Page 27

“But your papa was considered to be the richest man in England,” Richard said. “Was he not, Grandmama? Richer than the royal family. Richer than the devil himself. Those were the rumors I heard.”

“That is what I heard many years ago, too, yes,” said the dowager carefully. “But I am not the one to ask. Surely the current Duke of Kelford can enlighten you.”

“What my brother is trying to ask is why did your father lock his fortune away from you, Kelford?” asked Preston bluntly. “Why did the richest duke in England make his own son the poorest one?”

Nathaniel’s body went rigid and cold as the chatter in the room shuddered to a halt, and he felt the attention of every guest on him. The only sound was the music, and even the musicians threw odd glances at him.

But the opinions that mattered to him most were his sisters’. They knew nothing of the true reason the relationship between himself and his father had completely fallen apart. Being too little at the time, they didn’t even remember they had witnessed the same horror he had. No matter how much Calliope’s brothers wanted him to explain, he wouldn’t subject his sisters to the awful truth.

How the highwaymen had stopped their carriage late at night. How he had heard his family’s guards descend from the back of the carriage and fight. How he could have left the safety of the carriage and grabbed a pistol and done something…

Instead, shaking from fear, he had sat inside with little Hazel pressed against him. On the opposite seat, his mother had cradled sleeping one-year-old Poppy and Violet, her rocking movements fast and her eyes wide.

As though feeling his distress, the white cat rose from her place on one of the chairs along the wall between footmen, jumped down, and walked towards him. As before, she hugged his boot with her tail. His nose and eyes itched. Surely it must be a reaction to the cat’s hair, not the emotion that tried to break through.

“My father didn’t think I was a worthy heir,” said Nathaniel.

This was true. Father had always had high expectations of him, and Nathaniel constantly thought he disappointed him. But after that night, Father had simply despised Nathaniel…and rightly so. Nathaniel hadn’t managed to save his mother, the duchess.

“My father thought I was disobedient, irresponsible, and rebellious. He thought I had no place becoming a duke.” Nathaniel swallowed hard. “I believe this will was his revenge and the means to teach me a lesson, to change me from a worthless cad into a family man.”

Hazel’s hand shook so hard, her knife rattled loudly against the plate, and she hastily put it down with a loud clank. Both Poppy and Violet stared at him with wide, sad eyes. He had said too much. They remembered Papa well—he had passed when Nathaniel was twenty-one and the twins were seven and Hazel nine.

“I had dropped out of Oxford,” said Nathaniel. “Or rather, I was politely asked to not show up there again. I drank brandy for breakfast since I was sixteen.”

And I am the reason my beloved mama is dead…

He swallowed the thought like bile.

“And so my papa thought the only way to make me a responsible man was to take away everything unless I married and produced an heir… Unfortunately, by having punished me, he has also punished my sisters. But if an heir or heiress is born before I reach the age of thirty, all our vast inheritance will be restored.”

Silence still hung over the room. Nathaniel felt the shift in the air. The sharp eyes of Preston, Richard, and the Duke of Loxchester softened.

“I know a thing or two about harsh fathers,” said the Duke of Loxchester.

“I sympathize, Kelford,” said Preston. “I understand what it’s like to never feel good enough to be born into the nobility.”

“Or not living up to one’s potential,” said Richard.

Something warmed up right in the center of Nathaniel’s chest. He hadn’t expected these three men to understand him. But he supposed he had spent so many years in isolation, punishing himself for that night, that he didn’t really have friends to talk to.

“However, I warn you not to use my sister as a brood mare,” said Preston. “She is so much more. She is truly remarkable.”

Nathaniel chuckled. “Believe me, Grandhampton, I am well aware.”

Calliope would be either the best thing that happened to him or the worst.

His wife leaned close to him, her eyes shining. “I am sorry to hear your father was so cruel.”

A sweet lightness pierced Nathaniel’s middle. But he didn’t deserve it. They all thought now he was the martyr, the victim. He wasn’t. He was the one to blame. “He had his reasons,” he said, throat tight.

The dowager nodded. “I do remember your papa and mama. He was an important man, but not an easy one by any means. He was very close to King George while the king was well.”

“I wish Spencer were here,” murmured Calliope, who was looking at the portrait again, completely shredding his heart.

Everyone followed her gaze, and silence fell over the room once more.

“I know he would have wanted to see me get married,” Calliope continued. “Would have wanted to meet you,” she said to Nathaniel, and he swallowed, his throat dry.