this happened?”

“Um.” She looked down at the top of Olympia’s head. “I came in from cross-stitching and found her in here. She was reading, and I couldn’t bring myself to ask her to stop. She asked if we could lie on the sofa, so I said yes, and I guess we fell asleep.” She rubbed her hand over her face. “I’m sorry if we worried you.”

I waved a hand. “A little, but this was the last place I was expecting to find you.”

“Sorry.” She gave me a sleepy smile. “I really only intended it to be half an hour or so.”

“Couldn’t stop her from reading, huh?”

“Not after all the effort I’ve gone to to get her to do it. Seemed somewhat counterproductive.”

I smiled at her. “Don’t worry about it. At least you’re both safe.”

“Aw, were you worried about me?” There was a teasing tone to her voice, and the playful glint in her eyes warmed my heart.

But not my smile.

That dropped, and I met her gaze. “Every time you’re not with me.”

Emotion flashed across her face. “Alex, I—”

“Meeeeerrrrrr,” Olympia groaned, rolling over into the back of the sofa. She threw her arms up to stretch and almost punched Adelaide in the face, then slowly opened her eyes. “Hi, Papa.” Her eyes widened when she saw where she was, and she peered up at Adelaide. “Uh-oh. Did we fall asleep?”

Adelaide nodded.

Olympia looked back at me. “Are we in trouble, Papa?”

I fought back a laugh. “No, sweetheart. Not today. Although if you sneak out of bed again, there will be consequences. Bedtime is bedtime, all right?”

“Yes, Papa. I won’t do it again.”

There were lies written all over her face, but I smiled away. “Good. Shall we get some breakfast?”

“And some Ibuprofen,” Adelaide said, sitting up and rubbing the back of her neck. “I definitely won’t be doing that again.”

***

“Papa?”

I glanced up from the laptop and held a finger up to Olympia. “Yes,” I said into the phone. “Yes, probably for about a month. Do you have anyone with poultry and waterfowl experience?”

“Possibly,” the woman on the other end of the phone said. “How soon?”

“As soon as possible, please. Yesterday, preferably, considering I’ve been waiting a week. He’s handling three hundred birds across eight acres on his own, and the nearby neighbours don’t have a lot of time to help as it is. I’m going over there myself again tomorrow to help him take the food delivery and clean out the ducklings in the barn.”

“I understand, Lord Worcester. Can you give me a couple of hours? I’ll go through our temp database and see if we have anyone with that experience. If I have someone with any kind of farming background, would that suffice?”

“Yes, thank you. Even if it was mucking out horses for three weeks in their teens. It’s not terribly difficult, even if it is hard work.”

“I’ll get on that right away and call you back.”

“Thank you.

“Of course. Goodbye.”

I ended the call and turned to Olympia. “Sorry, sweetheart, I had to finish that call. Did you know Jess had her baby last week?”

She nodded. “Granny told me.”

“Ah, I see. I’m trying to get Luke some help.” I pushed my phone away and turned around to face her. “What’s wrong? Where is everyone?”

“Um. Something happened,” she said in a tiny voice, looking at the floor.

Panic gripped me. “What happened? What is it?”

She wrapped her arms around her body, then pulled them away, only to link her fingers and twist her hands every which way. “There’s… there’s something weird.”

I wanted to yell at her to tell me what so I could fix it, but I knew that wouldn’t get us anywhere, so I took a deep breath and slowly approached her. “Okay. Can you tell me what the weird thing is?”

“Um.” She was still looking at the floor. “There’s red.”

“What’s red, sweetheart?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and tucked her hands under her chin. “In my underwear.”

No.

No way.

I froze. “There’s red in your underwear?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I don’t know what it is, and I’m scared.”

Holy shit. Something had to be wrong. This wasn’t normal. Why was there red in her underwear? I needed someone who knew what to do. Who knew what was happening. What was going on?