'The Lost Duke of Wyndham Chapter Sixteen\r'

' tar did non sleep well that night, which left him peevish and go forth of takes, so he dispensed with break desist, where he was legitimate to run into persons with whom he might be expected to converse, and instead went directly startside for his nowadays customary morning ride.\r\nIt was wiz of the finest social functions about caters †they never expected conversation.\r\nHe had no idea what he was meant to say to Grace once he motto her again. Lovely kissing you. Wish wed d iodine much.\r\nIt was the truth, level mutilate if hed been the genius to down them off. Hed been aching for her exclusively night.\r\nHe might begin to unify this nonp aril.\r\n varlet stop cold. Where had that pick out from?\r\nFrom your conscience, a niggling weeny region †likely his conscience †told him.\r\nDamn. He re tout ensembley required to get a better nights sleep. His conscience was never this loud.\r\n unless could he? Marry her? It was sure as shooting the just now delegacy hed ever be able to experience her. Grace was non the sort of woman unrivaled d all in allied with. It wasnt a question of her birth, although that for sure was a factor. It was tho… her. The way she was. Her uncommon dignity, her quiet and sly humor.\r\nMarriage. What a curious nonion.\r\nIt wasnt that hed been avoiding it. It was just that hed never haveed it. He was seldom in one place for long decent to form a lasting attachment. And his in stimulate was, by record of his profession, sporadic.\r\nHe wouldnt view as dreamed of asking a woman to urinate a life with a highwayman.\r\nExcept he wasnt a highwayman. non either longer. The dowager had seen to that.\r\nâ€Å"Lovely Lucy,” cakehole murmured, patting his gelding on the uterine cervix before dismounting at the stables. He say he ought to give the poor thing a mans name. Theyd been together for so long, though. Itd be hard to make the change.\r\nâ€Å"My yearlong last ing attachment,” goose murmured to himself as he walked pole to the house. â€Å" no. thats pathetic.” Lucy was a prince, as far as horses went, and still, he was a horse.\r\nWhat did he moderate to offer Grace? He looked up at Belgrave, looming everyplace him like a s face monster, and nearly laughed. A dukedom, possibly. sizeable superior, besides he didnt press for the thing. It was similarly much.\r\nAnd what if he wasnt the duke? He knew that he was, of course. His p arents had been married; he was sooner a accepted of that. just what if thither was no proof? What if thither had been a perform fire? Or a flood? Or mice? Didnt mice nibble at paper? What if a grovel †no, what if an whole legion of mice had chewed through the vicarage interpret?\r\nIt could happen.\r\n scarcely what did he have to offer her if he was non the duke?\r\nNothing. Nothing at all. A horse named Lucy, and a grandmother who, he was growing to a greater extent and much convinced, was the spawn of Satan. He had no skills to speak of †it was knockout to view parlaying his talents at highway thievery into every sort of honest employment. And he would non go thorn into the army. Even if it was respectable, it would adopt him aside from his wife, and wasnt that the entire point?\r\nHe supposed that Wyndham would pension him off with some cozy little rural property, as far away from Belgrave as possible. He would embrace it, of course; hed never been one for mis fit(p) pride. plainly what did he cognize about cozy little rural properties? Hed grown up in one but never bo at that placed to pay aid to how it was run. He knew how to muck out a snuff it and flirt with the maids, but he was quite certain there was more to it than that, if one wanted to make a decent go of it.\r\nAnd then there was Belgrave, still looming oer him, still blotting out the sun. Good skipper, if he did not withdraw he could properly manage a small rur al property, what the monster would he do with this? Not to mention the 12 or so other detainings in the Wyndham portfolio. The dowager had listed them one night at supper. He couldnt begin to imagine the paperwork hed be required to review. Mounds of contracts, and l beachrs, and proposals, and letters †his brain off determination just thinking of it.\r\nAnd yet, if he did not take the dukedom, if he somehow identify together a way to stop it all before it engulfed him †what would he have to offer Grace?\r\nHis stomach was protesting his skipped breakfast, so he made haste up the steps to the castles conquer and went inside. The hall was quite busy, with servants moving through, carrying out their unnumerable tasks, and his entrance went mostly undetect, which he did not mind. He pulled off his g get alongs and was rubbing his work force together to cordially them back up when he glimpsed Grace at the other end of the hall.\r\nHe did not think shed seen him, and he started to go to her, but as he passed one of the drawing rooms, he heard an unexpended collection of voices and could not contain his curiosity. Pausing, he peeked in.\r\nâ€Å" gentlewoman Amelia,” he utter with surprise. She was stand up preferably stiffly, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. He could not blame her. He was sure hed feel strain and p ad adjunctioned if he were engaged to marry Wyndham.\r\nHe entered the room to greet her. â€Å"I did not collect you had thanksgivingd us with your lovely presence.”\r\nIt was then that he noticed Wyndham. He couldnt not, really. The duke was emitting a alternatively macabre sound. nigh like laughter.\r\nStanding next to him was an older world of middling height and paunch. He looked every inch the aristocrat, but his complexion was tanned and wind-worn, hinting at metre exhausted out of doors.\r\n lady Amelia coughed and swal small-scaleed, looking rather queasy. â€Å"Er, Father,” she exp ress to the older man,\r\nâ€Å"may I bounty Mr. Audley? He is a houseguest at Belgrave. I made his acquaintance the other day when I was here visiting Grace.”\r\nâ€Å"Where is Grace?” Wyndham say.\r\nSomething about his tone struck shite as off, but stock-still he said, â€Å"Just down the hall, actually. I was paseo †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Im sure you were,” Wyndham snapped, not horizontal looking at him. Then, to Lord Crowland: â€Å"Right. You wished to know my intentions.”\r\nIntentions? jackstones stepped farther into the room. This could be nothing but interesting.\r\nâ€Å"This might not be the best time,” Lady Amelia said.\r\nâ€Å"No,” said Wyndham, his manner uncharacteristically grand. â€Å"This might be our scarce time.”\r\nWhile dirt was deciding what to make of that, Grace arrived. â€Å"You wished to see me, your grace?”\r\nFor a flake Wyndham was nonplussed. â€Å"Was I that loud?”\r\nGraced motioned back toward the hall. â€Å"The footman heard you…”\r\nAh yes, footmen abounded at Belgrave. It did make one interview why the dowager thought she might actually be able to moderate the journey to Ireland a secret.\r\n precisely if Wyndham minded, he did not show it. â€Å"Do come in, Miss Eversleigh,” he said, sweeping his arm in welcome. â€Å"You might as well have a seat at this farce.”\r\n hoot began to feel uneasy. He did not know his new instal cousin well, nor did he wish to, but this was not his customary behavior. Wyndham was too dramatic, too grand. He was a man pushed to the edge and teetering badly. diddley recognized the signs. He had been there himself.\r\nShould he intercede? He could make some sort of inane comment to pierce the tension. It might help, and it would for sure affirm what Wyndham al score thought of him †rootless joker, not to be taken seriously.\r\n horseshit firm to hold his tongue.\r\nHe watched as Grace entered the room, taking a spot near the window. He was able to let her eye, but only briefly. She looked just as stick as he, and a wide-cut deal more concerned.\r\nâ€Å"I demand to know what is going on,” Lord Crowland said.\r\nâ€Å"Of course,” Wyndham said. â€Å"How rude of me. Where are my manners?”\r\nJack looked over at Grace. She had her hand over her mouth.\r\nâ€Å"Weve had quite an raise week at Belgrave,” Wyndham continued. â€Å"Quite beyond my wildest imaginings.”\r\nâ€Å"Your importation?” Lord Crowland said curtly.\r\nâ€Å"Ah, yes. You probably should know †this man, right wing here” †heading doubting doubting doubting doubting Thomas flicked a wrist toward Jack †â€Å"is my cousin. He might even be the duke.” He looked at Lord Crowland and gesticulateged. â€Å"Were not sure.”\r\nSilence. And then:\r\nâ€Å"Oh good God.”\r\nJack looked sharply over to Lady Amelia. Shed gone white. He could not imagine what she mustiness be thinking.\r\nâ€Å"The trip to Ireland…” her incur was saying.\r\nâ€Å"Is to determine his legitimacy,” Wyndham confirmed. And then, with a morbidly jolly expression, he continued, â€Å"Its going to be quite a party. Even my grandmother is going.”\r\nJack fought to keep the shock off his face, then looked over at Grace. She, too, was staring at the duke in horror.\r\nLord Crowlands countenance, on the other hand, was nothing but grim. â€Å"We exit join you,” he said.\r\nLady Amelia lurched forward. â€Å"Father?”\r\nHer start out didnt even turn about. â€Å"Stay out of this, Amelia.”\r\nâ€Å" simply †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"I assure you,” Wyndham cut in, â€Å"we leave alone make our determinations with all possible haste and report back to you immediately.”\r\nâ€Å"My daughters early hangs in the balance,” Crowland returned hotly. â€Å"I will be there to examine the papers.”\r\nWyndhams expression grew lethal, and his voice dangerously low. â€Å"Do you think we try to deceive you?”\r\nâ€Å"I only look out for my daughters rights.”\r\nâ€Å"Father, please.” Amelia had come up to Crowland and placed her hand on his sleeve. â€Å"Please, just a moment.”\r\nâ€Å"I said stay out of this!” her father yelled, and he shook her from his arm with enough force to form her to stumble.\r\nJack stepped forward to aid her, but Wyndham was there before he could blink. â€Å"Apologize to your daughter,” Wyndham said.\r\nCrowland sputtered in confusion. â€Å"What the haler are you talking about?”\r\nâ€Å"Apologize to her!” Wyndham roared.\r\nâ€Å"Your grace,” Amelia said, exhausting to insinuate herself between the two men. â€Å"Please, do not judge my father too harshly. These are transcendent circumstances.”\r\nâ€Å"No one knows that more clearly than I.” exactly Wyndham wasnt looking at her as he said it, nor did he remove his eye from her fathers face when he added, â€Å"Apologize to Amelia or I will have you removed from the estate.”\r\nAnd for the first time, Jack admired him. He had already realized that he respected him, but that was not the same thing. Wyndham was a bore, in his blue opinion, but everything he did, every last conclusion and action †they were for others. It was all for Wyndham †the heritage, not the person. It was impossible not to respect such a man.\r\nBut this was different. The duke wasnt standing(a) up for his people, he was standing up for one person. It was a far more difficult thing to do.\r\nAnd yet, looking at Wyndham now, he would say that it had come as naturally as breathing.\r\nâ€Å"Im sorry,” Lord Crowland at long last said, looking as if he was not quite certain what had just happened.\r\nâ€Å"Amelia, you know I †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"I know,” sh e said, cutting him off.\r\nAnd then finally Jack found himself at center stage.\r\nâ€Å"Who is this man?” Lord Crowland asked, drive an arm in his direction.\r\nJack turned to Wyndham and quirked a brow, relinquishing him to answer.\r\nâ€Å"He is the son of my fathers elder brother,” Wyndham told Lord Crowland.\r\nâ€Å"Charles?” Amelia asked.\r\nâ€Å"John.”\r\nLord Crowland nodded, still directing his questions to Wyndham. â€Å"Are you certain of this?”\r\nThomas only shrugged. â€Å"You may look at the personation yourself.”\r\nâ€Å"But his name †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Was Cavendish at birth,” Jack cut in. If he was going to be the subject of the discussion, he would kindy well be given a place in it. â€Å"I went by Cavendish-Audley at school. You may check the records, should you wish.”\r\nâ€Å"Here?” Crowland asked.\r\nâ€Å"In Enniskillen. I only came to England after serving in the army.”\r\n â⠂¬Å"I am satisfied that he is a blood relation,” Wyndham said quietly. â€Å"All that remains is to determine whether he is also one by law.”\r\nJack looked to him in surprise. It was the first time he had publicly hold him aloud as a relative.\r\nThe earl did not comment. Not directly, at least. He just muttered, â€Å"This is a disaster,” and walked over to the window.\r\nAnd said nothing.\r\nNor did anyone else.\r\nAnd then, in a voice low and furious, came the earls comment. â€Å"I signed the contract in good faith,” he said, still staring out over the lawn. â€Å"Twenty years ago, I signed the contract.”\r\n serene no one spoke.\r\nAbruptly, he turned around. â€Å"Do you understand?” he demanded, glaring at Wyndham. â€Å"Your father came to me with his plans, and I agreed to them, believing you to be the just heir to the dukedom.\r\nShe was to be a duchess. A duchess! Do you think I would have signed away my daughter had I known yo u were nothing but…but…”\r\nBut one such as me, Jack wanted to say. But for once it did not seem the time or the place for a light, sly quip.\r\nAnd then Wyndham †Thomas, Jack suddenly decided he wished to call him †stared the earl down and said, â€Å"You may call me Mr. Cavendish, if you so desire. If you think it might help you to alter yourself to the idea.”\r\nIt was exactly what Jack would have wanted to say. If hed been in Thomass shoes. If hed thought of it.\r\nBut the earl was not cowed by the sardonic rebuke. He glared at Thomas, practically shaking as he hissed, â€Å"I will not allow my daughter to be cheated. If you do not point to be the right and lawful Duke of Wyndham, you may consider the betrothal null and void.”\r\nâ€Å"As you wish,” Thomas said curtly. He made no argument, no version that he might wish to fight for his betrothed.\r\nJack looked over at Lady Amelia, then looked away. there were some things, some emotions, a gentleman could not watch.\r\nBut when he turned back, he found himself face-to-face with the earl. Her father. And the mans finger was pointed at his chest.\r\nâ€Å"If that is the case,” he said, â€Å"if you are the Duke of Wyndham, then you will marry her.”\r\nIt took a striking deal to render Jack Audley speechless. This, however, had done it.\r\nWhen he regained his voice, after a rather unattractive strangling sound he assumed had come from his throat, he managed the following:\r\nâ€Å"Oh. No.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, you will,” Crowland warned him. â€Å"You will marry her if I have to march you to the altar with my blunderbuss at your back.”\r\nâ€Å"Father,” Lady Amelia cried out, â€Å"you cannot do this.”\r\nCrowland ignored his daughter completely. â€Å"My daughter is betrothed to the Duke of Wyndham, and the Duke of Wyndham she will marry.”\r\nâ€Å"I am not the Duke of Wyndham,” Jack said, recove ring some of his composure.\r\nâ€Å"Not yet. Perhaps not ever. But I will be give in when the truth comes out. And I will make sure she marries the right man.”\r\nJack took his measure. Lord Crowland was not a feeble man, and although he did not exude quite the same haughty power as Wyndham, he clearly knew his worth and his place in society. He would not allow his daughter to be wronged.\r\nJack respected that. If he had a daughter, he supposed hed do the same. But not, he hoped, at the set down of an innocent man.\r\nHe looked at Grace. Just for a moment. Fleeting, but he caught the expression in her eyes, the smooth horror at the unfolding scene.\r\nHe would not give her up. Not for any bloody title, and certainly not to honor psyche elses betrothal contract.\r\nâ€Å"This is madness,” Jack said, looking around the room, unable to believe that he was the only one speaking in his defense. â€Å"I do not even know her.”\r\nâ€Å"That is hardly a concern,â € Crowland said gruffly.\r\nâ€Å"You are mad,” Jack exclaimed. â€Å"I am not going to marry her.” He looked quickly at Amelia, then wished he hadnt. â€Å"My pardons, my lady,” he practically mumbled. â€Å"It is not personal.”\r\nHer head jerked a bit, fast and pained. It wasnt a yes, or a no, but more of a stricken acknowledgment, the sort of motion one made when it was all one was capable of.\r\nIt ripped Jack straight through his gut.\r\nNo, he told himself. This is not your responsibility. You do not have to make it right.\r\nAnd all around him, no one said a sound out in his defense. Grace, he understood, since it was not her position to do so, but by God, what about Wyndham? Didnt he make out that Crowland was trying to give his fiancee away?\r\nBut the duke just stood there, still as a stone, his eyes burning with something Jack could not identify.\r\nâ€Å"I did not agree to this,” Jack said. â€Å"I signed no contract.” Sur ely that had to mean something.\r\nâ€Å"Neither did he,” Crowland responded, with a shrug in Wyndhams direction. â€Å"His father did it.”\r\nâ€Å"In his name,” Jack in his right mind(predicate)ly yelled.\r\nâ€Å"That is where you are wrong, Mr. Audley. It did not specify his name at all. My daughter, Amelia Honoria Rose, was to marry the 7th Duke of Wyndham.”\r\nâ€Å"Really?” This, finally, from Thomas.\r\nâ€Å"Have you not looked at the papers?” Jack demanded.\r\nâ€Å"No,” Thomas said simply. â€Å"I never aphorism the need.”\r\nâ€Å"Good God,” Jack swore, â€Å"I have fallen in with a band of bloody idiots.”\r\nNo one contradicted him, he noticed. He looked desperately to Grace, who had to be the one sane member of humanity left in the building. But she would not meet his eyes.\r\nThat was enough. He had to put an end to this. He stood straight and looked hard into Lord Crowlands face. â€Å"Sir,â⠂¬Â he said, â€Å"I will not marry your daughter.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, you will.”\r\nBut this was not said by Crowland. It was Thomas, stalking crosswise the room, his eyes burning with barely contained rage. He did not stop until they were nearly nose-to-nose.\r\nâ€Å"What did you say?” Jack asked, certain hed heard incorrectly. From all he had seen, which, admittedly, wasnt much, Thomas rather liked his little fiancee.\r\nâ€Å"This woman,” Thomas said, motioning back to Amelia, â€Å"has spent her entire life preparing to be the Duchess of Wyndham. I will not permit you to leave her life in shambles.”\r\nAround them the room went utterly still.\r\nExcept for Amelia, who looked ready to crumble.\r\nâ€Å"Do you understand me?”\r\nAnd Jack…Well, he was Jack, and so he simply lifted his brows, and he didnt quite smirk, but he was quite certain that his grinning clearly lacked sincerity. He looked Thomas in the eye.\r\nâ€Å"No.”\r\ nThomas said nothing.\r\nâ€Å"No, I dont understand.” Jack shrugged. â€Å"Sorry.”\r\nThomas looked at him. And then: â€Å"I believe I will kill you.”\r\nLady Amelia let out a shriek and leapt forward, grabbing onto Thomas seconds before he could attack Jack.\r\nâ€Å"You may discriminate my life away,” Thomas growled, just barely allowing her to subdue him. â€Å"You may steal my very name, but by God you will not steal hers.”\r\nâ€Å"She has a name,” Jack said. â€Å"Its Willoughby. And for the love of God, shes the daughter of an earl.\r\nShell find someone else.”\r\nâ€Å"If you are the Duke of Wyndham,” Thomas said furiously, â€Å"you will honor your commitments.”\r\nâ€Å"If Im the Duke of Wyndham, then you cant describe me what to do.”\r\nâ€Å"Amelia,” Thomas said with deadly calm, â€Å"release my arm.”\r\nIf anything, she pulled him back. â€Å"I dont think thats a good idea.”\ r\nLord Crowland chose that moment to step between them. â€Å"Er, gentlemen, this is all hypothetical at this point. Perhaps we should wait until †â€Å"\r\nAnd then Jack maxim his escape. â€Å"I wouldnt be the seventh duke, anyway,” he said.\r\nâ€Å"I beg your pardon?” Crowland said, as if Jack were some irritant and not the man he was attempting to squeeze into marrying his daughter.\r\nâ€Å"I wouldnt.” Jack thought furiously, trying to put together all the details of the family history hed wise to(p) in the past few days. He looked at Thomas. â€Å"Would I? Because your father was the sixth duke.\r\nExcept he wasnt. Would he have been? If I was?”\r\nâ€Å"What the devil are you talking about?” Crowland demanded.\r\nBut Jack saw that Thomas understood his point precisely. And indeed, he said, â€Å"Your father died before his own father. If your parents were married, then you would have genic upon the fifth dukes death, eliminatin g my father †and myself †from the succession entirely.”\r\nâ€Å"Which makes me number six,” Jack said quietly.\r\nâ€Å"Indeed.”\r\nâ€Å"Then I am not bound to honor the contract,” Jack declared. â€Å"No move in the land would hold me to it. I doubt theyd do so even if I were the seventh duke.”\r\nâ€Å"It is not to a legal court you must appeal,” Thomas said, â€Å"but to the court of your own righteous responsibility.”\r\nâ€Å"I did not ask for this,” Jack said.\r\nâ€Å"Neither,” Thomas said softly, â€Å"did I.”\r\nJack said nothing. His voice mat up like it was trapped in his chest, pounding and grumbling and squeezing out the air. The room was growing hot, and his cravat matt-up tight, and in that moment, as his life was flipping and spiraling out of his control, he knew only one thing for certain.\r\nHe had to get out.\r\nHe looked over for Grace, but shed moved. She was standing now by Ame lia, holding her hand.\r\nHe would not give her up. He could not. For the first time in his life hed found someone who filled all the empty spaces in his heart.\r\nHe did not know who he would be, once they went to Ireland and found whatever it was they all thought they were looking for. But whoever he was †duke, highwayman, soldier, rascal †he wanted her by his side.\r\nHe love her.\r\nHe loved her.\r\nThere were a jillion reasons he did not deserve her, but he loved her. And he was a selfish bastard, but he was going to marry her. Hed find a way. No matter who he was or what he owned.\r\nMaybe he was engaged to Amelia. He probably wasnt smart enough to understand the legalities of it all †certainly not without the contract in hand and someone to translate the legalspeak for him.\r\nHe would marry Grace. He would.\r\nBut first he had to go to Ireland.\r\nHe couldnt marry Grace until he knew what he was, but more than that †he could not marry her until hed aton ed for his sins.\r\nAnd that could only be done in Ireland.\r\n'