Page 88 of The Duke’s Hidden Duchess

Selina had expected him to wait.

He did not.

“Your Grace,” he said.

His voice carried farther than ordinary conversation required.

The people nearest him turned first.

Giles smiled.

“Pardon me, Your Grace. I am still somewhat unused to the new title. Though for the matter at hand, perhaps the old name is more appropriate. The Duchess of Wexford is newly made; Lady Selina Calvert was present when the Merrow estate was administered.” His smile sharpened. “She may therefore be able to explain what became of certain property that never reached those lawfully entitled to it.”

The room turned. The music faltered; one violin held its note a moment too long before falling silent. Every face swung towards the woman in silver.

The accusation had begun.

Chapter Nineteen

“Certain property?” Selina repeated.

Giles had positioned himself well. The people nearest them had already fallen silent, and the silence was beginning to spread towards the edges of the room.

“Name it plainly, cousin.”

Giles smiled.

“The garnets, for a beginning. Your mother’s garnets. Jewels which ought to have passed with the remaining property of the Merrow estate and which instead disappeared into your possession and were sold privately.”

Nathaniel felt the old anger rise before Giles had finished. Petherick stood at the edge of the gathering with the documents that would answer the lie in less time than Giles had required to tell it. Nathaniel could have ended the accusation himself.

Two fingers touched his sleeve.

Selina kept her eyes upon her cousin.

Not yet.

Nathaniel remained where he was.

“You are accusing me of theft,” Selina said.

“I am asking what became of property to which others had a lawful claim.”

“No. If you have brought half this room to silence in order to accuse me, you may at least have the courage to use the word.”

Something shifted in the faces around Giles.

He heard it.

“Very well. Theft.” The word carried. “The jewels were sold, and that is not the only question the administration of Merrow left unanswered. There are records of regular sums passing through an attorney in your name after the estate had supposedly left you almost penniless. Payments made quarter after quarter from money whose source has never been satisfactorily explained.”

That was better constructed. Selina had expected it to be.

Giles turned sufficiently to address the listeners gathering around them.

“My cousin would have this company believe that she emerged from her father’s disgrace with nothing. Yet she sold valuable family jewels and continued for years afterwards to command funds which were never disclosed during the administration of the estate. I ask a simple question: where did that money come from?”

He had gone no further than the facts allowed. Not yet. That was the danger of it. A garnet set sold after a ruined estate; regular payments made by a woman reputed to possess almost nothing. Set beside one another without explanation, the two facts could be made to resemble a third.