Chapter Nineteen
D eclan barely slept that night. His thoughts kept returning to the sight of Grace—Nayao—bringing herself pleasure under his direction. What a sight! And he pleasured himself while remembering it.
But now it was morning, and he had a task to accomplish. He’d decided on this course several days ago, perhaps from the moment he’d first met Nayao. But last night’s display required him to be more aggressive in his campaign. Which meant the mid-morning sun found him banging on his mother’s door.
Once the haughty butler opened the door, he was tempted to barge straight upstairs into his mother’s bedroom. After all, she’d done the same to him. But that was petty, so he opted for the manners appropriate to his title.
‘Tell my mother that I await her in the library.’
His words and tone were abrupt. He preferred to be polite with his servants, but he knew that in this case Nagel approved of only the rudest manners from his superiors. It made no sense to him, but then the whims of polite society—even among their servants—rarely made rational sense.
Appropriately, Nagel bowed deeply to him and intoned, ‘Yes, Your Grace. I have already sent for tea and a morning biscuit, if you’d like.’
‘Yes, thank you.’
Damn it, he should have remembered not to thank him. He could hear the man’s disapproving sigh as he headed for the library. His mother certainly did hire servants who reflected her attitudes.
He found his way to the library and seated himself at the desk there. It was his mother’s desk, the drawers filled with her correspondence. As was normal for her, the top was pristine, the desk locked. He sat here merely for effect. This was his mother’s seat of power, but he was the Duke. And he had every right to everything she owned.
She took her time coming downstairs. Long enough for him to enjoy several morning biscuits and a proper cup of tea, not to mention a good portion of the morning paper which Nagel had brought with breakfast.
‘Have you lost all your money, Declan? Have you come to move in on my peace?’
‘Good morning to you too, Mother.’ His tone was rather cheerful, he thought. Must be the biscuits. They had put him in a good frame of mind.
‘You’re being overbearing. You’re invading my library just because I woke you up on your birthday.’
He couldn’t tell if she approved or if that was chastisement. Either way, she wasn’t wrong. He leaned back in her chair and smiled at her.
‘It was the day after my birthday, and you didn’t remember it.’
‘You’re not a child who needs sweets.’ She dropped down into the chair opposite the desk. ‘What is it? Your aunt will be down at any moment and she’ll want to know what Cedric is doing.’
‘You already know what he’s doing. He’s trying to blackmail me into giving him ten thousand pounds.’
‘It would be a loan.’
‘It would not, and you know it, because he won’t pay it back. And since when did you start defending Cedric?’
‘When the alternative was him marrying that awful woman.’
Declan sighed. He really disliked going over the same ground with his mother. ‘Miss Richards is not awful. Indeed, I find her rather compelling.’
The Duchess rolled her eyes at him. ‘Every man enjoys watching a brawl, but that does not mean it belongs at a come-out ball.’
Ah. So she had heard about last night.
‘Lord Jasper deserved punishment.’
‘Then you should have given it to him outside of the ballroom. Ladies of the ton do not mete out justice like common ruffians.’
He didn’t respond because he knew it was true. Gentlemen were supposed to keep each other in check, but the opposite was often true. They egged each other on into wilder acts all in the name of fun, and be damned to whoever got hurt in the process.
‘Neither she nor I would have had to do anything had you not sent the worst of society to that ball. So I lay what happened at your feet, Mother.’
Far from being chastised, she smiled. ‘I merely created a situation whereby everyone could see her true colours.’ His mother lifted her chin to peer down her nose at him. ‘Miss Richards will never be accepted in polite society now.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. Lord Jasper may never be able to have children. Did you know that?’
‘I don’t care.’ Indeed, part of him hoped it was true.
‘Well, his mother cares. And see how I was able to accomplish what I directed you to do without even being present?’
‘And what do you think you have accomplished?’
‘She’s banned from society. Cedric can’t marry her now.’
And there was his mother’s greatest flaw. She seemed to think that the world was made up of the haut ton alone. All other people existed to serve. Ergo, if Miss Richards was not in society, Cedric could not marry her.
‘You’re wrong, Mother. Cedric will marry her for her dowry. He’s never cared for society or its games. All you have done is play directly into his hands.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. He has a great deal of pride. He will never marry someone so outré.’
He shook his head. ‘You underestimate him, Mother. The only way to keep Cedric from marrying her is to get her married to someone else.’
‘Just give him the money!’ snapped a voice from the hallway.
It was his aunt.
As was appropriate, Declan rose from his seat and bowed to the Countess. But when he straightened, his expression and his voice were hard.
‘No.’
‘Why ever not?’ His aunt dropped her hands to her hips. ‘You don’t spend it. Everyone else is buying houses and boats and whatnot. Cedric should get the same as everyone else.’
Declan sighed, looking at the drawn face of his aunt. He usually avoided the woman because she was so shrewish, but also because he knew he would be equally awful if he had to live her life. Her husband was an inveterate gambler who had charmed her when she was too young to know better. Now she lived on his mother’s generosity and was pitied throughout the ton. Her only hope for salvation was in Cedric, whom she coddled as if he were a babe in the woods.
Except now he saw how his forbearance had damaged the entire family. Cedric thought he could blackmail the duchy, Cedric’s father was off gambling money he did not have, and now his mother stood here speaking to him as if he were her maid.
This could not continue, and so he set his own hands on his hips.
‘Cedric gets what his parents give him.’ Which, as everyone in this room knew, was nothing but debt. ‘You get food, clothing, and a home because of my mother. And if you are very careful I will find a way to help your daughters, whom you seem to have abandoned.’
‘Do not speak to me of my children!’
‘Very well,’ he said. ‘I will not dower them.’
It was a lie. He already sent regular funds to his female cousins, and he definitely planned to help with their dowries when the time came.
‘We are your family!’ the woman cried.
‘And I am the head of that family, so mind your tongue.’
His aunt tried to object. She puffed herself up to her largest height to glare down her nose at him, which was hard, given that he was taller than her. But such a position had no effect on him. Indeed, he was ready to throw her back to her country estate, where she could work the fields as his cousins sometimes did. Though, to be fair, his cousin Cora claimed she enjoyed farming.
In any event, he did not move except to slowly raise one eyebrow at her. That was enough for her to collapse sideways into a chair, where she began to weep with great drama.
‘You see,’ his mother said as she patted his aunt on the shoulder. ‘We cannot accept that woman into our family. It would destroy everything.’
‘No, Mother, it would not. And you are a fool to suggest such a thing.’
The Duchess’s eyes widened in shock at his statement, and he honestly couldn’t understand why. Then it came to him. He had not spoken in anger, and neither had he swallowed down his thoughts out of fear that he was overreacting. His words had been calm, rational, and implacable. And apparently she could not believe that he could be so controlled.
‘Are you well, Declan? You are speaking like a mad man.’ When his aunt set off on another wail, she squeezed the woman’s shoulder. ‘Leave us, Agatha. You’re upsetting the Duke.’
Agatha gaped at the Duchess for a moment, but she quickly realised she was not helping her own cause. Burying her face in her handkerchief, she headed out of the room, though her sobs continued.
Meanwhile, his mother focused on him and continued her campaign.
‘It’s my fault,’ she said as she claimed his aunt’s chair. ‘I was so terrified of your father’s moods that I kept him away from you. He couldn’t teach you the proper way to be a duke. If he were here now, he would tell you that a Chinese girl cannot marry Cedric. It’s simply not proper.’
‘Mother—’
‘Think, Declan. Do you know anyone with a foreign wife?’
‘Yes, I do.’
‘Not Chinese foreign! Good God, even a Spanish wife is frowned upon. You know it is true.’
He did know. But it was true because women like his mother and aunt were leaders in society. They decided who was allowed and who was not. So what she was truly saying was that she would not accept a foreign girl, and she would make sure everyone else reviled her, too.
Thank God he was the head of the family. He now realised he had been too lax, choosing to ignore society, avoid his mother and aunt, and generally bury his head in his ledgers while he set the ducal estates to rights. But now he saw how arrogant his relatives had become, thinking they could dictate not only his actions, but society’s as well.
This had to end now.
‘Mother, I will not bandy words with you. You will repair the damage to Miss Richards’ reputation.’ He spoke calmly, but he could see that his mother wasn’t receptive.
‘No one could do that!’ she exclaimed. ‘The moment Miss Richards punched Lord Jasper, she put herself beyond the pale. No hostess will accept her now.’
‘Nevertheless, you will do it. You will do as I ask because I am the Duke. You will do it because Cedric will marry her if she doesn’t have another option.’ Those words choked him, but he continued. ‘And you will do it because I will no longer tolerate your ridiculous games. If you must meddle in people’s lives, sponsor a charity. What you are doing here—setting yourself against a woman merely because she is Chinese—is beneath you. It is beneath the title you hold, and I will not allow it.’
‘You will not allow it?’ she cried, gaping at him.
‘That is correct.’ He tapped his chin, as if he hadn’t already decided on what would happen now. ‘I believe vouchers to Almack’s will be a good start.’
‘Almack’s! Never!’
‘And you must tell all your friends to invite her to their social events.’
‘You have gone mad!’
‘It is either find her a new husband or accept that Cedric will marry her.’
The words burned in his gut, but he kept his expression bored, as if he cared not one whit what she chose. It was a lie, of course. He was here championing Nayao’s cause because he very much cared that Cedric did not marry her. Nor anyone else for that matter.
Somehow, during the night, he had decided that she would be his. He didn’t know how he’d manage it. Indeed, he feared that she set off so many feelings inside him that it would be a terrible disaster. But he had now realised how much more of a disaster it would be if she went to anyone else.
He might very well go insane if that were the case.
Oblivious to his decision, his mother made a gesture of frustration. ‘You cannot think she is remotely attractive. Perhaps as a mistress, but a wife?’ She shook her head. ‘No, even Cedric is not so reckless.’
‘Mother, Miss Richards is strong, clever, and so much more than any woman I have ever met. Different, powerful, and capable of things I have never seen before.’
His admiration for her rang loudly in the suddenly quiet room. He could see that his mother was genuinely confused. She wasn’t arguing his decree, necessarily, but trying to talk around his logic.
‘Every man enjoys novelty, Declan. A cow is novel, too, but one doesn’t marry it.’
A cow was one of the least novel things in England, and damn his mother for comparing Nayao to cattle! He sighed, trying to work out a path here. Yesterday had opened his eyes on so many levels. Ever since he’d met Nayao she’d quietly challenged his blind assumptions. His mind felt open for the first time in his life, open and willing to look at the world through new eyes. And not just the world, but his own family and their limitations.
‘Miss Richards is like a wild rose, growing against all odds.’
‘On a dung heap? Even you must admit the stench.’
No, he did not. To his mother, everything but a very tiny corner of England was a dung heap. To him, there was a very large world out there, and Nayao tempted him as no one else.
‘I think she is fascinating,’ he said. ‘And I am not the only one. So if you don’t want her marrying Cedric, I suggest you make her appealing to respectable men.’
‘Respectable! But then I would have to see her at parties. She would become part of the ton, if not the haut ton. ’
He shrugged. ‘Would you prefer her at the family Christmas dinner?’
His mother shuddered at the thought, but Declan smiled at the image. He would enjoy seeing Nayao lighting the yule log. And he would definitely enjoy kissing her under the mistletoe.
‘Get her a voucher, Mother,’ he instructed as he headed for the door. ‘Immediately.’
‘Or what?’
A very good question.
‘Or I shall pay for Cedric’s special licence myself.’
He walked out on her gasp of outrage and headed to his club. Or that was what he’d intended. Instead, he directed his coachman to take him home. He wanted a bath before he showed up on Miss Richards’ doorstep and asked to take her riding in Hyde Park.
And bathe he did. He even allowed his valet to tie his cravat in a complicated affair that took twenty minutes to settle right. His boots were polished to a mirror shine, and his signet ring had a quick clean.
Which was why it was rather upsetting that when he finally presented himself at Miss Richards’ home he found he was not the first to command her attention. Indeed, the parlour was filled with blackguards and fortune-hunters. And that included his cousin.