Dukes to Fall in Love With: A Historical Regency Romance Collection

by Bridget Barton

  “Good heavens, now there is the sort of woman who makes one glad never to have had a sister,” Georgina said forcefully. “Really, the next time I feel sorry for myself in that regard, I shall think of poor David and his plight. Really!”

  “Although I daresay all sisters are not the same,” Fleur said, and they began to laugh.

  “Oh, I daresay not. In truth, I think I am rather shocked by all this. Even though I knew my grandmother to be harsh, to see these words written and to see how two women can scheme together to such an extent that they care nothing for the feelings of others is quite abhorrent.”

  “I do not know what it all means yet, Georgina, but I think it is fair to say that those two women could come up with any scheme on earth and be assured of one another’s support and absolute secrecy.”

  “A little like us, I daresay.”

  “Yes, except we have the best intentions of another at heart, not our own best intentions,” Fleur said with quiet wisdom.

  “I think we really must have tea now, my dear so that I can come to terms with what I have read.”

  “Yes, let us go,” Fleur replied and took the letter from her cousin, placing it neatly back in the box before putting on the lid and sliding it under Georgina’s bed.

  Chapter 15

  “Your tea, Your Grace,” Mrs Thistlethwaite said, bustling into the drawing room and setting the tray down on the table in front of him.

  “Thank you, Mrs Thistlethwaite,” Emerson said with a smile. “To what do I owe the honour, my dear? After all, you do not normally bring the tea tray yourself.”

  “True, Your Grace,” she said with a knowing smile. “But I did have something I wanted to ask you, and so I took the tray from the maid and told her I would bring it myself.”

  “Ask away, Mrs Thistlethwaite.”

  “It is nothing of concern, Your Grace, simply that I wish to inquire if you are planning to hold a summer ball here at Calder?”

  “Summer ball?” Emerson said, a little wrong footed. “Oh yes, I see. My father always held a summer ball, yes,” he said almost to himself. “Well, why not? If it will not be too much trouble and too short notice for the staff, that is?”

  “Nothing is too much trouble for your staff, Your Grace.”

  “Still, I would not like to throw them into a flurry if it is not necessary.”

  “And hopefully, Miss Jeffries will still be here in the middle of summer.” Mrs Thistlethwaite gave him a small smile of encouragement, almost urging him to confirm his regard for the young lady who she had no doubt witnessed arriving unannounced on more than one occasion.

  “Yes, I would say so,” he said and then was waylaid by a very low feeling as he imagined her leaving Rowley and returning to Hertfordshire. “At least, I hope so.”

  “She is a very pleasant young lady, Your Grace,” Mrs Thistlethwaite said tenderly. “And I think your father would have approved.”

  “I hardly know, Mrs Thistlethwaite. Perhaps you would be better placed to tell me.”

  “Surely not, Your Grace,” she said and laughed before busying herself with pouring him a cup of tea from the pot.

  “Mrs Thistlethwaite, I think it would be true to say that you knew my father better than I did.”

  “No, I am sure that cannot be true,” she replied in a tone which gave her away.

  “You knew him the longest.”

  “Yes, but I had been in your father’s employ since he first married the Duchess,” she said and smiled, and he noted that she did not refer to the Duchess as his mother.

  “Yes, and I did not come here until I was twelve, nearly thirteen.”

  “Yes, but you had been unwell, Your Grace. There was nothing that anybody could do about that.”

  “Mrs Thistlethwaite, you of all people must know that that is not true. I remember every inch of my life, every moment of it, and I have barely suffered a day’s ill-health in one-and-twenty years.”

  “You must not say that to anybody,” Mrs Thistlethwaite said and suddenly sat down in the seat opposite him without any of the ordinary reverence. “Your Grace, you must never say it.”

  “Then you know,” he said and looked into her eyes, refusing to look away. “You know all about it.”

  “Hardly that, Your Grace. It is not as if the Duke came to me and explained things. But I am a servant here and loyal to this house. And I am as loyal to you as I was to your father, believe me. But no good can come of such wondering, Your Grace.”

  “But Mrs Thistlethwaite, I do not even know for certain that the Duke was my father.”

  “He was your father, Your Grace. Really, I know he was. I knew that man as well as any servant can know their master, and I am telling you that you are his son.”

  “And the Duchess?” he said and studied her carefully. When she did not respond, he continued, “It is alright, Mrs Thistlethwaite. I already know that the Duchess was not my mother and did not even know of my existence. My father told me that much at least, even if he told me little else.”

  “Your Grace, I truly do not know what to say. I can only beseech you once again to let go of this thing, let it lay.”

  “Who was my mother?” he said suddenly.

  “In truth, Your Grace, I have no idea. I swear to you that I would tell you now if I knew it, but I do not. You think that I had more information than I ever truly did. But all I have in reality is my own thoughts and suppositions, nothing more. But you must know that there are only Mr Murray and me here who would have the smallest idea something was amiss. None of the other servants have been here long enough to know anything different, and I would beg you again to keep this thing quiet, to say nothing more of it, to stop thinking of it even.”

  “But I do not know who I am.”

  “You are the Duke; the son of the old Duke.”

  “My father said that he and the Duchess had never been able to have any children. I cannot help thinking that I could be anybody. I cannot help thinking that I am here simply because the two of them could not conceive a child.”

  “No, the Duke really was your father. I do not know who your mother was, Your Grace, but I know that there was … Someone,” she said, and her cheeks flushed.

  “Forgive me for causing you embarrassment, Mrs Thistlethwaite, but you must tell me everything.”

  “I do not know who the lady was, but there was something about your father in those days. He loved the Duchess, he really did, but she had become an invalid almost as soon as they were married. It was clear to everybody then that she would not live into old age and clearer still that the poor thing could do nothing more than dwell in her own illness and unhappiness. I do not believe that there was a thing left for your father, and I cannot blame him, even if the Lord himself does, for seeking some solace elsewhere.”

  “But was there ever a lady you suspected?”

  “No, I do not think I can ever have seen the lady. I would have known it, for I would have been able to see it in your father’s eyes. All I can tell you is that he loved this woman, whoever she was. He was content in those days, but I know that it did not last long. Something had changed, and they had parted, I was sure. And I was sure because he looked so bereft; so bereft that I had wondered if the lady had died.”

  “And did you know that I was this lady’s son? When I arrived all those years later, did he say anything to you?”

  “No, your father simply repeated the history that was to be given should anybody ask. He made it very clear that we would not discuss it again beyond that day. And Mr Murray and I made it very clear that we accepted that history as truth, and that was all there was to it.”

  “I see.”

  “But I had wondered, Your Grace. I had thought back to those days and realized that you were of an age to have been born out of that old love.”

  “Thank you, Mrs Thistlethwaite.”

  “Your Grace, please think about what I have said. Please do not disturb things, just let them be. I know that your father was a goo
d man, and he had his reasons. But whatever those reasons, I would not wish you to hurt your own life by trying to discover them.”

  “You really are very kind, Mrs Thistlethwaite,” Emerson said with a smile. “I know that I put you in a dreadful position, and I hope I have not upset you.”

  “Not at all, Your Grace,” she said with a smile and rose to her feet. “So, shall I begin to make plans for the summer ball, Your Grace? Perhaps you would like some assistance with the list of guests?”

  “Whenever you are ready to help me, Mrs Thistlethwaite, I shall be ready to receive your help,” Emerson said and rose to his feet and bowed at the housekeeper, smiling at her warmly. “And I shall not put you through this again.”

  “Thank you, Your Grace,” she said and nodded before turning to silently leave.

  Chapter 16

  “So, where is your cousin now?” Emerson said as the two of them waited for their tea and cakes to arrive.

  When the Duke had responded to her letter by return of post, Georgina had felt strangely excited.

  She knew it was just Sammy, of course, but he was still a very fine man about whom she still knew so little, and his keenness to see her had thrilled her just a little. She knew, of course, that he might merely be keen to find out what else she had discovered in her quest to help him get to the bottom of the great mystery of his life.

  And yet, at the same time, he was such a fine and handsome young man that Georgina could not help letting her attention wander just a little.

  He was as immaculately dressed as ever in varying shades of brown when he arrived in the tearoom, and his thick ashen hair, although tamed somewhat, still gave every appearance of making ready to break free at the earliest opportunity. When she thought how much she might have liked to run her hand through that hair, Georgina felt her cheeks flush and quickly busied herself in withdrawing the three letters from her small drawstring purse.

  “My cousin is spending a happy hour or so in the haberdashery choosing some fabric and lace for a new gown.”

  “I must admit to feeling a little guilty that she is always left on the outside. Still, as much as I would wish to include her and as much as I trust your judgement and do not mind how much you tell her, I am not quite sure that I am ready to speak so freely in front of another.”

  “And I understand that entirely, just as my cousin would,” she said and handed him the first of the letters.

  “So, these are the other letters that your Great Aunt Belle discovered, are they not?”

  “It is just the first of them, Sammy,” she said and lowered her voice. “And I can assure you that Mirabelle Allencourt knows nothing of this. She knows only that I am trying to solve something that my grandmother did, but she is not pressing me for any details, so you must rest easy in that regard.”

  “I trust your judgement entirely, Georgie. You are the only person in this world I do trust completely, and that is the truth.”

  As soon as he seemed to have finished the first letter, Georgina surreptitiously took it from him and handed him the next. They remained in an easy silence while he read all three, the only three that she and Fleur had devoured to date.

  “Good heavens, that a family could behave in such a way. I cannot help but feel sorry for this David, whoever he is.”

  “It may seem a little strange for me to be showing you these, but I cannot help thinking that this might have firmed up a strain of inquiry we have talked of before.”

  “How so?” he said and screwed his handsome face up in confusion. There was something about the unguarded little expression that reminded her so much of the boy he had once been that Georgina had to blink rapidly. She was so touched by it that she could have cried. “I mean, surely these letters between Beatrice … Ellington, is it? Anyway, these letters were surely written many years before I was born.”

  “Yes, but I think they lead me to suspect that whatever it was my grandmother knew, Beatrice knew it also. We had known them to be friends before, but such heartless schemers?”

  “And it really is clear now that your grandmother played a great part in the earliest days of my life, is it not? I must admit when I read your letter and learned that your grandmother had carried me into Ashdown Manor as nothing but a babe in arms, I was quite upended by it. I cannot imagine ever being in that woman’s arms.” He shuddered.

  “Fear not, for I think it was the only time,” Georgina said and began to laugh at his expression. “But I am afraid that you were probably in her arms longer than I ever was.”

  “These letters do not display your grandmother in a fine light, do they?”

  “Nor her friend.”

  “No indeed, if anything, this Beatrice, or Bea, seems a good deal worse. A woman like that can only have been created by the Devil, surely?”

  “Yes, and I wonder if she has enjoyed better health and longevity than my grandmother.”

  “You think she might still be alive?”

  “There is always the hope. My only problem is that I have no idea how we are to discover it.”

  “I think that would be a simple enough thing. I will get my new attorney to make some inquiries in Cornwall.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, he does not need to know what it is about, and so there will be no suspicion. And I cannot imagine for a moment that he would begin to hazard a guess, do you?”

  “Quite so,” she said and nodded.

  “The two of us here making a little scheme reminds me of all those years ago when your family held that dance at Christmas, and we hatched our little plan to hide in the cupboard at the top of the stairs until it was safe to come out and peer down at them all through the stair rail,” he said and looked at her intently.

  “Oh, my goodness, I had forgotten about that,” Georgina replied and smiled as the memory of childish excitement tinged with fear came back to her.

  The two of them had planned the thing for days, and she had been completely surprised when they had been able to work it to perfection. They had hidden in the cupboard for no more than half an hour, but to two young children, it had felt like forever. They had giggled excitedly and hushed one another in turn, keen to chatter, and keener still not to be discovered. It had been such an exciting evening, the planning and execution of which were far more exciting than watching her family and their friends had finally turned out to be.

  “I remember it so well,” he said in low tones. “It was so thrilling.”

  “Yes, much more thrilling than my family’s little party seemed to be, at any rate,” she remarked, and they both began to laugh.

  “I cannot thank you enough for helping me all these years later, Georgie. And all these years later I am not ashamed to tell you that you are still my only friend. I sometimes think you always shall be.”

  “When you are more settled in the world and in your own heart, Sammy, you will make friends. When you realize that your place in the world is right and yours, you will be able to relax and trust again, I am sure of it. But either way, I will always be your friend, and we shall never lose touch now that we have found one another again.”

  “I never forgot you, even when I began to doubt my own memories and the truth of life at Ashdown Manor; still I never forgot you. I never doubted for a moment that you existed, and I think that you were the only reason that I did not give in to it all entirely and come to believe the lie that my father had insisted upon for more than a decade.”

  “Things were never the same for me after you left, Sammy. My mother tried so hard to put me in the path of girls my own age in the hopes that I would be content once more. But it was all to no avail, for I was never content with any friend but you. I was just too sad to be able to open my heart again in friendship, and I think the acquaintances I developed over the years could feel that very clearly. As much as I bemoan my lot and say that they have wandered this way and that away from me in their search for husbands, I think that they always knew I was not a firm friend in the first place
. As much as I blame them out loud, I do not blame them in my heart. I never had a true care for any of them, and I know that I have been lonely these last years because I kept myself so. There, that is my secret, Sammy. I have admitted to you what I have admitted to nobody else in this world.”

  “Well, to keep your secret is the very least that I can do, is it not? Especially after all that you have done for me.”

  “When my grandmother passed away, I had thought that there would be no impediments to our friendship anymore. If only I had realized then that we had but a few weeks left in each other’s company before we would be so cruelly parted.”

  “I wonder if your grandmother’s passing had anything to do with my departure from Ashdown Manor?” he said thoughtfully.