‘I wonder why she gave herself to a married man. Only a cove as intellectually challenged as Purvis wouldn’t notice that he wasn’t her first.’ Ross raised a hand in apology. ‘Excuse me. Not a suitable subject…’
‘Nonsense!’ Sophia replied impatiently. ‘I may not have first-hand experience but know very well to what you refer.’
Ross allowed a momentary silence as he mulled the situation over. ‘Emily was desperate to bear Andrew a son, thereby assuring the continuance of the duchy while securing her own position,’ he said slowly. ‘But her youngest daughter is now eight, there have been no further pregnancies and Andrew expressed his disappointment to me in a letter, telling me there were unlikely to be.’ He looked directly at Sophia and for once didn’t really see her or appreciate her exquisite beauty as a chilling possibility occurred to him. ‘If Emily couldn’t conceive again, how far would she go to secure the succession?’
Sophia gasped. ‘Your grace, you cannot possibly mean what I think you just implied. It simply isn’t…’
‘Call me Ross.’ He smiled at her. ‘And yes, knowing how grasping Emily can be, how determined to retain her status no matter the cost, I think it entirely possible that she and Andrew conspired to have Maria bear his son.’ Ross’s expression turned to granite. ‘If the child had been a girl, Andrew would have denied all responsibility, leaving Maria high and dry. You can be sure that their agreement, if it existed, was not committed to paper and it would be a duke’s word against that of a disgraced unmarried female. A boy, on the other hand, would have been whipped away from her and Emily would have emerged from a faux confinement, jubilantly showing off her son to the world.’
‘I find it hard to believe that Maria would be quite that devious,’ Sophia replied after a prolonged period of reflection. She did not however, Ross noticed, immediately dismiss the possibility.
‘She probably didn’t know what Andrew and Emily had decided to do,’ Ross said. ‘My brother, for all his faults, was able to make himself agreeable to the ladies. He probably offered her some sort of wild assurances, and if she is as ambitious as you imply then…’
Sophia sniffed. ‘Being agreeable is one thing, but asking a woman who depended upon her looks and popularity to make a good marriage to sacrifice her all…’ She shook her head. ‘I find it hard to believe—even of Maria.’
‘If Andrew did make promises he had no intention of fulfilling, is it so very hard to imagine her going along with them? Andrew was not without charm.’
‘No.’ Sophia allowed a significant pause and then let out a reluctant sigh. ‘I suppose she would be compliant, especially if she had been imbibing, which I gather she did regularly when she got together with your brother.’
‘Again, I am sorry to have brought up such a distasteful subject,’ Ross said, raising her gloved hand to his lips and kissing the back of it.
‘I am almost relieved to think that she could have been innocently duped. Not that we will ever know for sure.’
‘Shall we go and ask her?’
‘I cannot, not this morning.’ She appeared both relieved and regretful. ‘I have an engagement with my aunt that I cannot defer.’
‘Tomorrow will do just as well.’ Ross eyed her with a degree of misgiving, not entirely sure that the engagement existed. Did she intend to forewarn her sister or did she simply need time to come to terms with Ross’s suggestion? It was impossible for him to know. ‘Come,’ he said, standing and pulling her gently to her feet by the hand that he still held in his. ‘I will walk with you as far as your street. No one will see us, in case you are concerned about such matters. No one else is stupid enough to linger out of doors in conditions like these. Certainly, no one else has passed us here in the park.’
He expected her to object, but once again she surprised him, as she so easily could, by accepting his escort.
‘Do you still plan to see Blake and Swinton today?’ she asked as they walked along, passed by the occasional carriage and the odd man on horseback, none of whom paid them any attention.
‘Indeed.’ In the spirit of shared confidences, he told her of Tanner’s thoughts on the matter of the vowels.
‘I wouldn’t put anything past those two,’ she replied, scowling. ‘They would think it the greatest possible fun to have a duke beholden to them, but I can’t think how they managed it.’
‘They will have tempted him to gamble for high stakes, aware beforehand that he had pockets to let and then offered him an alternative means of meeting his obligations, I assume. However, as things stand that is mere conjecture. You can be sure that my enquiries will be comprehensive, the outcome of which will give us a better understanding.’
‘Be careful. If they were doing something illegal, they are hardly likely to condemn themselves with their own words. Bear in mind that whatever Andrew was involved with very likely got him killed.’
‘Your concern for my welfare is appreciated, but be assured that I am not my brother, nor do I have financial difficulties that might tempt me into unsavoury enterprises.’
‘Even so, if Andrew was murdered and the person responsible thinks you are closing in on him…’ She straightened her shoulders, looking worried and distracted. ‘Well, he has already killed one duke. I dare say it gets easier with practice.’
‘What a charming way of putting it.’
‘I am trying to keep you alive, you ungrateful wretch,’ she replied with a careless little laugh.
‘I am indestructible.’
‘An arrogant attitude that will get you killed,’ she said impatiently. ‘Men!’ She threw back her head and growled. ‘This is my street. You may leave me here.’
‘Very well. I will collect you by the park gates in the morning with my carriage and we will visit your sister. Do bring your maid if she is recovered. I am sure Tanner will enjoy her company.’ He smiled at her, raised his hat and watched her until she disappeared from view.
Chapter Nine
Sophia made her way to her aunt’s door in a distracted frame of mind. She had not expected to see the duke that morning and had been a trifle disappointed when he hadn’t made arrangements for them to meet again the previous evening. In fairness, they had become separated, the duke again swamped by people anxious to make his acquaintance, and further private discourse between them had been impossible—or so she had tried to convince herself, if only to assuage her wounded pride.
The prescribed behaviour would have been for him to call at her aunt’s in the afternoon for the requisite fifteen minutes but she had dismissed that possibility, well aware that there was nothing conventional about Ross Ellwood’s conduct. He didn’t care about society’s mores and even less about earning the matrons’ collective disapproval for his very obvious disinterest in their daughters.
He had come to the park that morning in the hope of finding her there, but the euphoria she’d felt when he accosted her abruptly died when she realised that he was not there to enjoy her company. Instead, he had suspicions about Maria’s involvement with Andrew and needed Sophia’s help to run her to ground. She would do well to remember what drove him and not get swept away on a tide of unrealistic expectations.
He had held her hand for a prolonged period, she reminded herself. But then again, that could have been another stratagem to win her trust; a stratagem that she had fallen for despite her resolve to remain impervious to the potency of his charm. How predictable he must find her, she thought, sighing as she reached home.
A footman let her into the house and she thanked him absently as she divested herself of her bonnet and cloak and entered the drawing room with the intention of warming her hands in front of the fire. It shamed her to think that he could be right about Maria, which is why she had not felt the need to spring immediately to her sister’s defence. Sophia didn’t delude herself and accepted that Maria very likely would have been taken in by empty promises made by a man whom she had admired. She recalled listening for hours as Maria sang Andrew’s praises, sayin
g what jolly good fun he was, how he was in a position to introduce her to his inner circle of fascinating and well-placed individuals and it was a shame that his wife was such a shrew.
Sophia attempted to abandon the feelings of deep oneness that sprang up between herself and Ross whenever they were together. Even if those feelings were not conjured up by her imagination and he did return them, he would never seriously look towards her when he settled upon the lady who would become his duchess.
Good lord! Sophia held a hand to her lips. Was she really contemplating something quite so unattainable? Whatever had become of the sound common sense that had guided her all these years? Even if his attentions had encouraged such thoughts in others, she knew why he was really cultivating her good opinion, and that he would never ally himself to a woman whose sister’s behaviour was so shockingly wanton.
‘Damn you, Maria!’ she cried in frustration, thinking she ought to find something to busy herself with that would prevent her from sitting around feeling sorry for herself. Half wishing she had never met Ross Ellwood. She had never harboured unrealistic expectations about her future before knowing him, or thought about marriage at all for that matter, other than to dismiss it as unlikely to happen. She had told him the truth when she claimed to prefer the prospect of spinsterhood to an unsatisfactory marriage and it was most uncivil of him to breeze into her well-ordered life and turn it on its head.
Well ordered? She gave a cynical little laugh when she contemplated Maria’s situation, wondering how long it would be before the vague rumours about her abrupt disappearance caused tongues to wag, at which point Sophia’s fate would be sealed by association. Given that Maria seemed incapable of living quietly in seclusion, the clock was already ticking in that regard.
The sound of the front doorbell roused Sophia from her reverie. She vaguely wondered who would call at such an hour. Everyone knew that morning calls were made in the afternoon. Not that it mattered. It wouldn’t be for her.
‘Her Grace, the Duchess of Alton, miss,’ the butler told her from the open doorway.
Emily? What the devil?
‘For me?’ Sophia asked, pointing at her own chest for emphasis.
‘Yes, miss. She asked for you most specifically.’
Sophia took a moment to reflect. Whatever Emily had come to say to her, she almost certainly wouldn’t want to hear it. But curiosity won the day. Besides, one simply wasn’t not at home to duchesses.
‘Show her in, Watkins.’
Sophia barely had time to smooth down her skirts and pat her hair in the vague hope that it looked presentable before Emily sailed through the door. Unlike Sophia, she didn’t look as though she had spent an hour out of doors in the frigid conditions and not bothered to tidy herself up upon her return. Sophia felt disadvantaged as she stood to bob a curtsey, wishing her aunt would join them, which would prevent Emily from venting her spleen. She assumed from the hard set to the duchess’s features that was precisely what she had come here to do. But her aunt seldom set foot downstairs in the morning hours, and Sophia knew there would be no rescue from that quarter.
It didn’t matter, she decided. She would be civil and polite, provided Emily behaved with decorum. If she did not then she wouldn’t feel constrained.
‘Your grace,’ she said, indicating a chair. ‘This is a surprise. Would you like tea?’
‘Thank you, no,’ the duchess replied stiffly, and with the minimum of civility. ‘I shall not detain you for long.’
Sophia waved the butler away and he withdrew, closing the door quietly behind himself.
‘To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?’ Sophia asked, sensing the duchess’s nerves and deciding to go on the offensive.
The duchess rippled her rigid shoulders, glanced around the well-appointed room with a critical eye and then fixed Sophia with a look of icy disdain. ‘I think you know the answer to that very well.’
‘If I did, I wouldn’t ask,’ Sophia replied, her resolve to remain civil already tested by the duchess’s imperious tone. ‘I am unable to account for the honour of your visit, particularly at this hour of the day.’
‘Don’t play games with me, Sophia,’ the duchess hissed. ‘We are beyond that stage. I noticed you flaunting yourself in front of the duke last night.’
Sophia took exception to that accusation. To the best of her knowledge, she had never flaunted herself in front of anyone, deliberately or otherwise, but she refused to defend herself and remained silent, holding her head high as she regarded the duchess with a look of amused forbearance. That silence appeared to irritate Sophia’s visitor more than any fulsome denial ever could and compelled her to break it.
‘Your sister is not completely ruined—at least not yet,’ she said waspishly. ‘But I know of her condition as well as who is responsible for it.’ Sophia remained outwardly calm but her heart raced, aware that the duchess held all the cards and was in a position to oversee Sophia’s ostracization personally. ‘I also know that she has plans to elope with Purvis.’
‘Does she indeed?’ Sophia effected a casualness she didn’t feel, wondering how the duchess had come by such accurate information. Most likely she had extracted it from Purvis. He was a frequent visitor to Ravenscroft when in Hampshire and the duchess would have no difficulty in persuading him to confide in her. They had always been on friendly terms. So intimate, in fact, that Sophia had occasionally wondered if there was more to their association than mere friendship. Purvis might be intellectually challenged but he was handsome and well connected. If Sophia felt neglected by Andrew, it wasn’t beyond the bounds of reason to suppose that she had sought solace elsewhere, if only to salve her wounded pride. Perhaps her concern was not entirely for Sophia’s supposed intimacy with the new duke. Perhaps it was the product of jealousy.
‘Do you deny it?’
‘I am not my sister’s keeper. She does not confide in me, and I am absolutely convinced that she doesn’t confide in you either, so one wonders where such allegations came from.’
The duchess narrowed her eyes, confusion and anger fighting for dominance in her expression. She had come here with intimidation in mind and clearly hadn’t expected Sophia to stand up to her. ‘You are a very poor liar,’ she said.
‘If I am, perhaps that is because I have had so little practice at it. I bow to your superiority in that field.’
The duchess inhaled sharply. ‘How dare you!’
Sophia remained implacably calm in the face of the duchess’s growing ire. ‘I dare because you call upon me with the deliberate intention of insulting my family, with no evidence to support your claims. I would strongly advise you against publicly slandering my sister’s name. And Lord Purvis’s too for that matter.’
The duchess leaned forward. ‘Leave Ross alone,’ she hissed. ‘He can do a great deal better than you.’
‘If you are so worried for his reputation, you would be better advised to warn him against me. Despite what you think, I did not go out of my way to cultivate his friendship, but I shall not shun it either simply because you don’t like it.’
‘Friendship?’ The duchess flapped a disparaging hand. ‘That is one way of putting what we both know he expects from you.’
‘You have the advantage of me,’ Sophia said coldly, holding on to her temper by the sheer force of will. ‘I don’t have the first idea what you refer to.’
‘Then I will speak plainly.’ She inhaled sharply. ‘He assumes that you are as free with your favours as your sister was with hers.’
Sophia stood. ‘I’ll thank you to remove yourself from my house, your grace. We have nothing more to say to one another, but hear this before you go. If any unsubstantiated rumours begin to circulate regarding my sister and Lord Purvis, I shall know who started them and what to do about it.’
‘You dare to threaten me?’ she asked, outrage in her expression.
‘I can assure your grace that it was no threat.’
‘I have no desire to prolong this interview, b
ut let there be no misunderstanding. If you do not leave Ross alone then not only will he learn the truth about Maria’s conduct but so will Lady Purvis. There, what do you say to that?’
‘That if Purvis impregnated my sister then it’s to his credit that he intends to marry her, thereby legitimising their child, which is what you appear to think they have planned.’
‘I…well, that is to say…’
Sophia had outmanoeuvred a dangerous, jealous and vindictive woman and took a moment’s satisfaction as she watched the duchess’s mouth opening and closing with no coherent words emerging from it.
‘Yes? What do you have to say, ma’am?’ Sophia asked pleasantly. ‘Is there something about Maria’s condition and her friendship with Andrew that I know nothing about?’
The duchess’s face drained of all colour and Sophia knew then that Ross’s speculations were close to the mark. Andrew and Emily had contrived to have Maria bear his child in the hope that she would produce a boy. An heir.
Remarkable, she thought, watching from the window as the duchess climbed into what was obviously a hired carriage. The driver’s livery was tatty, the vehicle itself second rate, the horse that pulled it unenthusiastic.
Sophia returned to her chair and her contemplations, the duchess’s cloying perfume still polluting the air and causing Sophia to sneeze. Had Ross’s attentions really been sufficiently apparent to have engendered so much speculation, so much jealousy and disapproval on the duchess’s part?
Well, of course they had, she decided impatiently. The ton thrived on gossip, and Ross dancing with no other female but her had certainly caused tongues to wag. She must be more circumspect in future, she decided, not for the duchess’s sake but for Ross’s. It would be unfair if he found himself compelled to offer for her in order to save her reputation. Not that she would accept him under those conditions, but that wasn’t the point.
A Duke in Turmoil: Dangerous Dukes Vol 9 Page 11