“Ma’am these clothes are old and have been lying in the wardrobe for years. His Grace’s aunt was a lovely woman and had she been alive, she wouldn’t mind you borrowing anything. His Grace wants you to be comfortable. If you can leave your clothes in the basket inside the bathroom, I can launder them and have them ready for you in a few hours.”

“Thank you,” I tell her. “I am grateful.”

“My pleasure, Ma’am. Oh, and dinner is at seven,” she reminds me. “So you have a few hours to rest. We’ll dine in the formal dining room.” With that instruction she exits the room, leaving me alone once again.

Damien

“ANYTHING, MIKE?” I query.

“No, Sir,” he says shutting the final cupboard in the study.

After dropping Aaliya to her room, Mike and I have been searching the house for any possible clues as to who would want me dead. We’ve spent hours searching my bedroom, the storeroom and the study, the most plausible areas in this house where I would have stored anything of value. But there is nothing.

I rub a tired hand across the back of my neck. “Thanks!” I tell him. “It was a long shot anyway.”

I pace the length of the study.

“Fuck! I was living in Edinburgh for five years and yet I didn’t visit here even once. Why? This house is my safe haven, so why would I never visit here?” I pause and turn to Mike. “Jeeves has assured me that no one ever visited. Their salaries and expenses for running the house and the land surrounding it came like clockwork every month, but no one visited.”

Mike stares at me sharply for a second and then he opens his mouth to say something but closes it immediately and looks away from me.

I splay my hand out. “What is it?”

His eyes dart to mine. “Uh, I think we ought to visit your country estate and conduct a search there. And after that, the London mansion.”

“Yes, I’ll schedule that on my agenda as soon as I can,” I say exiting the study to retire to my own room.

Mike bows his head and leaves me at the foot of the stairs.

I lay on my bed, unable to sleep even though I’ve hardly slept in the past two days. My mind whirls thinking about the list of things I have to do and there are too many. I’m already stretched thin between learning the ropes of Annette & Co., running Gamma Inc. and working on the various estates, assets and charitable causes that the Duke of Kittridge is expected to support that there’s been no time for anything else.