by Lynda Hurst
“Remember back to that day when you discovered my father was in debt? I was sixteen, but I understood that my mother was the one with money, but as she was married to my father, her money belonged to him. However, my grandfather made stipulations in his will that the money be doled out in small increments each month. It was enough for living expenses for us and for Mother to be allowed to live independently in London.”
Being reminded of his rash behavior made him wince, but hearing Faith’s admission made a modicum of sense. Most marriages among the ton were matched based on monetary reasons, and Eugenia and Edwin Revelstoke’s marriage was clearly not an exception.
Then Faith’s tone picked up in enthusiasm. “But Mother had found a solution to have both her divorce and us! According to her letter, she intended to buy Father off with what she calls the ‘Revelstoke legacy’. She says here,” she paused, pointing to the appropriate line in the letter, “that if Father had bothered to pick up a book from the family library, he would have found evidence of this legacy in the family annals.”
“Legacy?” Devlin asked. “That sounds a lot like treasure.”
“Mother believed it was! She pored through those books, searching for evidence of it and found it! She describes here that part of the legacy was once a church relic, fashioned during the days of King John of England, and was later gifted to a Revelstoke ancestor as a form of payment for service to the king. Apparently, the entirety of the Revelstoke legacy was scattered amongst the Revelstoke estate proper, but Mother had managed to find the first piece. Whoever dispersed and hid the treasure had cleverly placed clues with each piece to enable the seeker to find the next one.”
“Your mother sounds clever indeed to have come up with a plan to gain you, a divorce, and a king’s treasure all in one fell swoop,” he said, with a hint of dryness. “So, why hadn’t she and my father come back to retrieve you since?”
Faith collected herself, tamping down the excitement brought about by the letter’s admission. “That’s why I needed to see you. Your coming here with my mother’s letter has answered at least a few questions I’ve been harboring for quite some time. Now, I want to know what you know about your father and my mother’s disappearance. Have they made any attempt to contact you since that day? Can you tell me anything about the circumstances surrounding their running off together?”
Devlin shook his head. “I’m sorry, no. The day I stormed your house was the very day Uncle Hamish handed me Father’s note that they had run off and had renounced his title as duke. It was written in Father’s hand with his signet ring impressed on the seal, accompanied with the legal documents to make me the current duke. Beyond that, I don’t know of anything else.”
Faith’s shoulders slumped at his disclosure. “The Bow Street Runners have surmised as much, you know, the ones I’ve hired to find what’s happened to Mother. Now that I know she was working towards winning custody of my brother and me back then, I’m determined more than ever to keep searching. I have to know whether she is alive or…” The alternative choked the final words from Faith’s throat and found she could not continue.
Devlin’s selective hearing only heard the words ‘Bow Street Runners’. “Ah, the men in your employ. I’m quite against having you pay for these men while you are still an unmarried lady.”
Faith rolled her eyes, uncaring that it was indelicate of her. “Not this again. I don’t really care for your opinion, but you are free to fling it about as you see fit. I just won’t comply with your wishes.”
“I’ll have you know, that today’s letter from Whitaker confirms one solid, legal fact: you are my ward, therefore, as your guardian, I am to see to your protection and welfare.”
“My guardian?” she scoffed, with brows raised almost to her hairline and arms crossed in indignation. “I haven’t needed anyone to look after me for a long time now, and I’m not about to start just because you say so.”
“Regardless, I am still your guardian according to the courts. If you want to contest it with them, I’m all for it. But for the time being, I intend to fulfill my father’s and your mother’s wishes to see you protected and looked after,” he countered.
Feeling disgruntled and petulant, Faith crossed her arms tighter. “And I am determined to have your guardianship dissolved. I’m no longer the young girl my mother wanted you to look after. Besides, I can’t continue my search for Mother with you hovering over my shoulder.”
Changing the subject, Faith continued, “There’s something more in my mother’s letter that is a bit cryptic that I hadn’t yet mentioned and it involves you.”
Intrigued, Devlin urged, “Go on. I’m curious as to how your mother thinks I can help.”
“You see, she points to your father’s - excuse me - I mean, your townhouse in London. Since she found the next clue for the next Revelstoke legacy piece, she had left her journal there with all of the notes pertaining to solving the next clue.”
Making the connection, Devlin deduced, “So, it appears you need me despite your adamant claim to independence. Unless you intend to break into my home, you can’t possibly obtain that bit of information without my help.”
Dumbfounded once again, Faith stared at him as he looked every bit like the proverbial cat who had gotten the cream. Not one to dwell on matters that can’t be helped, she piped up, “All right, so I do need your help. Would you be so kind as to let me search your townhouse for my mother’s journal?”
Devlin only grinned wider. “I think not.”
Crestfallen, Faith tried hard not to sound terribly disappointed, “Whyever not? I’d be in and out without disturbing anything or anyone. And I’d be out of your hair before you know it.”
Devlin countered, “And where does that leave me? What do I get out of this if I choose to help you?”
Warily, Faith asked, “What is it that you want?” Knowing Devlin, and of his exploits since he had grown into manhood, she knew him to possess a ruthless business style and tough negotiation skills. They were traits that were useful when dealing with husbandry and bartering with suppliers, but she feared they may be employed against her to an end that would not be to her liking. She frowned as she watched his smile grow bolder as the seconds ticked by.
“No need to frown so, Faith,” he assured her. “I’m not about to ask for your virtue or anything so nefarious. What I want is quite simple and is nothing that would hurt your chances of finding our parents.”
“What did you have in mind, and is it something I can easily abide by?” she asked cautiously, trying to anticipate where the direction of his clever mind was going.
“As you know, the London season is about to start, and I think it’s high time you had one. As my ward, you will accompany me to the city along with my sister, Lady Margaret, where she will assist you in your new role as a debutante.”
Horrified, Faith exclaimed, “That’s beyond absurd! I have no wish to parade myself in front of all of London in search of a husband! That is not the future I wish to have!”
“Think about it, Faith,” he advised. “As my ward, you will have free rein of my townhouse without any sort of impropriety attached. It just so happens my sister and I will be in town for the season, and you have admitted you needed my help. There it is, Faith, take it or leave it.”
Looking down at her hands, Faith took a moment to answer. She didn’t want to have Devlin as a guardian as it would mean seeing him day in and day out when it was already hard enough to stave off her ever-present attraction to him. Reconciling those feelings with the tiny bit of resentment she held against him for fracturing her family only confused her heart even more.
On the other hand, would allowing him guardianship be limited to the time it would take to find her mother’s notes on the Revelstoke legacy? If that could be the case, then she’d readily agree to his terms as long as she could return here to Atwell Cottage. Devlin need never have her hanging about while she had songs to dream up and columns to write. It puzzled her to wonder
why Devlin was so insistent that he take care of her, and it didn’t make sense for an eligible bachelor to want to take on a ward as advanced in years as her.
Devlin watched as a host of different expressions washed over Faith’s features while she mulled through her options. First, there was consternation drawing in her brows together. Then there was bewilderment arching those same brows high on her forehead while she worried at her bottom lip with her teeth. His eyes flared at that innocent bite and found he was captivated by the way that lip plumped from her treatment. His observations then moved from her pretty mouth to notice the flush that painted her cheeks at his obvious gaping.
“Devlin?”
“Hm?” he answered distractedly, his attention still on her pinkened lips and increasingly reddening cheeks.
“You’re staring.”
“Was I?”
“Er, yes. It’s unnerving. Please stop.”
“I’ll stop when you tell me what I need to hear.”
“Oh?” she said tremulously. “Are you so confident then that you already know what I’m going to say?”
“I’m not a mind reader, Faith,” he stated, moving in closer and reached out for her hand. “But I do know how much you want to find your mother. And that desire is enough to put up with the likes of me, for what you think, is for a little while.”
Surprised, she asked, “So you’re proposing that your guardianship will not be temporary?”
“No, Faith. For my assistance in your investigative pursuit, I’m wanting your full acquiescence in accepting my guardianship until you are safely married.”
She gasped in indignation. “You’re saying you will be my guardian for an indeterminate amount of time until I’m some other man’s problem? It’s just so like a man to think that way! After all this time I had been living on my own, I really don’t need a man to determine my future!”
Devlin shrugged, “Then I wish you the best of luck with unearthing that journal without my help. I’ll take my leave…” He rose out of his seat and turned towards the door as if to leave, but Faith seized his arm to pull him back.
“Wait!” she cried. “What if I agree to your guardianship?” For her to admit it out loud, she already knew it would chafe her and cheat herself of her current independence, but she believed she could finagle a way out of his guardianship. Just without his knowing. “I will let you be my guardian until the moment of my engagement to someone deemed suitable.” Little did he know, once she found her mother’s journal, she planned to be out of his home then cry off the engagement not long afterward.
Devlin smiled down at her, feeling the thrill of a win sizzle through him. “Yes, I will agree to that, and he has to be someone I agree is suitable as well.”
“You have a deal, Your Grace,” she smiled back up at him, holding out her hand. He took it in his grasp, but he didn’t shake it like she expected. He instead bowed over her hand, lifted it to his lips, and perfunctorily kissed it. Looking up at her, over their clasped hands, he cleverly replied, “Now, we have a deal.”
8
Devlin was weary but happy to be home at last after spending a long week in London, assuring the final legal touches were in place that made him sole guardian of Faith and Ethan. While there, he spent a few days closeted with Whitaker, learning what provisions were to be made for his new wards. He had set up funds for Faith to be doled out as a monthly stipend and he arranged for footing the bill for Ethan’s tuition at Oxford. With that done, he arranged for his townhouse in Mayfair to be complete with a full contingent of staff to ready the house for the upcoming season. He personally oversaw the choice of Faith’s bedchamber and had chosen the one that faced the east and overlooked the well-manicured garden. He had also arranged for a companion to chaperone his sister and Faith once they were in residence in London.
Besides taking care of personal business, his London visit had also included doing right by his ducal duties by participating in an assembly of the House of Lords. It had been a heated session due to a controversial bill that, if passed, would prevent landowners from raising rents astronomically without proper consultation with the courts. Everyone present at the assembly were landowners, and the number opposed to the bill were just as many as there were for it. Another three days of the back and forth bickering in those stuffy chambers was enough to make him homesick for the clean air at Prestonridge Manor.
Refreshed and revived after a bath, Devlin made his way to the drawing room where he found his sister and Uncle Hamish engaged in a game of cards, a habitual pastime the two engaged after dinner. Hamish looked up at his approach and greeted him, “Ah, Devlin, you’re home at last. How was dreary old London?”
Devlin sighed, “You know very well how much I hate the city this time of year. And it couldn’t be helped that the House of Lords had been called to convene this past week. Other than that, everything I had on my agenda while there had been neatly crossed off.”
Margaret sniffed, “And I imagine you have secured your business with Father’s attorney then?” Devlin thought he detected a sneer in her voice, and he knew fully how his sister felt about anyone with the surname of Revelstoke.
“Yes, dear sister, I have, thank you, for inquiring. Now that Faith and Ethan are my wards, it would serve you well to get along with Faith. The both of you will be each other’s company for the upcoming season, and I need you to be on your best behavior.”
Margaret indelicately huffed. “I have never, nor will I ever, be anything other than a perfect lady. For you to insinuate otherwise is beyond the pale, brother.”
“I wouldn’t dream of making such a mistake. On that note, Margaret, what would it take for you to at least pretend to be civil with Faith?”
Before answering she laid out her cards on the table and declared to Hamish, “I fold, Uncle. I fear my cards aren’t cooperating with me today.” To Devlin, she said, “Well, if you have to ask, there is one request I would like to make for the price of my cooperation.”
Devlin crossed his arms, taking up a stance meant to intimidate his younger sister, and said stonily, “I will grant it depending upon how reasonable it is.”
“Oh, don’t worry. It is a very reasonable request. If you wouldn’t mind inviting the Ellesmere twins to our townhouse when we’re in London, I would be ever so grateful.” To his disgust, his sister had even batted her lashes prettily at him in an effort to gain his assent.
“The Ellesmere twins? You do know that they’re essentially bosom friends of Faith’s, don’t you? Why them?”
To his great surprise, Margaret blushed and avoided contact with his inquiring gaze. Her reaction gave him cause to fully comprehend the situation here. His sister fancied Jackson Ellesmere, yet neither ran in the same circles for them to be properly introduced. As neighbors of a sort, he knew Margaret grew up watching the Ellesmere twins ramble through the countryside with Faith in tow, and she had probably watched Jackson more closely than the girls.
So as not to embarrass her once he understood her unspoken motive, Devlin merely nodded and said, “I can most certainly host a dinner party with them on the guest list.” His sister brightened at his statement, and merrily turned her attention to Hamish who dealt out another round of cards for their next game. In retrospect, a match made between Margaret and Jackson Ellesmere wasn’t a bad one at all. Once the elder Ellesmere stepped down from his duties as earl, Jackson stood to inherit a thriving estate and a reputable title.
With the Ellesmeres hanging about for Margaret to moon over the male twin, he recognized that the twins’ presence would doubly benefit in Faith’s case. For someone not accustomed to the dizzying pace of the London season, he believed that their company could alleviate Faith of the anxiety of facing the ton alone; she could use some friends in her corner. On second thought, it might serve Faith and Margaret better if he invited the Ellesmeres as houseguests instead.
He announced, “I changed my mind.” Before he could explain, Margaret shot him a look of horrified d
isappointment, her mouth rounded in an overlarge ‘O’.
“Don’t look at me like that; you didn’t let me finish,” he chastised. Margaret clamped her mouth shut and gave her brother a look of annoyance that said she wasn’t open to whatever game he was playing.
“If you had let me continue,” he stressed, “you would have heard me say ‘I think it would be a better idea for the Ellesmeres to stay on as houseguests instead’.”
This time, Margaret’s eyes rounded in surprise of the pleasant variety. “Why do you think that would be a better idea?” To Margaret, the thought of being close to the very reason for her infatuation, both alarmed and excited her. How would she handle being in close quarters to the object of her affection? On the other hand, how glorious it would be to see him every morning over breakfast!
Devlin simply answered, “Well, given that Faith has only your company for the season’s duration, I think it would please both of you to have the Ellesmeres present to enjoy the season. What do you say?”