Page 77 of The Duke’s Hidden Duchess

“To send to a widow named Loxley.”

Nathaniel went very still.

“Loxley.”

“Yes.”

“The man your father was convicted of murdering was Thomas Loxley.”

“His wife,” Selina said. “Mrs Anne Loxley.”

The room became quiet.

Petherick lowered his eyes to the account, granting her the small privacy of not being watched.

Nathaniel did not look away.

“After the money from the jewels was exhausted,” Selina continued, “I had taken the situation in Suffolk. A portion of my wages went to Mr Dunmore every quarter, and he remitted it to Mrs Loxley. When the situation ended, I continued as well as I could from what remained to me. The amounts are all there.”

Petherick turned the account over.

“And Lord Merrow knows of these remittances?”

“He appears to know that they exist. I do not know how. That is one of the things I should very much like you to discover.”

“But he does not know the recipient.”

“If he did, Rowland would have used her name at Lady Marwood’s. Instead, he spoke only of regular payments and of Giles possessing papers. I think Giles knows enough to make them look suspicious and very little more.”

Petherick considered the account. “What do you believe he intends to allege?”

“That I emerged from my father’s ruin claiming to possess almost nothing, yet continued to dispose of money for years afterwards. He will suggest that I concealed assets which ought to have passed through the administration of the estate.”

Nathaniel frowned. “But the garnets were legally yours.”

“Giles knows that. He knows my mother left them to me by name.”

“Then the allegation is knowingly false.”

“Yes. But most of London has never read my mother’s codicil. If he calls the jewels estate property and points to four years of unexplained payments besides, the two things may appear to support one another long enough to do the damage.”

Petherick nodded. “Then he does not require a case capable of surviving a court. He requires an accusation capable of surviving a drawing room.”

“Precisely.”

“Which makes the documents no less important,” Petherick said. “If he means to lie publicly, we must be able to answer him publicly, and without delay.”

Selina looked down at the account. “That is what concerns me.”

Nathaniel looked at Selina.

“And Mrs Loxley?”

Her gaze dropped to her folded hands. “She lost her husband because of my father.”

“You did not kill him.”

“No. Nor did she bring about my father’s crime, and yet she paid for it.”