Chapter 6
ALEX KNEW IT was not polite to drop in on Lady Withnall unannounced, but there wasn’t time for niceties.
Her elderly butler’s knees creaked louder than the front door when he opened it to allow Alex in.
The ancient man then showed Alex into the well-appointed parlor, walking at such a slow pace that Alex wanted to lift him up and carry him forward because anything would be faster than this inching crawl.
“I shall let Lady Withnall know you are here to see her, Your Grace.”
Alex stifled a groan as the man shuffled out again with all the speed of a sluggish turtle.
Dear heaven.
It would be dark by the time she was notified.
Of course, that was a complete exaggeration because Alex had more to do today and this made him particularly impatient.
After several minutes of pacing, he heard the familiar thuck, thuck, thuck of Lady Withnall’s cane as she approached the parlor at a sprightly clip. Preceding her arrival was the scent of a lavender perfume she must have applied too thickly.
He coughed to dispel the overpowering scent.
“Blasted perfume bottle broke as I was dabbing some on this morning,” she muttered, motioning for him to take a seat on her yellow silk settee. “I’ll hit you with my cane if you cough again, Davenport. Is it still that strong?”
He laughed and chose not to answer, for denying it would prove him a liar and telling her it smelled like a perfume workshop in here would earn him a wallop in the shins with her cane. “Thank you for agreeing to see me.”
She took a seat in one of a pair of elegantly embroidered chairs beside the settee. “Go on then, tell me what information you are seeking this time.”
“It’s about the Davenports.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Your own family?”
He nodded as he settled his large frame on the delicate settee. “I have ignored them all my life.”
“With good reason,” she said with a harrumph.
“But I need to be better prepared now that I have more than myself to think about.”
She smiled. “Ah, yes. Congratulations, dear boy. I heard about the stir you and Tulip Farthingale caused last night. What a naughty thing you did, kissing her in front of everyone. But I suppose you saw the opportunity and seized it. I just received a note from Sophie Farthingale inviting me to your wedding. You don’t waste time, do you? ”
He grinned. “Not when I know what I want.”
“What happened to bring this about?”
He told her about Caruthers, and how he saw no alternative but to step in.
“Quite chivalrous of you. But then, you were always hoping for a chance with Tulip, weren’t you?”
He grunted. “Yes. How did you know? I did not think I was that obvious.”
“You weren’t, but it wasn’t hard for me to tell. Anyone with excellent observational skills could have discerned it. Of course, no one is as skilled as I am. I knew it the instant I spotted the two of you together.”
“From that first moment?” He shook his head and grunted. “What gave me away?”
“Well, as I said, I am never fooled. It was in the way you glanced at her, each glance lingering just a moment too long.”
This was true.
Whenever he saw her, it was as though the entire room lit up.
His pulses raced and his heart beat faster.
He could not get enough of her.
But no one should have realized it, for he thought he had perfected the ability to hide his feelings. As an investigator for the magistrate, he needed to keep his face expressionless while suspect after suspect lied to him and thought they had gotten away with their crimes.
He never wanted anyone to know what he was thinking or feeling.
“She likes you, too. But the Davenport reputation worries her.”
He nodded. “She avoided me for months because of it.”
Lady Withnall cast him a look of sympathy. “Yes, sadly. But now you are betrothed and she can no longer ignore you.”
“I think we will be all right,” he said, leaning forward.
“I’ll do my best to put her mind at ease about me.
But I am worried about my relatives. Tulip and I were having tea at the Denby Arms a short while ago and there was a man watching us from the street.
She thought he might have been a relation of mine because the man resembled me. ”
“Describe him further. I want more details.”
Alex told Lady Withnall everything that Tulip had mentioned as well as the glimpse he’d got of the man before he disappeared into the park.
“That has to be your cousin, Harold Havers. He’s the eldest son of your father’s younger brother. Before you break your head trying to work down the family tree, just be aware he is the next in line should something happen to you before you have sons of your own.”
“What do you know of him?”
“Very little.” She then proceeded to give Alex a detailed history of his medieval ancestors, moved on to an account of those who had recently died, and brought him up to date on the currently living Davenport heirs.
Her very little was far more than he ever knew and proved he had made the right decision in coming to her for a quick study on his family.
“Harold has two younger brothers, Neddy and Barton,” she said, finishing up her account of his ancestry and the offshoots of his family tree.
“They are all wastrels, just as their father, your father, and your mutual grandfather were before them. Your father also had two older brothers, one of whom died years ago. But the other one died recently as did his two sons.”
“Yes, those are the suspicious deaths that occurred within quick succession and were reported to be accidental.”
“It seems they were just that,” she confirmed.
“I would tell you if I had heard anything to the contrary. I think we were all assuming there must have been foul play because of the timing of these deaths. How can one not be concerned when your grandfather, uncle, and two cousins all passed within such a short period of time?”
He nodded. “Four deaths within five years.”
“Like dominoes falling in a row. They were all tragic, of course. No one rejoices upon the untimely passing of another. But these men were up to their eyeballs in vices that only grew worse once they inherited the dukedom, for there was no one to stop their outrageous behavior once they held all the power.”
“That is true,” Alex remarked.
“So, I suppose it should not shock anyone that each met an early death through his own reckless depravity and carelessness.”
“What were their specific vices?”
“I do not think that is relevant. As most good-for-nothing gentlemen, they were all sots, gamblers, and lecherous devils. But many of our government ministers exhibit those same deplorable traits and England miraculously manages to function,” she said with a disdainful snort.
“And what about Harold, Neddy, and Barton’s vices? Anything in particular that stands out?”
“They are just as bad as the other males in your family lineage. As I said, wastrels. Name the vice and they have it. I’m so sorry, Davenport.
I wish I could point to one ancestor in recent history who was not greedy, lazy, or self-indulgent.
There’s no one other than you who has risen above the fray and become a decent person.
Perhaps there is hope for future generations of Davenports now that you are duke and your offspring shall be next in line to inherit. ”
He hoped there would be offspring, but that meant Tulip had to trust him enough to allow him into her bed.
He had husbandly rights, of course.
But he had no intention of forcing her into doing anything she did not wish to do.
If they were to have a happy marriage, there first needed to be a strong foundation of trust established between them.
Mutual respect.
Lady Withnall smiled as though reading his thoughts.
This irked him, but he was not surprised she could see into his mind. After all, she was a master at this game. “There’s a reason these Farthingale girls marry well, you know.”
“What is the reason?” he asked, genuinely curious because it was quite a feat for a commoner to marry a man of rank. Yet, so many of these Farthingale females had accomplished this very thing.
Not only married well, but these were love matches that had grown into happy marriages over the years.
“Take Tulip, for example,” Lady Withnall said. “What do you see when you look at her?”
Alex was not one to talk about his personal feelings, but he did not hold back with Lady Withnall.
She probably knew all the answers already and was asking for his benefit and not hers.
“I see a beautiful young lady who is also intelligent, honest, and compassionate,” he said after giving it a moment’s thought.
“Go on.”
Did he have to say more?
He sighed and continued. “She values character over an impressive title. If she ever tells me that she loves me, I will know it is the truth because she is no liar. She is perhaps a little too honest. For this reason, she feels her mistakes deeply, especially if she believes she might have hurt someone because of her actions.”
“Are we speaking of Caruthers now?”
“Yes, she places too much blame on herself for leading him on. She is kind to everyone, even that oaf who did not deserve it. She sincerely cares about others and wants to be good to them. I know she will be warm and loving to our children, should we have any. In time, I hope she will grow to love me, too.”
Lady Withnall now cast him a doting smile. “I knew you were an admirable fellow. After all, you are descended from a once noble family. The Davenport dukes were among the most valiant warriors who defended our medieval kings. That valor was lost for several generations, until you.”
He shook his head in dismissal. “I don’t know about that. How does one retrieve a nobility that was lost probably over a century ago?”