Chapter Twenty-Six
o
Father was in a rare taking. He summoned James to the library the morning after the disastrous picnic.
Only the obvious tension in Father’s jaw belied his composed demeanor.
James remained standing as he waited for the lecture.
He knew precisely what Father would say and did not intend to drag out the interview.
“I understand Miss Lancaster left in quite a hurry yesterday,” Father said.
“She and her sister chose to return to their London residence before the picnic began.”
Father’s gaze narrowed. “When do you intend to call on her again?”
“I do not, Father.” James borrowed a page from Father’s book, keeping his own expression confident and unruffled. “It seems we would not suit after all.”
“You have ended your courtship?” Father gave him the look that always indicated his doubt in James’s intelligence.
“No.”
The slightest hint of relief entered Father’s expression.
James kept his tone bland. “She ended the courtship. Quite unequivocally, in fact.”
Father’s gaze hardened. “What have you done?”
A question James had asked himself multiple times. He would not allow his father to see how upset he truly was over the previous day’s events. “It seems you underestimated Miss Lancaster’s intelligence—we both did. She discovered the true nature of this courtship and decided she deserved better.”
Father remained silent, his expression frozen in a look of contemplation. He, no doubt, was composing some new plan or another. He would suggest a new strategy, an attempt to convince Daphne to trust him again. James wanted no part of it.
He spoke before his father could. “My conduct these past weeks does not bear scrutiny. I look back on the decisions I have made and the course I have taken, and I am—” He pushed out a tense breath. His self-evaluation had not been pleasant. “I am entirely ashamed of myself.”
“Ashamed?” Father’s scoffing tone left little doubt as to the state of his conscience.
“I acted dishonorably. Though the duke was the one to suggest the possibility of a courtship between Miss Lancaster and I, he would never have approved of me doing so insincerely. He watched me with such suspicion that I am relatively certain he had begun to see through the masquerade. And I, for my own well-being, simply tried that much harder to be convincing. I misled him and the duchess by word and deed. And my deliberately deceptive courtship of Miss Lancaster was absolutely inexcusable.” James straightened his shoulders.
“It is time I regained my hold on my own integrity.”
“You intend to simply let her walk away?” Tension entered Father’s tone. He so seldom allowed any emotion to color his words. James knew the interview would grow worse before he was permitted to leave.
“I intend to not impose upon her further.”
Father leaned forward, pressing his forearms against his desk and meeting James’s eyes with a look of warning. “You know the consequences of failure.”
“I think, Father, you and I define failure a little differently.”
Father didn’t so much as flinch. “You will no longer receive your income from the estate. Neither will your brother.”
“He is resilient.” James knew the loss would be a burden to Ben, and he would do all he could to help.
“That is rather coldhearted for you, Tilburn.” The comment was obviously meant as a mockery, an attempt to ruffle him.
“A trait, one could argue, I come by rightly.”
Father seemed to recognize the barb, though he did not acknowledge it. “Can you view your mother’s penury with so much indifference?”
“Not indifference, Father. Resignation. I know better than to expect you to act in a way that places any importance on the well-being of your family. I can do nothing to stop you from punishing any of us.”
Father shifted again. If James hadn’t spent a lifetime watching the man, he might have almost thought his father had grown uncomfortable. He knew better. Father was simply adjusting his attack.
“What of this family’s standing?” Father asked. “We will never be able to hold our heads up in Society again.”
“You know perfectly well that aborted courtships seldom reflect badly on the gentleman involved. This family stands at the mercy not of my actions but of Miss Lancaster’s and, more daunting still, the Duke of Kielder.
His Grace could destroy us with a word. I doubt he would hesitate at all to do so.
He is the one you ought to be bargaining with, not me.
You two formulated the original agreement after all. ”
Father paled noticeably. “The duke does not make bargains. Everyone knows that.”
“Then perhaps you should go begging, on your knees, for mercy. Though it is my understanding he isn’t overly fond of that either.”
“No. That won’t be necessary. I can fix this.” Father nodded repeatedly. “I can fix this.”
“How—?”
Father held a hand up to cut him off. “I can’t fix it for you. But I can make things right for me and for this title you do not deserve to inherit. I need not be brought down by your idiocy.”
James didn’t dare even guess what Father was planning now.
“Good-bye, Father. Go save your precious standing. I have far more crucial things to worry about.” He turned on his heel and left the room, intending to put to rights the many things he’d done wrong of late.
Refusing to allow Father to manipulate him into sacrificing his integrity once again was but one item on his list. Talking to Ben was another.
The butler approached James as he reached the foot of the stairs.
“You look concerned, Billingsley,” James said.
“Cook has declared that she cannot prepare the venison her ladyship has requested,” the butler explained. “The meat intended for this evening has gone off.”
“Can she not obtain another cut? Or simply prepare a different dish?”
“I could not say, my lord,” the butler replied. “She wished the matter settled by you.”
“No one else in the family is capable of seeing to this?” Why had he even asked the question? No one was ever capable of handling anything.
“Lady Techney directed the issue to you.”
Of course she did. “I will see to it.”
The butler seemed satisfied and left to see to his other duties.
On his way to the kitchen, James encountered the gardener, who spoke at length about an aphid infestation.
Moments after directing the gardener to do his best in dealing with the pests, James addressed the coachman’s concern over the need for a new axle on the traveling coach before the family returned to Lancashire.
Then a footman gave James a letter from the gamekeeper at Techney Manor expressing concerns about poachers.
This was Father’s estate, deuce take it, yet everything fell on James’s shoulders—James, who had been cut off by his father.
James, who had been all but disinherited.
He needed a respite, an ally. He’d had that for one brief moment, and he’d thrown it away.
He’d lost Daphne’s friendship as well as her unfailingly calm head in the midst of trouble, her support and encouragement.
He pushed back his regrets, something he’d done almost constantly since her departure, and set his mind to discovering his brother’s very effective hiding place.
After a moment’s contemplation, the answer became clear.
The only place a gentleman could have any hope of avoiding company was in his own bedchamber.
James knocked on Ben’s door. His business with his brother held greater sway than the crises of the staff.
Ben opened the door, nodding to James.
“Ben, I—” James’s eyes darted around the room, taking in the traveling trunk awaiting attention. “Are you leaving?”
Ben dropped a pair of cuff links into a drawstring bag and tossed it into a portmanteau. “In the morning.”
An open traveling case sat half full on the floor. Several shirts lay strewn across the bed.
“When did you make this decision?” Had he offended his brother somehow?
Ben carefully folded a shirt—he hadn’t the means to hire a valet to see to his clothing. “When I received the invitation from Mr. Windover.”
Windover? “Miss Lancaster’s brother-in-law?”
Ben nodded, his eyes wide with obvious anticipation.
“We’ve been corresponding ever since Miss Lancaster wrote to tell him of my situation.
I received an invitation this morning to be a guest at his home.
He offered to show me around his land and talk about investments and changes that might help me begin to turn around my own estate. ”
Investments Ben would soon not have the income to undertake.
James had decided the night before that he ought to have been up front with his brother from the beginning.
Ben’s income had been on the line, and he had deserved to know so he could prepare himself for the possibility of failure on James’s part.
Yet another well-meaning mistake he had made.
“I am afraid I have some bad news,” James said, his stomach twisting. How did one tell one’s brother that he had gambled away his inheritance?
“How bad?” Ben did not seem terribly concerned, his focus still on his packing.
“It involves Father.”
Ben looked up at him. “That is bad. What did he do this time?”
No words came. Ben was going to lose everything. He couldn’t think of any way to ease the impact of that revelation. All the effort Ben had gone to, the sacrifices he’d made over the past couple of years, his newfound correspondent would be for naught.
“James?”
James sat on the edge of the bed, reminding himself that Ben needed to know his situation before he committed to anything he could no longer afford. “My courtship with Miss Lancaster fell through.”
“I noticed.” Ben watched him in obvious curiosity, though not a great deal of worry.
“Father forced the courtship with threats I could not ignore.” James took a deep breath. “One of those threats involved you.”
Ben sat beside him, looking concerned for the first time. “What did he threaten to do?”