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Chapter Nineteen
Matthew said nothing, but Rose was perceptive enough to know she needed to leave the room and excused herself.The Dowager Duchess of Welliver hobbled to a worn brocade chair and sat with groaning slowness.
“You were expecting the duke, no doubt.I told him this wasn’t his concern.”She held her cane with both hands secure on its glass knob.“Well, say something, my boy.”
“I am not your boy, Your Grace.”
“So, are you here to tell me of your father’s indiscretions?”she asked.
“No, I am here to tell you of your son’s.”
“Then you tell me nothing I don’t already know.You may as well sit down.I can see you have an encyclopedia’s worth of questions ready to burst from your tongue.”
“Don’t make light of the situation.Your son was a philandering prick.”
“Did you think you were the only one?”
Matthew had a fleeting moment of joy.Here, his grandmother, ready to warm the cockles of his cold heart.Only she was prickly, persnickety and unpleasant.But in no way mentally frail or unintelligent.
“I know that I am not.Robert Eggers, Archibald Robinson and Levi Trimble, and now another generation harmed with the birth of Levi’s two daughters, are all the product of your philandering son.”
“We can agree about his philandering.Another son and a daughter have also landed on our stoop claiming familial relationships.I sent them to our farm in Derbyshire, if you want to know them.”
He should be surprised; he wasn’t.He was more astonished that she imparted the news so casually.“What I want is for Welliver to make it right for all his offspring.And I don’t mean laboring away at your estate, adding to your riches.”
“You are a bit too late.There is very little left of Welliver.What you see here is the shell of a once great name.Do Mr.Eggers or Mr.Robinson or—what was the other name—?”
Matthew couldn’t believe it.Welliver?Bankrupt?Had he missed the forest for the trees?
“Levi Trimble.He is now deceased.”Matthew felt his jaw tense.Was it a ruse to get rid of him?
“Well, the others, if they know how to shear sheep, they are more than welcome to make a home in the north,” she said, a bit of derision in her voice.
“You are a cold woman.”
“No.Just a practical one.You should be able to appreciate that.Somehow you have parlayed your misfortune into a respectable life.Why shouldn’t I expect the others too?”
