Chapter Eighteen
Thomas watched Louisa dash from the room, ducking under her grandfather’s arm and running for the stairs.
She’d told him she would need about an hour for her search.
By the look on Skeffington’s face, he was prepared to shout for that long and longer.
It did not really matter. He’d been shouted at by far more interesting people during heated debates in Parliament and nothing had come of it.
Of course, if one wished to marry into a family, it was probably bad form to drive an in-law to apoplexy before the banns had even been read.
‘Good morning, Skeffington,’ he said brightly.
‘What is the meaning of this… This… This…’ The poor man was close to foaming at the mouth.
Thomas continued to smile. ‘Sit down. Have you had breakfast? I find a cup of tea makes all things better.’ He gestured to a chair.
‘This is not your table! This is not your house!’
‘It is not,’ he agreed. ‘I have a fine one in Staffordshire and another in London.’ He smiled. ‘No farm, however. And no cousin, natural or otherwise.’
Skeffington’s nostrils flared like a winded horse. ‘It was you…’
‘All along,’ Thomas finished for him. ‘We cooked up a scheme to get you to give up the blunt. It was a mad idea. All mine, I’m afraid. Your granddaughter told me it would not work, but I refused to listen.’
‘Get out of my house!’ he said, pointing towards the door.
‘Or you’ll have me thrown into a hedge?’ Thomas laughed.
‘Now that your constable knows my real name, I doubt he will be willing to help you with that. When I told him you’d been keeping my fiancée’s inheritance from her, he was more than willing to help me remove a few items from the house.
’ He waved his hand. ‘Just to balance the score, you see.’ He glanced around him.
‘You won’t miss them. You might know the value of things, but you have no sense of taste. ’
‘How dare you!’ Skeffington raised his cane to strike.
Thomas smiled up at him. ‘That would be unwise. Especially as I’m really a duke and there’s a constable in the house. But bash away and let’s see what happens.’ He watched as the cane was lowered again.
‘You still do not have my permission to marry my granddaughter,’ he said, eyes blazing. ‘You will not have her.’
‘On the contrary.’ Thomas grinned. ‘She is of age and can do whatever she wants. You should not be bothered at all. You said I could take her and go on several occasions. But you did not want to part with the money.’
He pushed away from the table and stalked towards Skeffington. ‘I can find no evidence that you have ever cared for Louisa, or her brother.’
The old man took a step backwards.
Thomas continued to advance. ‘You have abused and neglected them. Louisa particularly has been bullied and brow-beaten until she was a shadow of the woman she was meant to be.’
They were in the hall now, headed for the front door.
‘It was not bad enough that you withheld her inheritance from her. Now you have fired her gardener and mean to spoil her garden.’
‘My gardener! My garden!’ Skeffington said, bracing himself against a doorframe and trying to gain back a little of his power. ‘My house, as well. If I wish to burn it to the ground and let the land go to seed, I shall.’
‘I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.’
They both turned to see Louisa standing on the stairs, some papers in her hand.
Had she always been this beautiful? How had he missed it?
Today, she was positively radiant, beaming down at him from the landing like an angel returning from heaven.
He touched his heart and held out an open hand to her, hoping she understood what he was offering.
She smiled widely. He could feel a tightness in his chest, as if he was gathering a breath and about to burst into song. But now was not the time. Soon, perhaps. But not just yet.
‘Did you find what you were looking for?’ he asked.
‘More than that,’ she said. ‘Perhaps, if Grandfather is threatening to burn down the house, we should have Mr Barnes stay with him until we decide what is to be done with him. Percy would be most unhappy to lose his birthright to a fire.’
‘The house is Percy’s?’
This was a surprise.
‘The deed is in his name,’ she said, waving a piece of paper.
‘It seems our great-grandfather was disappointed in his son and heir. He broke the entail on the property so that Grandfather inherited only the title without the land. But he was very fond of my grandmother and my father. He was over the moon when Percy was born and deeded this house directly to him, effective upon his death.’
‘My father had no right to do that!’ Skeffington shouted.
‘It is all quite legal,’ Louisa said, holding up another paper. ‘There are letters from my father, explaining his request that Grandfather be allowed to live here in this house until Percy came of age and could take possession of it.’
She smiled down at her grandfather as if she enjoyed the advantage of her high ground.
‘My father was a good man who did not wish to see his father without a home. But it is up to my brother whether you remain here or not. And you have not been very kind to either of us since our parents’ death. I fear that will colour his decision.’
Her grandfather let out a roar of frustration.
‘I would save some of your anger, if I were you,’ Louisa said. ‘I am not yet finished reading.’
She pulled out the last sheet of paper.
‘My father’s will clearly states that we are to receive our inheritances promptly on coming of age with no real conditions.
There are a few vague directions for our guardian, but no indication that he intended it to be you.
It seems we were only put in your care because the family is small and all the better candidates predeceased you. ’
‘It is often the case that the most spiteful people thrive where others languish,’ Thomas said.
‘Like weeds,’ Louisa agreed.
‘You upstart girl! You had no right to rummage through my things. When I get my hands on you…’
Skeffington lunged towards the stairs. Thomas moved quickly, grabbing him by the collar. For a man who claimed to be an invalid, he had a surprising amount of fight in him.
‘Where is the money?’ he shouted, trying to thrash his way out of his coat.
‘What money?’ Louisa asked, with a wicked grin.
‘You know very well, what money,’ he screamed at her.
She blinked down at him, a picture of innocence. ‘I have no idea what you are talking about.’
‘Liar! I had over nineteen thousand pounds in notes.’
‘Then this might be a good time to remind you that Father’s will also states that I am to receive twenty thousand.
Not just two, as you told me.’ She smiled.
‘If I had found that much, I would simply take it and perhaps the set of jade figurines on the library mantlepiece. I have always been fond of them and I’m sure they are worth almost a thousand. ’ Then, she laughed.
Her mirth went on for a while and had a slightly hysterical tinge to it.
Thomas frowned in concern, but recent events had been stressful.
He could not really blame her for being somewhat overwrought.
Just when he was about to release Skeffington and go to her side, she took a deep breath and pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve, wiping her eyes.
‘You, of all people, should be able to recognise lies when you hear them. You have told enough of them. But I have no time for you, any more. If you will both excuse me, I am going to sit in the garden. I will have to send someone to get Webb back so he can begin building the wall.’
She drifted down the stairs and past them, never flinching as her grandfather tried to snatch at the papers in her hands. She walked down the hall towards the garden doors without another word.
Before she went outside, Louisa stopped in the library.
She did not honestly think her grandfather was likely to burn down the house.
Arson would require effort. In all the time she’d spent with him, she had never seen him do anything for himself.
But just in case he tried to destroy the will, she hid it in the family bible.
He was even less likely to look in that book than he was to begin tending to his own needs.
But he might be angry enough to smash the pair of jade horses, simply because she’d said she liked them. She took them down from the mantlepiece and slipped them behind the cushions of the sofa and fluffed the pillows back into place.
She went out through the French doors and down the path to sit on the bench overlooking the standing stones.
It was even more peaceful than it had been before, now that she did not have to worry about her future.
She was still not quite sure what was to come next.
But since her grandfather would not be a part of it, it would be happier than she’d ever expected.
After a half an hour or so, Thomas came to sit by her side. ‘The constable is watching your grandfather,’ he said. ‘I have sent to the village for Percy. If he is master here, he has many decisions to make. I told him to bring Webb.’
She was already smiling, but this made her even happier. It would probably be inappropriate to throw her arms around him without some discussion, but it was the first thing that came to mind.
‘Thank you,’ she said, at last.
It seemed inadequate, but he did not look disappointed.
‘I assume you have the money your grandfather spoke of, earlier.’
‘I do,’ she said. ‘But I will admit, the satisfaction of seeing him angry and unable to do anything about it was worth far more to me than twenty thousand pounds.’
He laughed. ‘I thought you might like that.’