Chapter 14
Rupert met the next morning with his solicitor. Despite the pain he had felt the night before in the library at Lady Fowler’s ball, he was ready to put his injury behind him and focus on understanding what was going on with his estate.
The solicitor, however, did not have an answer for him.
“I cannot explain it,” Mr. Hargrove said, as he sat in front of Rupert’s desk, looking through all of the paperwork that Rupert and his estate manager had prepared for him.
“You are indisputably the Duke of St. James. Your father’s one true heir.
I cannot think of a single reason why anyone would doubt your authority to make this claim. Unless…”
Rupert sat forward. “Unless what?”
“Unless your legitimacy were being called into question,” Mr. Hargrove said, looking up at him from over his glasses. “But who would do that? And why?”
“And why would I not have heard about it?” Rupert asked. “Surely if there was a question over my legitimacy, it would have been introduced in the courts. I would have been subpoenaed.”
“Yes, I would imagine,” Mr. Hargrove said.
He sighed and shook his head. “Perhaps it is simply a misunderstanding. Such things do happen. But I have confirmed that your father’s death certificate was registered, which means there is no question about you being the lawful duke.
I thought perhaps, since these lands are far away, they simply had not heard of your father’s death…
But that is clearly not the reason. It is very mysterious. ”
Rupert did not like mysterious. It was already hard enough to deal with the loss of his father. On top of that, he did not also want to worry that something, or someone, was going to try and take away his estate. It was his father’s legacy, and he would defend it with his life.
“Thank you, Mr. Hargrove,” he said, standing and holding out his hand. His solicitor rose and shook it.
“You are very welcome, my boy. And fear not, I will get to the bottom of this, mark my words,” Mr. Hargrove assured him. “Your father and I did not safeguard this estate for thirty years just to have it undermined.”
After the solicitor had left, Rupert felt restless. He needed to get out and stretch his legs. Fortunately, he had a ride scheduled with Thomas. There was so much that he needed to catch his friend up on anyway, as he had missed the ball the previous night to attend to business at his gaming hell.
The moment they had ridden their horses into Hyde Park together, he began to tell him all about Lady Fowler’s ball.
“You are saying that Ellie was a gentlewoman all along?” Thomas gaped at him, displaying exactly the correct amount of shock that the situation warranted. “Not only is she a lady, but she is the sister of the Viscount Ashford?! The one who hates you?”
“He does not hate me,” Rupert objected. “He just does not… like me very much.”
Thomas raised his eyebrows. “That is a nice way of putting it.”
“Anyway, let us not talk of him,” Rupert said. “We were speaking of Miss Ashford, which is a much more pleasant topic.”
Thomas laughed and shook his head. “Yes, I suppose it is. I am shocked, though, that a lady would be alone on the road like that, and that she would go swimming in a river! She must be a very singular woman indeed.”
“I think she is,” Rupert said, and he gazed away, over across the verdant lawns of Hyde Park, which undulated gently. The Serpentine was full of ladies and gentlemen walking, but Rupert had the urge to go faster. He felt restless still.
“This situation with my estate is still concerning me,” he said after a moment. “I cannot think what it is that is undermining my authority.”
“I have been thinking upon it as well,” Thomas said gravely. “Especially since last night, when I was at White’s, I heard someone say the oddest thing. Lord Monterey made a strange comment about how you should not be the duke.”
“What?” Rupert fully reined in his horse to turn and stare at his friend. “He actually said that? And did you demand to know what he meant by that?”
“I did,” Thomas said, nodding. “But he became closed-lipped. He said that he should not have spoken and that it was not any of my business.”
Rupert felt something icy slither down his spine. “I cannot have the peerage of the realm doubting me,” he murmured.
“It is just Lord Monterey,” Thomas said. “And everyone knows he is an opportunist.”
“But what if it is others as well?” Rupert lapsed into thought.
He hoped that Mr. Hargrove was going to find some answers, because with every passing day, the situation was becoming more concerning.
“But what of you?” he asked his friend, forcing himself to change the conversation.
“How do you fare in trying to buy a gaming hell?”
“I am faring well,” Thomas said. “Although my family is displeased with me. They do not think this is a worthy profession for a gentleman.”
“But you must make your own way,” Rupert said, frowning. “I think it is admirable that you are striking out on your own.”
“Yes, but they think it is common of me to open up such an establishment,” Thomas said. “And in fairness, it is an unusual path for a gentleman. I would be better off taking a commission in the Army or the Navy, or else becoming a curate.”
“You would die of boredom as a curate,” Rupert pointed out.
“Nor do I wish to give my life over to military service,” Thomas said. “I want to enjoy this one life while I have it! And I think running a gaming hell will be highly amusing. Not to mention profitable.”
“Then it is exactly the right profession for you,” Rupert declared.
He grew more serious when he glanced at his friend, who was wearing a small frown on his face.
“I know it is difficult to go against the wishes of your family,” he added more gently.
“It shall be difficult for me if I do not marry the woman my mother expects or within the timeframe that she has allotted for me. But I think it is brave, and that you are brave for seeking out and fighting for the life you want. Most people in the ton just do what they are told and never defy the expectations their parents and society have for them. But you, Thomas, you are brave.”
He turned fully around in his seat to look at his friend, and he was touched to see his eyes mist over slightly. Thomas had to look away and clear his throat.
“I cannot tell you how much that means to me, Your Grace,” he said at last. “And I see now why Miss Ashford holds such power over you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, she also defies society’s expectations, does she not?
She runs away from her guardian and goes swimming by herself.
She gives false names and does what she pleases.
” Thomas shrugged. “It seems to me that you are drawn to her rebellious nature. Perhaps that is something you are seeking for yourself, as well.”
“Or perhaps I have already been too rebellious, and I recognize myself in her.”
Thomas tilted his head to one side. “Do you mean because you were traveling these past few years?”
“I mean…” Rupert sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“This reputation I have as a rake. I do not think I have been a rake, but I have pursued my desires. Perhaps without much consideration for the future or how it would affect my reputation. And I feel protective of Miss Ashford. She reminds me of myself, and I am not sure that is a good thing. I want to protect her from herself, but also from me.”
Thomas nodded. “Do you regret acting the way you did?”
Rupert’s jaw tightened. “I regret it if it will be a means to make Miss Ashford despise me.”
“I do not think she despises you,” Thomas said, rolling his eyes. “Women rarely do.”
But Rupert thought again of how she had looked in the library, right before she had left him.
No, she had not despised him. If anything, she had looked at him the way other women had in the past, desirously.
But those women had all come to despise him, when he had not been able to give them what they wanted most of all.
And he did not want that to happen with Miss Ashford as well.
In fact, he thought he would not be able to stand it if he were ever to make Miss Ashford hate him.
And speaking of Miss Ashford…
He looked up, and there she was, walking down the Serpentine, arm-in-arm with Lord Pembroke, a maid trailing behind them as chaperone.
Rupert’s heart gave a leap. Two sightings in two days! This was very lucky indeed, especially for a woman he had recently thought he would never see again.
And the fact that she was with a gentleman was even more intriguing. He had seen them dancing at the ball, and he wondered, as he steered his horse toward them, if this was one of the gentlemen that the Viscount expected his sister to consider marrying.
If so, then Rupert felt very sorry for him. Lord Pembroke was nice enough, but very boring, and there was no way that a woman of Miss Ashford’s nature would ever marry him.
Even now, she looked bored, as he trotted up next to her and swung down from his saddle.
“Miss Ashford,” he said, removing his hat and bowing before her, unable to hide the cheeky grin from his face. “And Lord Pembroke! How do you both do this afternoon?”
Miss Ashford’s eyes went wide, and the hint of a blush colored her cheeks.
“Your Grace!” she said, and, before she could stop him, Rupert had reached for her hand and brought it to his lips.
He lingered there for a long moment, letting his eyes burn into hers as he kissed the back of her hand.
When he set it back down, her cheeks were aflame, and even Lord Pembroke looked a little startled.
“Your Grace…” he said, shifting uneasily. “How do you do? I had not expected to see you here today.”
“Whyever not?” Rupert asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Oh, only that you are always away on business it seems… Or with your mother.”
Rupert was not sure if that was meant to be a cut, but either way, he smiled broadly. “Yes, I am very busy, it is true. Such is the life of a duke. But even a duke is drawn to the delights of London during the Season, and to the many beauties that such delights draw.”
He smiled at Miss Ashford. She was no longer blushing, but giving him a hard, almost irritated look, as if she knew exactly what he was doing.
But before she could respond, Thomas also joined them, and Rupert made the introductions. When he said Thomas’s surname, however, Miss Ashford blanched.
“Mr. Grenville?” She repeated, stunned, her eyes swivelling around to Rupert’s. “Where have I heard that before?”
“Perhaps you have heard about my interest in opening up a gaming hell,” Thomas said. “There have been many articles about it in the Times. I am the first gentleman to open a gaming hell in London, and, as you can imagine, the more stodgy of the ton are not delighted.”
“The two of you are certainly unconventional,” Miss Ashford said, her eyes flickering between Rupert and Thomas. “You make quite the pair.”
“We have been inseparable all our lives,” Rupert said.
“Indeed?” Her eyes narrowed. “And does that include when you were at school together at Eton?”
Ahh, so her brother had told her about that. Rupert’s stomach twinged uncomfortably, and he suddenly found himself at a loss of words. Speaking of things he regretted… His time at Eton was certainly one of those, when he was a young man trying to discover his power and how to wield it.
There had been times when it had not been wielded so justly, and as he looked at Miss Ashford now, he knew that she would not be impressed by such youthful stumblings.
Fortunately, Thomas jumped in to save the conversation.
“I was not at Eton,” he said. “But we wrote to each other often.”
“How sweet,” Miss Ashford said dryly.
“Well, it was necessary,” Thomas said. “As the duke did not have any friends at Eton. He was very lonely.”
“Really?” Miss Ashford looked surprised as her eyes found Rupert’s. “That is not what I hear.”
“It is the truth,” Rupert said. “I was lonely at Eton and shy, unsure of how to step into my role as a future duke. My correspondence with Thomas was all that kept me from melancholy.”
I am not the man you think I am, he tried to say with his eyes. But he would need to get her alone to truly explain. If only Lord Pembroke would leave them be, notice that he was not wanted and excuse himself.
Fortunately, such an opportunity came not thirty seconds later, when a passing bird soiled itself right on Lord Pembroke’s shoulder.
It all happened in such a flash, and suddenly Lord Pembroke was crying out in disgust, his expression horrified as he stared at the white sludge on his shoulder.
It took every single ounce of strength that Rupert had not to laugh. The laughter was bubbling up inside of him, and swallowing it down made literal tears sprout in his eyes. And, from the pained expression on Thomas’s face, his friend was also having trouble keeping in his laughter.
Even Miss Ashford’s mouth kept twitching upward, but she managed to lay a hand on Lord Pembroke’s arm and say, “My goodness, how dreadful! Perhaps you should get home and have that cleaned before it stains?”
“Y-yes,” Lord Pembroke stammered. “I really ought to. Mr. Grenville, Your Grace, would you mind making sure that Miss Ashford gets home safely?”
“It would be our pleasure,” Rupert said, silently sending a note of thanks to the bird and its perfect aim.
“I do apologize for this incident, Miss Ashford,” Lord Pembroke said. “And I do hope you will excuse me.” And, sniffing with disgust, Lord Pembroke hurried away in the most perfect display of divine intervention that Rupert had ever seen.