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‘I thought as much. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before proceeding alone. First, although it may not mean as much to you as it does to me, I consider that my honour is at stake in this matter. It was, after all, my suggestion that we began this liaison. Of course, I had no idea that an affair which should have remained a private matter would end up furnishing the Duke with ammunition to use against you. But so it has proven. I couldn’t possibly abandon you to face the consequences alone and still call myself a gentleman—or a man.’
‘You should not consider this in any way touching on your honour,’ she countered.
‘Shouldn’t I? Were the circumstances reversed, and you had initiated something that caused me harm, would you walk away and do nothing to rectify the situation?’
She opened her lips—but remained silent, as he knew she would, for he had her there. ‘I hardly think so,’ he concluded. ‘Else you would never have made such an enormous sacrifice eight years ago. I appreciate your continuing desire to protect my name and reputation. But I’m no longer a callow youth just out of university. I own a lucrative estate, my uncle is an earl and I, too, have powerful friends. After surviving dozens of battles, I’ve also learned a little about confronting a treacherous enemy.’
He could see the conflict in her face, the longing to believe him and accept his help warring with the long-ingrained habit of independence and her own sense of honour that drove her to spare him involvement, whatever the cost to herself.
Before she could speak, he pressed on. ‘Besides, it is not just your safety at stake—I’m doing this to protect your son. With the stakes so high, don’t you want to at least hear how I propose to counter Graveston’s threat?’
At the reminder of her son’s danger, she sighed. ‘Very well, I’ll hear you out.’
‘Good,’ he replied, relieved to have passed the first hurdle. Diana was shrewd, determined, and brave. Alastair knew if he could just get her to listen, he could convince her to fight instead of flee. Unless...she feared what he’d demand from her if she let him help her.
Better reassure her on that score immediately.
‘I would hope you know this, but let me say it anyway. I assure you that when we win this battle, I will not press on you any...association you do not want. You’ll be free to walk away. Your safety and that of your son is all the recompense I want.’
She smiled, relieving his mind and warming his heart. ‘I do know that.’
‘Very well, then. Let’s begin with a rule of battle: the best response to attack is a well-designed counter-attack.’
‘Counter-attack,’ she repeated, light sparking in eyes that had looked tired and discouraged. ‘I like the sound of that.’
Encouraged, he continued. ‘First, we need to assess how strong a case Graveston could devise against you. Who might testify?’
She frowned, her gaze losing focus, as if she were running through a mental list in her mind. ‘It could be anyone. As I told you, the staff at Graveston Court was loyal to the master—or more accurately, to Graveston’s first wife, who had the running of the household for fifteen years before I was installed there. The former housekeeper in particular despised me. Since the staff didn’t dare display hostility towards the Duke for his treatment of his first wife, they transferred that enmity to me.’
‘Is the housekeeper a tall, thin, hawk-nosed woman?’
‘No, Mrs Forbes is a rather rotund—’ Her eyes widened. ‘The current housekeeper is not, but the former one, the one who disliked me so, Mrs Heathson, is exactly that. You saw a woman of that description with the household keys?’
‘I did. Blankford had obviously been informed of who I was and my connection to you before he came in to meet me. I had the impression that this housekeeper knew as well, and understood that anyone intervening on your behalf would be threatened with retribution. As I passed her in the hallway, she looked as pleased about the prospect as the Duke was.’
‘I’m not surprised, if it was Heathson. She was fanatically devoted to her former mistress, doted on her son, and certainly would have been ranged on his side when he broke with his father. She’d been...retired; Blankford must have brought her back. With so many of the staff loyal to his mother, he could easily have recruited some of them to be his spies in the household after he left. He probably also instructed some to follow me to Bath after Graveston’s interment.’
‘So I concluded,’ Alastair said, nodding. ‘But what of his accusation? Are there any possible grounds for considering your husband’s death suspicious?’
Diana stared into distance, frowning, before shaking her head with a sigh. ‘I’m afraid I can’t be of much help, since I avoided Graveston as much as possible. Thinking back, he did look somewhat pale. His hand trembled when he reached for the wine glass at dinner. I didn’t think much of it; he went to work in his study every day as usual—a Duke of Graveston does not neglect business because of some trifling ailment, nor summon a physician to quack him. I suppose the estate agent did call at the manor more frequently than usual those last few months, rather than Graveston riding out with him.’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t know—one might be able to make a case for some sort of slow poisoning.’
‘Were you surprised when he died?’
She was silent for a long time. ‘I never considered whether it was sudden or timely,’ she said at last. ‘After living for so long pressed down by a weight so heavy I could hardly breathe, once it was removed, all I felt was...relief. My sole thought, when his valet informed me of his death, was to get away before anyone could stop me. As soon as the coroner, after consulting Graveston’s physician, declared that he had died of natural causes and authorised the burial—which by custom I would not have attended in any event—I left Graveston Court.’
‘That’s a point in your favour,’ Alastair said, relieved. ‘If the coroner did not suspect foul play, it seems unlikely Blankford will be able to turn up anything.’
‘Perhaps. Perhaps not. The threat of prosecution might simply be a ploy to try to distress and intimidate me. But I don’t think so. Blankford hates me enough to make accusations, even if he cannot unearth enough evidence to force a trial.’
Her description of determining to flee upon Graveston’s death recalled to him the one detail of her account that still pricked at him.
‘You lost your father less than two years after you wed the Duke. You were still childless, and I was with Wellington in the Peninsula, beyond his reach. Why did you not leave him then?’
‘Oh, but I did leave him.’
He frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’
She rose and began to pace, a habit Alastair had noticed she often resorted to when distressed. ‘Papa had been gone nearly a month when Graveston finally informed me of his death—and even then, he did so indirectly, by summoning me to his study to turn over some family jewellery. I recognised the pieces immediately as belonging to Papa’s mother, and knew the only way he would have got them was if Papa had died.’
Alastair was struck by how unfeeling the Duke had been. ‘I’m so sorry. You were always so attached to your father. It must have been terribly difficult.’
She shook her head. ‘After the wedding, I distanced myself from Papa. Partly for his protection, but mostly because it would have been impossible to hide from him for long that I had not, as I assured him when he questioned me, thrown you over so I might become a duchess. Had he worked out the truth, it would have tortured him, and I didn’t want that. But you asked about my leaving Graveston.’
She halted before the mantel and gazed into the flames, while he waited for her to begin, a sick feeling in his gut about what she was about to reveal.
‘I left the same night I learned of Papa’s death,’ she said at last. ‘Slipped out through the kitchen wing after all the servants were abed, taking only a portmanteau with a few old gowns and my family’s jewellery. I made it through the village and almost to the posting inn on the mail-coach route before his men caught me. They dragged me, screaming and fighting, into a carriage and drove me back to Graveston Court.’
Shocked, he simply stared at her as she continued. ‘It was, of course, unthinkable for the Duchess of Graveston to abandon her husband. He had me locked in my rooms, but he must have known I would try again, claw the wood out of the window frames if necessary, for he had me drugged. Downing the nourishment brought to me to keep up my strength to escape, I didn’t notice until it was too late.’
‘For how long?’ Alastair asked, appalled.
‘I don’t know exactly. A long time. Once I had figured out what was happening, I tried keeping back some of the drugged wine, intending to drink it all together and escape that way.’ She shook her head. ‘Apparently Mrs Heathson—still the housekeeper then—figured out what I planned, and was quite willing to let me secrete away enough laudanum to carry me off. But for some reason, despite how often I’d displeased him, my husband wasn’t. When I recovered from the overdose, Mrs Heathson had been “retired”. And I discovered I was pregnant.’
