“I think you’re right,” she responded in a whisper. “Uncle Hector appears completely baffled. What could have been going on?”
Lord Titus passed around a decanter of finely aged Scotch whisky, and one of sherry. Kit poured a sherry for Mary and Scotch for himself.
Once tea was served, Tolliver fixed Kit with a confused look. “There appears to have been a great deal going on that I’m not aware of. I’d appreciate it if someone would enlighten me.”
Mary slid Kit a glance and nodded.
“Well, sir, it appears quite a lot of chicanery has been going on in your name . . .”
More than half an hour and several cups of tea later, many of them laced with Scotch, Uncle Hector, as he’d asked Kit to call him, dragged a hand down his face. “I must humbly beg your forgiveness,Mary. I had no idea all this was happening. Please trust me when I say, if I had, I would have put a quick stop to it.”
She squeezed Kit’s hand. “None of it ever made sense to me. It just never fit with what I remembered of you.”
Uncle Hector picked up the whisky then placed it back down again. “Nevertheless, I was remiss. I’d like to say I have no idea where Gawain could have come up with such a foolish notion that I would want him to marry you, or that your fund would go to me if you wed against my wishes. He has a trust that is more than sufficient to command the elegancies of life, and has no need of your money. It is strange that, as far as I know, he has not drawn from it. Then again, he lives at home. The plain fact is that if Barham agreed the suitor was a good man, I would have had no objection. I believe it all worked out splendidly in the end.”
“Grandmamma!”
The Dowager Duchess of Bridgewater entered the parlor under full sail.
Mary was half out of her seat when Kit pulled her back down, and rose. “Don’t act rashly.”
“I must say, I agree.”
Kit groaned as his grandmother followed closely behind.
“Remember, keep your temper,” Mary said in an under voice, all the while smirking.
He bowed, and Lady Titus greeted the ladies. “My dear duchess, and Lady Featherton, what brings you here, or need I ask?”
“Our grandchildren, naturally,” the Dowager Duchess of Bridgewater responded.
Kit’s grandmother glided up to him, stood on her tiptoes, and bussed his cheek, then patted it. “We were sorry to miss the wedding.”
Lady Theo rang for more tea, and the dowagers took the chairs on either side of the loveseat where Kit and Mary were sitting.
“We would have been here sooner,” Lady Bridgewater said, “but we stopped at Rose Hill hoping to throw Gawain off the track.”
His grandmother frowned. “Despite everything we tried, I believe he may already be here.”
When she turned her attention on Uncle Hector, Lady Bridgewater’s blue eyes turned to shards of ice. “I never would havebelieved such underhanded dealings from you, Hector. What do you have to say for yourself?”
He blinked, then hung his head, reminding Kit forcibly of a chastised child. Then again, he wouldn’t like coming under her fire either. “I—I was not aware of what was going on. I’ve been so busy with my studies. In fact, the only reason I’m here is that Lord Titus and I are cooperating on a paper for the Royal Society.”
“It’s true, Grandmamma,” Mary said. “He really did not know. He, Lord Titus, and Lady Theo have been traveling from site to site for two years. We just finished telling him all that has occurred.”
They were quiet for several moments until his grandmother pursed her lips and said what at least some of them had been thinking. “It was probably Cordelia. She always was a little strange. Fey, I would call it.”
“You might have something there, my lady,” Hector said. “She always thought my brother would die, leaving me the earldom. I never could convince her it was not what I wished for, but she dearly wanted a title. Sometimes I wonder why she married me at all.”
“Greedy, if you want my opinion.” The duchess scowled.
Uncle Hector’s face turned beet red. “Here now, that is my wife you are talking about.”
Mary straightened her shoulders, and her chin firmed. “That is quite enough.”
Kit pressed his lips together but couldn’t keep one corner of his mouth from twitching up as their eyes turned toward Mary.
She made a sharp cutting motion with her hand. “It’s done. I agree that some people need to be dealt with, but that is for Uncle Hector to do. Name-calling will not help anyone.”
