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“Does father know?” She looked between them.
Demeter shook her head. “He will not find out.”
“Good.” Their father was an absent-minded man these days and growing more fragile in mind by the day. Thankfully Anton had taken on most of the ducal duties, allowing Father to occupy himself with his studies and keeping his strength up. “I will fix this,” Chastity vowed. “Do not fear.”
And whoever did this would pay. Most dearly. No one made her sister cry.
∞∞∞
The sheriff’s neatly slicked white hair offered a perfect parting down the center. His clean-shaven face made Valentine considerably aware of the day’s growth he’d allowed to sprout upon his jaw. He itched to rub a hand across it. The man deferred to him with the courtesy his rank demanded but Valentine saw the confidence with which he held his gaze. It told him all he needed to know about the law’s interest in his nephew’s death.
Suicide.
And no further investigation.
“We found a note upon the body, my lord.” Mr. Parr offered up a letter. “Can you say if it is Mr. Harper’s writing?”
“Of course not,” he snapped.
While Julian might be his nephew, that carefully guarded secret had meant they had never corresponded directly. The fact Julian could read and write had been down to some careful investing in his education but not so much as to draw attention to the fact they were related. Valentine had hoped to lift Julian to the rank of butler one day and have him installed in one of the great houses in the country—a fine job with security.
The note was nonsense anyway. Julian worked hard and enjoyed his job. If the fact his mother had died giving birth to him ever upset him, he never let it show. Valentine gave the boy everything he could want in the form of Mr. and Mrs. Harper. Caring and discreet guardians, who loved him as if he were their own. And surely Julian knew he could come to Valentine if he truly ever needed help? So why had the lad not come to him? None of it made sense.
“We believe he was jilted by a lover.”
“This woman he was seen with?” Valentine asked.
He avoided gossip but there was no escaping the talk of Lady E. He highly doubted the gossip to be true. He could not claim to know Lady E. any better than her sister with the torn shoes and spoiled manners but Julian would know better than take a privileged lady as a lover.
He hoped.
Christ. He should have stayed in London with him. Valentine had established Julian at the London house for a few reasons—one being the distance between them meant people wouldn’t compare Julian’s features to his own. The other had been to give the boy some freedom. Every young man needed to experience life away from his family and he was nearing twenty. Valentine might have no taste for it since Julian’s birth but he would deny Julian nothing and the boy had been itching to work in Town.
“He would not be the first young man to have his heart broken by a lady.” Mr. Parr shrugged.
Valentine held back a bitter curse. The one pleasure of being in the countryside was the freedom to do whatever the hell he liked, including cursing until his mother likely heard him all the way over in Italy.
Julian was no fool, he wanted to bellow. If he wanted pleasure, he’d do what every other man his age did and find himself a brothel. But he could not claim to know his footman so closely. No one could know of their relationship or his sister’s memory would be forever tainted and he’d rather join Julian in the afterlife than cast shade upon Harriet.
“How did he die?”
“Hanged.” Valentine might appreciate Mr. Parr’s bluntness were it not for the fact he was speaking of Julian.
“He strung himself up in the stables, it seems. There were marks around his neck and we found a noose hanging from one of the beams. Someone must have pulled him down to try to save him.”
“Do you know who?”
Mr. Parr shook his head. “There were hundreds in attendance that night. No doubt we missed speaking with the person responsible.”
“Mr. Parr, you are no simple man, I believe. Surely it does not make sense for Mr. Harper to hang himself at a ball?”
“A man in love will do all manner of things. My thinking is he hoped to get the lady’s attention. Maybe make her feel regret for her actions. Perhaps he did not even intend to die but hoped she would come to his rescue.” The sheriff shrugged. “Alas, we shall never know.”
“There is more to this,” Valentine said tightly.
“I admire your interest in this case, Lord Kendall. Few employers would take such interest in their staff. I hope they know how lucky they are.”
Mr. Parr retrieved his hat from the entranceway table and set it on his head in an efficient movement that left Valentine in no doubt the sheriff had no intention of spending more time on this affair.
