Prologue - The History
The current Duke was the third of his line and hated above all else the fact that the first Duke had been but a lowly squire before being knighted for heroism in battle. Rather than celebrate his grandfather’s heroic deeds, the third Duke ran away from it.
Everything the current Duke did was to distance himself from his grandfather’s history prior to his elevation and try to erase his low past, but there were too many alive who knew the history of the Dukedom of Bedford.
This gave Lord Sedgewick a boulder sized chip on his shoulder.
If any mentioned his grandfather’s position prior to being elevated, unless the person could be useful to him, the Duke dropped the connection.
His disdain was not only about his grandfather’s position before his knighthood.
Far worse than that, he had been nearly destitute.
To the current Duke, money and the power and influence that was attained from having it, were everything.
That knowledge was one of the drivers that kept the current Duke grasping for as much money as he could get his hands on, regardless of how much he had.
Sedgwick III ignored the fact that his grandfather had been awarded seven estates.
He resided at Longfield Meadows in Yorkshire, the largest of them.
It provided close to ten thousand pounds a year and was among the largest incomes in the realm even before one counted the income of the satellite estates.
The other six estates added close to twenty thousand pounds a year to his annual profits.
Included in the Queen’s award was the money from the defunct Dukedom of Bedford, which, at the time, was three hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
The three large townhouses in London and their accounts were remitted to his control, all at addresses others coveted.
The Duke could not see what his grandfather had become; his concern was only about from where he had come.
The third Duke was also extremely short-sighted in his business dealings and estate management.
He was loath to spend money on repairs for his tenants or improvements on his estates, even if his stewards could prove to him that an initial outlay of capital would earn him a good return.
Lord Sedgewick balked at any outlay of funds.
With the exception of the Duke, the Rhys-Davies were a close-knit family.
The oldest son, Lord Birchington, Sedgwick IV, was twelve and was called Sed by the rest of the family.
Sed was two years older than Thomas. Next was Amelia, born three years after Thomas, and who was in turn followed by the youngest, Elizabeth, who was but three.
The Duchess, Esther Rhys-Davies, was the only child of Thomas and Horatia Bennet, the Earl and Countess of Meryton in Hertfordshire.
Esther's parents had both died during an influenza outbreak in 1651.
With their deaths, so too had the line ended.
The Bennet name died, as there had been no special remainder from the King, for the title had been purely male primogeniture.
As the properties were not gifts from the crown, none of them reverted to the Crown so Esther inherited the family estates in Hertfordshire, Netherfield and Longbourn, a few acres of land in London that the Earl had won on the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, London, and a little over fifty thousand pounds.
With no heir, the late earl had written the marriage articles in such a way that the property and funds would remain his daughter’s and would never be controlled by the Duke.
Esther’s father had long regretted permitting his daughter to marry the proud, arrogant, and disagreeable man, which was his impetus to make sure that the property could only be inherited by one of his blood.
Esther herself could bequeath the money and property to any of her children; even after her demise it would not fall into the hands of the Duke.
As her first son would one day be the fourth Duke of Bedford and inherit all of the ducal properties and wealth, and her daughters had handsome dowries, Esther settled her late father’s property and wealth on her second son so he would never need to seek a profession.
What his mother gifted Thomas was irrevocable, and no matter how much her husband blustered or tried to claim that the estates and money should be his to control, he had no power to change the disposition of his late father-in-law’s will.
1656
Sed and Thomas were the best of friends, remaining close regardless of their father’s efforts to drive them apart, or so it was until Sed was sent to school.
When he was thirteen, ignoring his wife Esther’s pleas, the Duke sent Sed to Eton a year earlier than the norm to separate his heir from Thomas.
Thomas was a kind, compassionate, gentle, and generous young man—all traits that his father did not want to influence his heir—traits that the father derided and believed would weaken a man.
When Sed had breaks from school, the Duke made sure his second son was not at home or saw to it that his heir was elsewhere—anywhere his second son was not.
The father would take Sed on trips ostensibly to inspect their satellite estates, keep him in Town, or send his wife, second son, and daughters to friends or a smaller estate for the summer.
1659
At fourteen, Thomas, who loved to study and learn, was sent to Harrow.
The Duke had seen his goal come to fruition, for the relationship between the boys was effectively destroyed as they had not seen one another in three years.
Their father also continued to poison Sed’s mind against his younger brother.
Where Sed had mostly been an average student at Eton, his brother excelled in his classes at Harrow.
Only those who thought having a marquess as a friend was beneficial to them would claim Sed as such, while Thomas made genuine friends who sought out his company and conversation and he theirs—friendships which would last a lifetime.
In his first year at Harrow Thomas met and became the best of friends with Hastings Jamison, the son of a minor country squire with a small estate, Ashford Dale, in Bedfordshire.
Even though the Jamisons were not much better than tradesmen in the Duke’s arrogant opinion, when Thomas requested to spend holidays and term breaks with them, the Duke readily granted his request. It suited his purpose to ensure his sons remained apart.
The Duchess was distraught at the way her husband was corrupting her older son while treating her younger son as though he had no worth.
Seeing the way her husband treated her kind and considerate Thomas, and how he was effectively driven away from his childhood home, reinforced her opinion that she had been right to ensure Thomas had his own means to live independently.
In further support of her son, and without her husband’s knowledge, she changed the bequest regarding the age that Thomas would receive all from five and twenty to one and twenty.
Christmastide of 1659 was the first time that Thomas visited Ashford Dale with his friend and met the rest of Jamisons.
In addition to meeting his friend’s parents, he also met his younger sister, Karen, who was but eleven.
When the Jamisons addressed him with his title, he asked them just to call him Thomas, or Tom.
He knew his father hated the shortened version of his name, intoning that Tom was common sounding, so Thomas invited everyone he came to be acquainted with to call him thus.
Tom was extremely comfortable with the Jamisons that first Christmas—though he privately considered Karen to be a rather annoying little girl.
During his years at school, his mother would often write to him and lament the situation with her husband, but Thomas knew she had no power to change anything.
Eventually the letters from his mother ceased arriving.
Knowing his father, Thomas saw his hand in the cessation of that correspondence and hoped his mother was aware he was regretful but would not reach out and cause her further hardship with the Duke.
1662
In his continuing campaign to keep his sons apart, the Duke sent Lord Thomas Rhys-Davies to Oxford, ignoring the tradition of all Rhys-Davies men studying at Cambridge. As long as his second son was kept away from the older, he cared not where he attended as long as it was not Cambridge.
Unfortunately, his efforts bore fruit. Over the years of separation from his younger brother, his heir had been remade in his father’s image.
Lord Sed had been told that his brother had not cared to write to him nor respond to any of his letters, severing even this avenue between them.
What neither knew, though Thomas suspected, was that the Duke had intercepted letters between his sons from the very day that Sed had been sent to school.
In his machinations, never did the short-sighted Duke consider what would happen if something occurred to Sed and Thomas became the heir. All Sedgwick III cared about was that he had, in his mind, succeeded in his design.
Thomas, exclusively called Tom by those who knew him, was most pleased that Hastings also attended Oxford.
In the absence of his brother and family by blood, Hastings had become a brother of the heart and the Jamisons his surrogate family.
Karen, now fourteen, was more tolerable, but they had to exert extreme patience around her when they spent more than a few hours with her as she was uninterested in the things they were interested in.
She felt the same about their preferences.