Chapter 34

Helena turned back to her father, and the gentle questioning in his eyes was almost her undoing. It would have been her undoing if at that moment she hadn’t heard the door to her grandfather’s study being opened and then closed again with studied force, followed by the sound of someone walking down the carpeted hallway.

Who—?

A grimly satisfied Bryan entered the room. ‘Major Boschhas decided not to join us, after all,’ he announced.

There was complete silence in the room, and then Joey burst into appreciative laughter. ‘I have no idea what you said to my father, Bryan, but anyone who can best him in an argument—I take it you did best him?’ He waited for Bryan’s nod before continuing. ‘Then you deserve a medal!’ he exclaimed, and he crossed the room to slap the younger man on the back.

Joey Botch’s lack of rancour on his father’s behalf came as no surprise to Bryan now that he understood the overbearing way in which Helenael Boschhad ruled this household for the last twenty-five years.