by Heather Boyd
Half an hour later, Stanwick declared everything was in order. “I must say, the duke has been exceedingly generous.”
Sinclair thought he’d been just about right in his estimations. It was enough to support a wife and any number of children, plus dowries for the girls and allowances for any sons, too. Invested wisely, Teddy was smart enough that he should be able to improve upon it too.
“You did not have to do this,” Teddy complained.
“You were right that you had not the least effect on my nature,” he noted.
Stanwick, however, had his eye on the inch-thick stack of sheets that made up his will on the left. Sinclair cleared his throat to gain his attention. “I will not require you to read that, only to know it has been amended to exclude the funds and property gifted to Thaddeus Berringer today.”
“Of course, your grace.” Stanwick seemed relieved to be spared that chore and glanced at Thaddeus. “All you need do is sign your name to accept everything the duke offers, and you will be a very wealthy young man.”
Teddy pressed his lips together, but after a moment, he sat forward, grasping the quill Sinclair kept on his desk. He dipped the quill in the inkpot and signed his name with a pretty flourish.
“There is just one more item. This letter gives you the right to take charge in any situation involving my health, and my property. It does not allow you to draw funds from the estate of any great size. If you need to use it, I ask that you inform my solicitors in London and in the country, too. This is a copy for you to keep, but I do hope you never need use it.”
Teddy read it, and then handed it to his solicitor.
Stanwick nodded. “A wise precaution when you do not have a natural son to take care of you and your concerns,” he advised. He looked at Teddy. “Do you understand the very great trust his grace has in you?”
“Yes,” Teddy lifted his chin. “I will not let him down.”
“Good.” Sinclair breathed a sigh of relief. Now, no matter what, he could move on with his life without the worry over Teddy’s situation.
Sinclair thanked Mr. Stanwick for coming so promptly and had his servant show him to a room where he could spend the night. Tomorrow, Sinclair would have the solicitor delivered back to his own home in style.
Teddy came up to him when they were alone again. “Now what?”
“Now, you can tell me how the widow and her children are getting on?”
Teddy’s eyes widened. “How did you know about…”
“You sent my personal physician to care for the mother.” Sinclair smiled gently. “He was a little put out with me for sending him to a poor woman’s home, and in such a neighborhood. I was surprised by his remarks, but I did not correct him. Your generosity and concern for those in need make me proud. How did you find them again? I only saw the children for a moment and can barely remember their faces.”
“The children returned to Bond Street a few days later. Hungry and desperate. They were so innocent and trusting that they took me straight to their mother when I asked about her whereabouts. She was lying abed with a fever, and in a very bad way, nearly delirious from hunger. The children were trying to take care of her and each other. I could not walk away. I had to do something.”
“Admirable. What else did you do?”
Teddy licked his lips. “I hired a maid in need of work to care for the children and mother, and a cook to feed up the family, and I also sent enough food to last them a week,” Teddy revealed. “I have called on them a few times, and I am happy to report a great improvement in the mother’s health has been the result. I trust you are not angry with me.”
“You are a good man.” Sinclair clapped him on the shoulder. “I think I might be a bad influence on you, though,” he said with a huge grin. “That was very generous.”
Teddy had done precisely what was needed for that family and to appease his own conscience. It was something Sinclair might have done, had he less on his mind in the last few days.
“I fear you might be right,” Teddy murmured, and then he looked around the room with a rueful grin. “I am going to miss you and your library.”
“None of that now,” Sinclair warned, determined not to feel sad about this change. “There will be dinners and holidays to share still. You are attending my Christmas party and staying until my birthday arrives. I will not lose touch with you ever again, even if you do not live under my roof anymore.”
Teddy suddenly threw his arms around Sinclair and hugged him a second time. “Do not be alone,” he whispered. “Find someone who makes you happy and marry them.”
“I will consider it. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to venture out tonight to my club and quash a few dozen rumors that have apparently begun about my health being in decline. Percy Hunter was actually worried I was at death’s door.”
“Never,” Teddy exclaimed. “I am counting on you to live forever.”
“I am too.” Sinclair laughed and hurried upstairs to change. He was going to have dinner at White’s tonight to prove his health was unchanged, but after that, he would call upon Kitty and spend the night with the woman he could not be without ever again.
Chapter 20
Kitty rolled over as the mattress dipped and shifted around her. Sinclair climbed from bed in darkness, but she saw enough of him to know he was tired this morning. He rolled his shoulders and turned his head from side to side, loosening his joints until some popped. She heard him sigh deeply before he started dressing. His grabbed a shirt, and then began to look around the floor. His clothing was spread everywhere in the room. They had been in a bit of a rush last night after so many days apart.
He had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had worried for naught. But he would not tell her what had kept him away.
He pulled his shirt over his head then went to the window. He peeled the drapes apart a little, and she could see his face.
“What makes you smile so today, your grace,” she asked softly.
He returned to her, leaned over to brush her hair back from her face. “You.”
“That is nice,” she told him, and then sighed herself as his fingers continued to play with her hair gently. “What are your plans for the morning?”
“I will go riding, I think, and then home to change, and then I do not know. What are you doing today?”
“I expect my niece to call again,” she told him.
“How’s that going with her instruction?”
“Very well, I think. Felicity is much more malleable than my brother, so that is helpful.”
Sinclair laughed softly and kissed her cheek. “He’s always done things his own way. Try not to let him vex you.”
“I will try, but it is very hard.”
He laughed again. “I was surprised you sent him to check on me yesterday. I thought you were determined to keep us a secret from everyone, most especially your family.”
“I did not send him. He volunteered to go because he knew I had always worried about you. Too much, according to him.”
“Enough, according to me,” he countered. “He knows about us. He saw the special license with your name on it.”
Kitty hurried to sit up against the headboard. “I never agreed to marry you.”
“I know. It was the old special license I had purchased before you married Forbes. I kept it,” Sinclair explained. “For sentimental reasons.”
He straightened, kissed her brow quickly and continued dressing as the room grew brighter little by little. Kitty loved watching him in the mornings. He was adept at managing his own clothing, though she’d heard many dukes were dressed only by their valets. She slithered out of bed and picked up his coat and held it out for him to slip his arms into the sleeves.
“Thank you, my love,” he said.
When he turned, he drew her close against his body and kissed her soundly.
Her eyes softened. “Are you still angry with Susanna?”
“I may never forgive her, although she will never fe
el it.” He sighed and caressed her cheek. “I had better be on my way before someone sees me ride out of the mews. Until tonight.”
She smiled as he hurried from the room, leaving her alone to slither back into the warm bed they’d just shared. She lay back, considering the scandal of being known as his lover. It did not feel so unwelcome a revelation that day.
Kitty knew she would not fall back to sleep anytime soon, so after a few minutes of luxuriating, she got up, too. She straightened Sinclair’s side of the bed and rang for a maid.
She doubted any servant in this house could be fooled into thinking she slept alone any night. It was something of a miracle that none had talked so far.
She asked for tea and a little cake to nibble on, and then sat by the window of her room. The sun was slowly rising, and although morning had always been her favorite time of day, she knew it was not anymore.
The best part of her day was when Sinclair was near.
Her bedchamber was at the front of Willa’s house, overlooking other dwellings of similar importance. For some time, there was hardly anyone about on the street. Or so she thought…until a tall shape moved out of the shadows of the opposite building.
A gentleman moved to stand directly in front of Willa’s house, and then his face tilted up to look at Kitty. She frowned as she realized it one of Sinclair’s servants. One of the men who routinely followed him about.
Thinking he must have been seeking Sinclair, she shook her head and mimed that the duke had already gone.
The man nodded but still did not leave. He moved to the front steps, and she was sure that he knocked on the door, though she heard no sound in her room. Worried that the servants would become involved in a discussion about Sinclair being here, she grabbed up her shawl and slipped downstairs to intercede.
Willa’s butler was trying to send the man away, without success.
Kitty cleared her throat to announce her presence. “I will deal with him.”
“Very good, madam,” the butler replied, looking a little relieved. He opened the door wider, and it was indeed one of the duke’s servants.
He held onto his hat and swallowed. “I was hoping I might speak to you, Lady Forbes.”
Kitty nodded, although she was a little worried by the man knowing her name. “Of course. Please, won’t you join me in the library?”
She led the way and heard two sets of footsteps following her. She stopped before the cold hearth and quickly dismissed the butler, who had followed them to the room.
The duke’s servant smiled. “Thank you for seeing me so early in the day.”
“The duke is not here.”
“But he was last night, and I suspect many nights before that,” he said.
Kitty lifted her chin. “That is none of your concern.”
The fellow stared at her boldly. “Actually it needs to be, I am afraid.”
“How dare you?”
The man only smiled again. “I knew he could not be that interested in those idiots at the club to spend every night and all night there of late.”
“I think you should leave.” Kitty did not threaten him with the duke’s wrath. She did not have the right to say anything, but she would tell Sinclair of this interview as soon as she saw him again. The man before her should be dismissed for his impertinence.
“As much as I would like to oblige you, I am afraid that you and I need to come to an understanding. I assume you can keep a secret as well as the duke.”
She glared at him.
His smile grew. “I will take that as a yes.”
Kitty pointed to the door. “Out.”
The man laughed softly. “I think when you hear me out, you will understand why I have such an interest in the duke’s private life. I need to tell you a story, but first, I need to tell you my name.”
“Teddy, isn’t it?”
“My full name is Thaddeus Godfrey Berringer,” he said, emphasizing the last name, and then he just stared at her.
Sinclair’s family name.
She gaped at the man.
“Ah, I see you recognize the connection.”
“No. You are a servant in the duke’s employ.”
“For the time being, that is all I want anyone to believe I am. I am the duke’s cousin. Second cousin, once removed, actually.” Teddy plucked at his coat. He was wearing the livery of servants in the duke’s household today, and had done so every other day she’d seen him standing behind Sinclair. “He complains about me wearing this suit almost every day.”
Kitty gaped. If she were standing in the drawing room of Grafton Park manor house, she could have consulted a broad picture of the Berringer family tree that graced one of the walls there. The family was not large, but Kitty recalled they were widely spread about the countryside. There had once been distant branches everywhere, and she had not met many of them. The man might be telling the truth.
“Society believes he had no Berringer relations left to succeed him. Everyone talks as if the title is about to become extinct.”
“A deception Sinclair has unwillingly participated in, at my request. I wanted time to grow used to the idea and the scope of my future responsibilities by following him about unnoticed.”
Kitty stared at the man. In no way did Thaddeus Berringer resemble Sinclair. “Why would you not want to be known as his heir presumptive? Why pretend to be a servant at all?”
He winced. “It is my understanding you grew up on the Grafton Park estate and were a companion to Lady Susanna Berringer before your marriage.”
“That is correct.” She drew breath, trying to adjust to the shock that Sinclair might have an heir after all. Why had not he told her, of all people? “I have known the family all my life. I have never heard of a Thaddeus Berringer before.”
“I never visited the estate as a child. By then, my father and the duke had fallen out over money, and we were never invited to stay. Perhaps you might have heard of my father, Godfrey Berringer.”
“The name does sound vaguely familiar, though I do not believe I was ever introduced to him if he came to Grafton Park during my years there. I would have remembered that.”
“I am glad for your sake that you did not meet him,” he told her. “He was unpleasant.”
She narrowed her eyes on him. All she had was his word that he was who he claimed to be. He could be lying to her, but for what purpose she could not imagine. “How can I help you, Mr. Berringer? I warn you, I have no influence over the duke. If you have come to me to beg my help to get at his money, you have sorely mistaken my nature. You, if you are who you claim to be, will inherit nothing until his grace dies, and that shall not be for a long time, I promise you.”
“I do not want his money, nor desire his death. I expect him to live forever, but I want him to be happy.” The fellow nodded. “No one can help me avoid the title in the long run, but you can help someone I care about very much. You can help the duke.”
“I do not see how.”
“I am the only living male Berringer relation, and therefore, his heir. Since I have come to London—at his insistence, I might add—I have overheard so much speculation about him not having a son that it angers me. I have urged him to marry, but he refuses to oblige.”
Kitty blinked. “You cannot mean to say you wish to be passed over in the succession?”
“I did. Sinclair is a man to admire, and any son of his would have been fortunate, in my opinion. Luckier than I was with mine. I have already tried to avoid my fate once, but have recently had a change of heart. Sinclair deserves the peace of mind of knowing his burdens will be lifted up by me after he is gone.”
“He is a proud man. I am sure your agreement pleases him.”
“He is the very best,” Mr. Berringer told her. “I could never understand why he was not a husband, though. Sinclair often seemed lonely, and while there was always a remedy at hand to choose some other woman to be his duchess, my cousin remains a bachelor still. Women tend to throw themselves into hi
s path, but he avoids all entanglements. But then he saw you at the pleasure gardens…and everything has changed.”
Kitty pressed her lips together, studying the young man with suspicion. She was not carrying her fan, but if she was about to be blackmailed with the threat of scandal, there was a poker she could use nearby. “A duke always draws attention to himself.”
“I suspect he loves you. I think he has loved you all along, because the sadness I first knew in him is now gone.” The man drew a breath. “Do you know I have not told anyone my full name since the day my father died?”
“And yet you tell me.”
“I ran away from home as soon as the creditors finished picking through our belongings. There was not anything left of value. My father lived in expectation of receiving the duke’s wealth. I had no ties there when he was gone. I went where I hoped no one would ever find me. Where no one would connect me to the Duke of Exeter ever again.”
“There was no reason to run away. Sinclair would have taken care of you.”
“At the time, I thought I needed to protect myself from everyone. My father wanted that title for himself, he gave himself airs and strutted around like he owned the world. He did not even own the chair he died in, at the end. He lived for the day he would inherit and made my life a misery. I refuse to be anything like him.”
“I am sorry you had a difficult time,” she murmured. Thaddeus Berringer told a good story, but she was wary of believing a word of it.
“I knew what it meant for me when my father died. So I ran away and tried to forget my responsibilities to the family business. Sinclair found me quite easily, I soon discovered, and he simply would not go away again.”
“That does sound like him.”
“I had no choice but to agree to return, but I made a bargain with him. He could never tell anyone who I was. I made him promise, and he never breaks his word. And now I am here in London learning what I can of the responsibilities I will inherit.”