Duke of Secrets by Gaelen Foley

Author:Gaelen Foley
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Foley Publications
Published: 2017-02-26T18:00:00+00:00

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Serena didn’t understand why Azrael seemed to feel so strongly about escorting her to her family’s country house. He didn’t have to do this.

But…even she could admit it was probably best that he did.

Still, it was extremely awkward being confined together in the carriage after he had rejected her. She found it hard to be near him, feeling for him the way she did.

Do you care for me or don’t you? she wondered. He was such a confusing man. All that talk about chivalry had sounded convincing enough, but she had given him a way out. If he was so keen to escape her company, why hadn’t he taken it?

She supposed he was merely being gallant.

In any case, once more they rolled along inside Azrael’s well-cushioned carriage. The horses had had a chance to rest and a bite to eat.

By tonight, they should reach Dunhaven Manor. She wondered how her parents would react when she walked in unannounced.

With Azrael.

There was sure to be a row of some sort, but since the country house was forty miles away and they would not arrive until eight or nine o’clock tonight, she did not intend to torture herself with dread over it for the next five to six hours.

She’d start worrying once they got closer.

For now, she had her work cut out for her sifting through the contents of the snakeskin box before the daylight faded.

As she began slowly going through the papers, she was surprised that Azrael did not want to participate. He eyed the papers with distaste, as if they were the sloughed-off skins of rattlesnakes.

Sometimes she thought he must be as superstitious as Toby, but when she remarked upon his indifference, he merely mumbled that reading in a moving carriage made him queasy.

The deeper Serena got into the stack of papers, what she found actually started making her queasy, too.

She started wishing that the box had only held financial papers. What she found inside was worse.

Far worse.

There was a man named Lord Jarvis that she sincerely hoped was not her real father. He was particularly bad, and fancied very young girls.

Her mouth went dry as she read of kidnappings of random young women of various ages, procured for particular “events.”

What happened to them, Serena couldn’t bring herself to ask.

Thank God, these things were dated in recent years, meaning that the Dunhavens had not been involved.

She moved on and discovered that Lord Falk had been in charge of arranging bribes, and then making sure the compromised individuals carried through on their promises. Those who didn’t were disposed of promptly, according to the records.

She came across the minutes, of all things, from some of their meetings, which they conducted like an ordinary club, it seemed. Lord Stiver had kept up the late Duke of Rivenwood’s habit of keeping detailed notes on his supposedly faithful underlings.

The deeper into the box she ventured, the worse it got.

There were also drawings, diagrams, strange shapes, alchemical symbols. A black candle with runes or something carved into the side of the wax, and a necklace with a large pentagram medallion.

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