A Thin Line Read Online Free Page B

growing up she had developed a crush for him, but that it would never lead anywhere now that he held the title of Duke of Hawkescliffe.  
    His position within the government also put paid to a relationship with Kala.   Kala knew too much about him.   In his position, she would be a liability.   Enemies used weaknesses and Kala could definitely be called that.   No, he would marry someone he could keep at a safe distance, both emotionally and physically.   That would be the easiest and safest thing.   However, he did disapprove of her choice of riding partner today.
    Gabe rode Diablo up to a large, gray building and absently handed the gelding off to a groom.   The weight of the world felt as if it rested on his shoulders as he recalled the many recent conversations with his grandmother.   Each of them led to the inevitable fact that he had to produce an heir of the correct lineage for the line to continue.   What his grandmother did not know was that he desperately needed someone who could provide much needed funds to the family coffers.   He also worried about his mother’s episodes and what might happen if he brought another female into the household.
    His older brothers had raised hell and most of the trouble they had gotten into had required the duke to financially rescue them.   Gabe’s father had also been a poor money manager in his own right, trusted the wrong people and made several bad investments.   Gabe refused to let either his mother or grandmother know what dire straits he found the family to be in.
    He had taken part of the money they had left and invested in shipping with Derek.   Their first two shipments had paid well, but risks still abounded, especially considering their ship had to avoid Napoleon’s.   The risk of meeting pirates was high as well.   Although they didn’t rule the seas as they once did, the sea remained a dangerous frontier.   And then they risked society finding out that they, high-ranking members of the ton , were merchants.
    Gabe wound his way through the hallways of the building absently nodding at the men he passed.   The inside of the War Office seemed as dark and dismal as the outside on some days, and unfortunately this happened to be one of those days.   He walked up a tight flight of stairs and passed a man with a large stack of books and papers.   He reached the floor his office was located on and men buzzed everywhere.   The walls felt like they were closing in and people bounced off him as they attempted to rush to the bidding of the man whose voice carried out into the hall. Gabe felt his chest constricting and quickly ducked into Derek’s office and shut the door.
    “Do you know who your sister rode about in Hyde Park with today?”
    “No, but I feel certain you are going to inform me.”
    “McKenzie!”
    “Truly?”
    “What in hell is she doing keeping company with that man?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You should.   You’re her brother.   Isn’t she supposed to answer to you in lieu of her father?”
    “What do you care, Gabe?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Is it true or not that you have been seen courting Lady Clarissa Blackerby?”
    “Well, yes.”
    “So, in that case, what does it matter if Mikala is escorted about by other men?   I am sorry if one of them is your bastard brother, but other than not inheriting his father’s Lairdship, he is considered legitimate by all purposes.   If he makes my sister happy, then who am I to stand in her way?”
    “So you are going to sit there and do nothing?”
    “That is correct.   I also have it on good authority she is being squired by Lord Southerby and Lord Dewhurst as well.   Do you expect me to talk to them as well?”
    “What is she doing, becoming a loose woman?”
    “Gabe, I think you should really reconsider what you just said about my sister.”
    “I’m sorry,” he said after several minutes.   “I don’t know what has gotten into me.   It seems like we take care of