Page 26 of Duke of Sapphire

The solicitor was a spare, methodical man who had been managing the Drummond estate’s legal affairs for twelve years. He set his document case on the desk, opened it, and laid out three folded papers in a careful row.

“I am obliged to you for seeing me promptly, Your Grace.”

“I understand the matter is pressing,” Henry said. “I have been considering a practical arrangement for the household. There is a young woman in residence who has some ability with the boy. I am of a mind to engage her formally as his governess. It would provide continuity and free me to address the estate’s other needs.”

The solicitor set down the paper he had been unfolding and regarded Henry.

“I understand the instinct, Your Grace,” he said. “And I do not doubt it would benefit the boy in the short term.” A pause. “However, I am afraid the question of a governess is, in the current circumstances, a secondary matter.”

Henry looked at the papers. “Explain.”

The solicitor picked up the first folded document and held it across the desk. “Mr. Drummond came to me eleven months ago. He wished to formalize certain arrangements regarding his son, in the event that he and Mrs. Drummond were both—incapacitated.” He chose the word carefully. “The document is a deed of guardianship. Signed, witnessed, and lodged with Chancery in October of last year.”

Henry took it.

He read it once. Then again.

Nathan’s handwriting was there at the bottom, clear and unhesitating, above the solicitor’s seal and a date in October. The document was brief. The language was straightforward. It named Henry Kingswell, Duke of Sappherton, as legal guardian of Ian Nathaniel Drummond in the event of the parents’ confirmed death or incapacitation.

It also contained a clause he had not expected.

“The residence provision,” the solicitor said, as though he had been watching Henry reach the relevant paragraph. “Mr. Drummond was very particular about it. He felt that in such an event, the child’s continuity of care would best be served by the guardian’s primary household.” He folded his hands on the desk. “The document is legally binding, Your Grace. In the event that Mr. and Mrs. Drummond cannot be confirmed alive and well within a reasonable period, the terms are clear.”

Henry set the document down on the desk. He did not set it down hard. He set it down the way he set down a dispatch that required careful reading before any response was given.

“Ian must return to London with me,” he said.

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Henry looked at Nathan’s unfinished letter on the corner of the desk.

Nathan, what have you done? Why make such a plan without consulting me first?

Henry had come north to stabilize the household. To find a solution and perhaps learn what had become of his cousin. To make a practical arrangement and return south with the situation under control.

Nathan, apparently, had made a different arrangement entirely.

“Leave the documents with me,” Henry said.

“Of course.” The solicitor rose, gathered the remaining papers, and set them in a neat stack. “I am sorry to bring this in such circumstances.”

Henry did not answer. He was still looking at Nathan’s letter.

The solicitor showed himself out, and he sat for a long moment. Ian could not stay in Scotland.

And Charlotte, whom he had been on the point of engaging as the boy’s governess, could not remain here either.

This presented a problem he had not anticipated.

CHAPTER 9

Henry ran his hands through his hair for the third time in ten minutes. It had been three days since their arrival, and Ian and Lady Charlotte were inseparable.

He was pacing, which was a thing he did not do regularly. He had not paced since he was twenty-two and standing in his father’s study, learning what it meant to inherit everything at once.

The problem was not Ian. The problem was not even London, the deed of guardianship, or the solicitor’s careful, apologetic face. Those were complications, but they were the kind with solutions. He was competent at coming up with solutions. He had been competent at finding solutions his entire adult life, and he did not intend to stop now.

The problem was Lady Charlotte.