His mother paled further. “Is the estate secure?”
“It will be. I have taken great pains to securereliableinvestments in the last two years, but I do not know how this scandal will affect us.” Colin stood, his anger rising. “I have been shielding this from you in the knowledge that you were not privy to the details of what father was doing. And here I find that you knew all along!”
“Your father was not a perfect man, Colin. He had many failings. He always wanted the best for his family but did not always think things through.”
“He did!” Colin insisted. “Until the last two years, everything was ticking over like clockwork. There were no discrepancies, no sudden investments from unreliable sources. Imustfind the name of whoever he was working with. The answer to that question holds the key to what has happened here.”
“But we are safe?” his mother asked the worry in her tone evident. “We will survive?”
“For now. But I will not lie to you, Mother. No one does well from being at the head of the scandal sheets.”
Colin sighed heavily, walking to the fire and jabbing at the logs as tears appeared in his mother’s eyes.
“I loved your father, Colin. He was a good man, but he was misguided in some things; I do not deny that. He told me just before his death that things had been difficult, that his plans had not followed the path he hoped for. When you took over the estate, you seemed to have everything in hand. I assumed it had not been as bad as your father had believed.”
Colin scoffed. “I have been looking into this for two years, Mother, it would have been helpful to have your insight sooner.”
“I am sorry, Colin, I did not know.”
Colin picked up the scandal sheet, throwing it into the fire fervently, and turned back to his mother.
“It is no matter. I will get to the bottom of this. If you have any notion of who it was, a name, a meeting you can recall, please tell me. If I can find the person responsible for father’s strange behaviour it may rectify things before they escalate beyond my control.”
“You know your father was very proud of you, in his way.”
Colin stared at his mother, the innocent belief on her face. His father had never given him a word of praise, not in over twenty years. The resentment and anger Colin held toward him had mounted to an irrepressible degree, and he had no interest in forgiveness.
But Mama does not deserve your ire. She was not the cause of it.
“Father did what he could to protect this family, I will always believe that” he finished lamely and moved to leave the room. As he passed her, she gripped his wrist tightly and pulled him back, her eyes urgent.
“He loved you, Colin. I know you do not believe it, and he was a hard man to care for, I know that most of all. But he did. I have never doubted that. He pushed you so hard because he believed in you.”
After a moment’s silence, she slowly let go of him. He paused, looking down at her, and then bent to give her a kiss on the cheek. As he did so the door opened to admit the butler, who announced that Edward had arrived to see him.
A flicker of worry ran up Colin’s spine as he imagined what new nightmare Edward might be bringing to his door. He swiftly left the room, his mother’s words ringing in his ears.
Upon finding Edward in the corridor outside, he took him swiftly into the study. The room was cold, even with the fire crackling merrily in the grate, and Colin eyed his friend warily. Edward’s expression was uncertain.
“Have you seen the paper this morning?” Edward asked.
“I have. Though I did not give it the dignity of my full attention. Someone spread that rumour last night; I am sure of it. Thankfully, my mother was ignorant of it until this morning, or she might not have shown her face.”
He stalked to his desk, his fingers flexing at his sides. Edward approached, sitting opposite him and removing his gloves.
“You have done nothing wrong, Ludlow. This is all a legacy your father has left you with.”
“A legacy for an estate that I now run. I have operated in reliance on his connections and his investments for many years. I cannot imagine there will not be ramifications from all of this.” He shook his head. “Do not trifle with me. I know you must have come here with a purpose; I would ask you to disclose it.”
“I have discovered some letters between Lord Richard Wentworth and your father,” Edward said solemnly. “It appears they had some correspondence for a number of months.” Edward handed him a bundle of papers. “These were disbursed through a variety of documents, so it has taken me some time to compile them. I believe this could represent a significant motivation for Lord Richard to wish to sabotage your father—and, by extension,you. There were some unpleasant exchanges. They appeared to hate one another by the end. He might have worked to ruin him.”
Colin put his head in his hands.
Why does it have to be Lord Wentworth who is the culprit? The one woman in the world I want, and her father is implicated in ruining mine.
***
On the other side of London, Charlotte was writing in her journal.
