Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Algernon barreled through the house, leaving Maggie behind to be watched over by Stratford, while his brothers went in search of their wives to share his good news.
He nodded to anyone he passed, but was furious.
He searched the house: the library, the morning room, his study, the dining room, and finally found Aunt Violet sitting on the back terrace, sipping tea alone.
“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded.
The old lady met his gaze, one brow raised regally. “The meaning of what?” she answered, in a manner that suggested amusement rather than fear.
Not surprising, since the dragon hadn’t feared anyone in her very long life. Certainly not a duke.
He planted his feet and put his hands on his hips. “When you said you would invite some of the family to visit Ravenswood, I did not imagine that you intended for all of them to come at once.”
The old lady smiled sweetly and shrugged.
“I cannot help it if you don’t listen properly, boy.
The family is not only your brothers. It is first, second, and third cousins, too.
Well…you are all my family. They are yours, too, and wished to meet your bride, the one you rushed off to London to fetch. ”
He groaned and rubbed his hand across his brow. This was not how he hoped to reintroduce Maggie to Ravenswood. The palace was currently fit to bursting with Sweets. She would find it difficult to remember anyone’s names.
According to Nash, every distant relative seemed to have come out of the woodwork to answer the dragon’s summons. His household staff had scrambled with each new arrival to find room to fit them all. Some were sleeping in the halls.
The old lady sighed. “Now, now, boy. Sit down and calm yourself.”
He gave her a hard stare and realized that she was never, ever going to apologize for this disaster.
Ravenswood hadn’t hosted the entire family in years, and the last large gathering had been when he was young.
He remembered when his mother had been alive, weaving through a crowded drawing room, trying—and failing—to find a seat to squeeze into.
He was too old to perch on a windowsill now, and damned if he would just to give some cousin—third cousin—comfort they thought should be theirs.
The smaller gathering he’d arranged to celebrate his cousin Amity’s marriage had been set in motion before he’d learned of the state of his financial affairs. He hadn’t planned to host another house party for years because he could not spare the money.
“Seymour and I sorted everything out while you were away. There’s nothing for you to worry about or do. It will be a tight squeeze for a while, but in a family as large as ours, that is to be expected.”
“You might have warned me.”
“I did.”
He glanced around and then sat forward. “Do you have any idea the financial strain this puts the estate under?”
“Of course, boy. Of course, I do. But you were going to marry an heiress, and I want to see my family all together once more before I die.”
He groaned under his breath. He had not married for money, and the dragon looked in perfect health, sitting here in the sun. “You’re not dying.”
“My dear boy, no one lives forever. Not even me. We get old. Our bodies don’t work the way they once did. I mean, even you must feel it at your age.”
He scowled at her again. He had only just turned eight and twenty.
He was young—younger than his father had been when he was made Duke.
However, he was older than his father had been when Algernon was born.
That weighed on him a great deal, which was why having all the family here at such a time gave him nightmares.
With all the family about, they might harass Maggie by talking about their offspring. Offspring she did not want.
“Now don’t fret. You have your duchess to take over here soon. Lady Kent surely can manage a family gathering.”
His stomach dropped. He had to tell her the truth, and now, before she made things worse. “My wife is not Lady Kent,” he said slowly.
She froze momentarily, and then her cane stamped the ground beside her. “What did you say?”
“I chose a different bride in the end, Aunt Violet. I married her in London.”
One of her canes tapped the ground. “Are you telling me you came home already married, but not to Lady Kent? That you married another without even telling your brothers about it or having them there beside you? Because I know they have not left the estate and they cannot keep a secret to save their lives.”
“I did,” he assured her.
Her lips twitched into an almost smile. “Whom did you marry, boy?”
“I married the woman I love,” he announced.
“Nonsense! I will have her name this minute,” she demanded, and the hair on the back of his neck rose at her obvious agitation.
“Margaret Black. Maggie,” he informed her.
Aunt Violet’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Small, wild girl, obstinate disposition. The urchin who stole my cane?”
Suddenly, Maggie was by his side. “I could not allow you to strike Algernon then, and I will not tolerate it now.”
Aunt Violet sat forward in her chair. “Come closer, girl.”
“You are addressing my duchess,” Algernon warned his aunt.
Maggie shushed him. “It’s all right,” she promised.
She approached the dragon without fear, but Algernon kept an eye on his aunt’s canes, just in case they moved.
“You look older,” Aunt Violet said.
“You look the same,” Maggie replied. “Still old.”
“Old enough to know you’re going to cause trouble for the family,” Aunt Violet complained.
Maggie lifted her chin slightly, a smile curling up the corner of her lips. “That is what ladies are made for, isn’t it? Someone has to set a bad example.”
“Indeed, they do. Sit down, girl,” she demanded. “I preferred it when you were shorter.”
“Perhaps later. I’ve barely arrived and there is so much to do,” Maggie answered.
The old dragon actually accepted Maggie’s refusal.
Aunt Violet nodded. “There will be a family dinner tonight in the garden. Everything is arranged, but should you desire changes made, please inform the housekeeper as soon as possible. The kitchen staff are hard at work even now. You will be presented to the family at dinner on Algernon’s arm, and then they will finally all leave over the next few days. ”
Maggie inclined her head. “That is acceptable.”
Algernon blinked rapidly, confused by what had just happened. Had Aunt Violet approved of his wife? Would there be peace in the house?
Maggie turned to him, kissing Algernon on the lips. “Join me upstairs when you’re done here. I’ve some news that cannot wait.”
Then she strolled back indoors.
Algernon stood about like an idiot until Aunt Violet stamped her cane. “Now about the matter I sent you to London for?”
He nodded and removed a paper from his pocket. “As requested. What did you do to the archbishop that he’d agree to provide a special license as soon as I mentioned your name?”
The old lady snatched the special license from him, then hugged the paper against her chest with her eyes closed. She did not explain her hold over the archbishop, but he understood her relief very well indeed.
Aunt Violet suddenly looked at him. “Tell no one about this yet.”
Algernon nodded. “As you wish, Aunt, but perhaps the groom might like some warning of your intentions.”
Her lips pursed tightly.
“He does know about this marriage license, doesn’t he?”
She scowled.
“Oh, he doesn’t.” Algernon winced. “Does he want to marry you?”
“Of course he does. Or did, had my family not gotten in the way when we were young,” she said, growing rigid with indignation.
Algernon had accepted the potential for scandal when his old butler married his crusty old aunt. “I’m certain he will come around once he learns he may stay at Ravenswood for the rest of his life with you.”
It was a bold suggestion, which he’d given some thought to on the way home. Hadn’t Aunt Violet announced she intended to remain at Ravenswood for the rest of her life? She could not be here without her husband, too.
A sudden smile lit up Aunt Violet’s wrinkled face as she regarded him. “I knew you were my favorite for a reason.”
Algernon couldn’t hide his surprise. “Your favorite?”
“You made the right decision in the end. You married for love. Why else would I decide to make you my heir?”
He sat down quickly. “Your heir? Heir to what?”
“My estate, my other property,” she advised him with another smile. “The value in the region of two hundred thousand pounds, at last count.”
Algernon’s jaw dropped. “What?”
The old woman chuckled, a dry sound he’d rarely heard from her. “Did you believe me cut off and penniless when I left Ravenswood and your awful father? I’m a great deal richer than he ever was, too.”
He sat forward. “How? Father led me to believe quite the opposite.”
She shrugged, her expression smug. “The family liked me better than my older brother. When unmarried uncles and aunts died, they mentioned me in their wills. But never him.”
He shook his head. “Two hundred thousand pounds is more than a mere mention.”
“Perhaps, but they loved me best of all and disliked your wasteful father intensely. Everyone did.”
Algernon completely understood their decision to leave his greedy father out of any wills.
And then he remembered the paper that he gave Aunt Violet, and his hope died. “If you are to marry, Seymour will take control of your estate.”
“And he has already written his will, leaving all his worldly possessions to his beloved duke,” Violet told him with a gentler smile.
“I never suggested it, but Seymour has no family, and he adores you and his life here. Now…begone, boy, and find that wife of yours. I expect to see her holding your heir in her arms within a year.”
Algernon clenched his jaw at the abrupt dismissal, and also to prevent any expression crossing his face that suggested that would never happen.
Aunt Violet would find out Maggie’s feelings about children eventually.
For now, he’d rather have peace with her for as long as possible.
Providing her with the means to marry her longtime love appeared to have softened her toward him a great deal.
He strolled back into the house, but once out of Aunt Violet’s sight, he ran upstairs to find Maggie.
She was sitting on the floor in the duchess’ rooms, her father’s lesson books scattered all around her, an empty sherry glass in her hand.
When he drew closer, he caught sight of bright, shiny gold coins stacked around her in neat piles. “Maggie?”
“I always wondered what Papa did with his money. He sold the cottage when Mama died and never purchased another. He saved everything he earned and hid it in his trunks.”
She reached for a stack of papers that he soon realized were currency when she handed them to him to look at.
She got to her feet and headed to his bedchamber with her glass dangling from her fingers.
He heard the clink of glass on glass as he flicked through the banknotes, attempting to count them.
But then his eyes landed on other stacks that had been hidden behind Maggie’s back, where she’d been sitting on the floor.
His eyes widened. “Good God!”
“I don’t usually drink, you know, but I’ve had quite the shock just now,” Maggie said, as she returned and handed him a second glass of sherry. “Cheers, husband. It seems you married an heiress after all!”
He let out a shaky breath. “My aunt just told me she has made me her sole heir.”
“Did she really?” Maggie scowled. “How cruel of her to tell you only now.”
“She had not made up her mind before I went to London to marry. She only decided when I came back with you as my duchess. Her estate is worth over two hundred thousand pounds.”
Maggie tossed back her sherry as if it were water. “I’m glad for you, and us all, of course, but if she strikes anyone with those canes, I will take them away again and give her a rolling chair to move about with instead.”
Algernon laughed softly, putting an arm around her back as he took away her empty glass to give her his untouched one. He waited till she’d finished that, too. “You never told me you took the dragon’s canes away from her. She blamed me at first.”
“I didn’t tell you because you were a terrible liar then. You might have given me away and retrieved them too soon,” she told him, putting her head against his chest. “We’re going to be all right. The estate, your brothers, our horde of children stampeding through every room.”
“We are indeed, my dear.” He kissed her brow—and then looked at her sharply as her last words sank in. “What did you say about our children?”
Maggie sighed and patted his chest. “I lied about that before. Forgive me.”
He turned her about and held her by the shoulders. “So you wanted children all along?”
“More than all the riches in Ravenswood,” she promised, nodding quickly. “But only ever if they could be yours.”
A smile broke over his face, slow and full of wonder. “Then we’d best get started,” he murmured. Algernon kissed Maggie soundly, scooped her up into his arms, and carried her to his bed.