Thankfully, Theodora’s sense of reason had not left her. She presented Alexander a slight nod before she left Lord Almano’s side to slide her arm through Lady Caroline’s. “I am quite envious of others who have claimed your acquaintances over the last few evenings. I am excessively glad to have the opportunity finally to speak to you.” Theodora and the woman began strolling along together. Duncan’s daughter would, like all of them, place Great Britain’s interests before her own, and, perhaps, she would learn something that would assist in theirinvestigation. “I wonder often how it must be for your family and others who have come to England from France. Are you, like many French citizens, in exile?” Lady Emma and Lord Almano followed Theodora’s lead, and so Alexander offered Miss Moreau his arm.
“Shall we join them?” he asked, as Theodora could be heard saying, “Do you plan to remain long in England?” while maneuvering Lady Caroline onto a nearby path.
Miss Moreau said softly, “Lady Theodora appears quite accustomed to being in your company. The two times I have encountered you, the lady has been nearby.”
“As I explained at the masque, Lady Theodora and I have known each other since I was quite young. Lord Duncan’s estate is the nearest one to my home seat. His lordship once served as one of my guardians after, quite literally, scooping me and my father off the streets of London to install me as the heir apparent to the earldom, behind my father, who was never expected to inherit and was near death when Lord Duncan and the others came calling upon our tenement.”
“You were not raised as a gentleman?” she asked, before quickly apologizing for her rudeness.
“I truly do not mind the question,” he assured. “My rise to the earldom is common knowledge among the members of thebeau monde. At least, by the time I reached my majority, Duncan had seen to my education and my manners. I still occasionally hear the whispers, but his lordship long ago cautioned me not to react. I am judged by my behavior not by my name.”
“I imagine such must be difficult,” she said, “I, too, was ‘rescued’ by Lord Honfleur after my mother passed unexpectedly.”
“What of your father?” he asked.
Miss Moreau mimicked Alexander’s previous shrug. “I barely remember him. Generally, my memories are what my motheroften repeated to me. ‘He sailed away one day and never returned.’”
He asked, “Were you in France at the time? I know Lord Honfleur is French, but your English has the undertones of someone raised in an English household, rather than a French one.”
He felt her stiffen next to him, for he had caught her in one of Honfleur’s lies. “My parents were English. We resided in the West Indies for many years.”
“Then Honfleur is also English?” he asked in what he hoped sounded of mere curiosity.
Miss Moreau explained, “My Uncle Jacobi is my mother’s half-brother. He learned of my abandonment and came for me. I am most grateful, for my mother was employed as a housekeeper to a rich man. I had no family after she passed.”
He had asked enough questions for the moment. Alexander could feel how she tensed up as they walked together. Instead, he said, “Then I am doubly grateful Lord Honfleur showed you such compassion. I would have been eternally sorry never to have claimed your acquaintance.” They walked on in silence for several seconds before he added, “I was fortunate to have Lord Duncan to take me under his wing, so to speak, and present me with his daughter and several other young lords as my most constant companions. I am confident you feel the same regarding Lord Honfleur and Lady Caroline.”
“Oh, yes,” Miss Moreau said readily. “Caroline is nearly as close as a sister. I would be lost without her.” Up ahead, Theodora and Lady Caroline had paused to wait for them all. “My cousin and I promised to return promptly,” she explained.
“Might I call upon you?” Alexander asked softly.
He felt her stiffen again as a bit of what could only be termed as panic arrived. “Lord Honfleur would not approve, my lord,” she explained in quiet tones.
“Are you not out in society?” he asked with equal discretion.
“Not officially,” she rushed to say. “My uncle means for Caroline to know a Season first. I am to wait.”
“Then you learnednothing of the woman?” Dora asked with a disbelieving lift of her eyebrows. “Are you losing your touch, my lord?”
Alexander could not shake the idea Miss Moreau was in danger; however, he did not express his concerns to Theodora, for she simply would discover another reason to know jealousy. Someday soon, it would be necessary for him to declare himself, but Alexander still thought his commitment to the British government and to finding his own family should take precedence over any aspirations Miss Theodora Duncan held.
Moreover, he was just a bit more than four and twenty, and he had only been the earl for three years, actually since he was a few days short of his thirteenth birthday, when his father had taken his last breath, but others, even then, oversaw the title and the family estate while Alexander was away at school and then later at university. He did not appear before the Lords to claim the title until he was one and twenty.
His father, Robert Dutton, had been born the fourth son of the 9th Earl Marksman. Robert had eloped with a woman of whom the 9th Earl had never approved, for she was promised to another, and Robert had been essentially disowned—turned out with only a small piece of land he had inherited from his mother. No one, especially not Robert Dutton, had ever thought irony would one day raise its ugly head, claiming each of Robert’s three brothers in a little over a year and making the least favorite son the one to inherit the earldom.
Lawrence, the eldest and the 10th Earl Marksman, had had a spell with his heart and had succumbed to his complaints two days later. As Lawrence had yet to produce a son, those serving as overseers for the estate and the peerage immediately began a search for Jonathan Dutton’s second son, Oscar, only to learn Lord Oscar had died in a duel upon the Continent, which sent those wishing to name the next earl, Evert Dutton, as his father’s successor in something beginning to border on hysteria, or so Alexander had been told by Lord Duncan.
They sent word to Evert, who was in Spain, to return home—a letter of great importance and several seals—to which Evert immediately complied, rushing home to Derbyshire, only to be thrown from his horse somewhere in Yorkshire, breaking Lord Evert’s neck and again sending the future of the earldom into chaos.
Despite being shunned by his family for years, Robert Dutton was sought out by more than a dozen men in London’s slews. Robert not only was the rightful heir to the earldom, the new Lord Dutton had executed the impossible: He had secured the earldom in the Dutton name; Robert Dutton had sired a son who could inherit. Alexander and his father had, quite literally, been snatched from the streets and deposited upon the doorstep of the Dutton’s ancestral home. It was up to Robert to claim the estate and the earldom and Alexander to secure its future.
Alexander could still feel the sting of the brush used on his skin to scrub the filth from his person and the slap of his tutor’s metal ruler across Alexander’s knuckles when Alexander had not learned his conjugations correctly or had not held his teacup properly. Robert Dutton had held on until his claim to the earldom had been accepted by the House of Lords, and then he had succumbed to his consumption, his lungs weakened by the smoke-filled streets and damp dwellings they two had endured for more years than either Robert or Alexander wished to recall.He also surrendered to the guilt the 11th Earl Marksman had carried with him for nearly a decade before he took his last breath. “Find your mother and your sister,” his father had told Alexander as the 11th Earl held Alexander’s hand. “Bring them here. They deserved better than me, but not better than you. Prove all the world erred by accepting your grandfather’s edict. Give our family the type of life I could not. Ye’ve the money now, Alexander, to bring them home at last.”
“I believe Miss Moreau fears her uncle’s wrath,” he told Duncan. “She will not permit me to call upon her, so such is not an option. There is no means for me to search Honfleur’s study unless I sneak into the house while the family is out.”
“Lady Caroline indicated her cousin was rarely permitted to accompany Lady Caroline and Honfleur during the Season,” Dora confided.
“Miss Moreau said something similar,” he confirmed.
