AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No less a personage than myself knew you were courting me,” she countered, and the footmen snickered. “Who is Osborn?”
“Still not up on yourDebretts?” Alfred buttered half a scone and put it on her plate. “Arthur Humphries, Duke of Osborn. I knew him growing up, he lived in Court with Georgie, big lad, always on the fringes,” he said. “He was present at our nuptials.”
“I did not notice, I regret to say.” They exchanged a fulsome look, and Alfred considered convincing her to delay attendance upon her duties at Templeton Stud.
“Did you not? What held your attention, I wonder?” The footmen giggled, and even Coburn cast aside his dignity enough to crack a smile. “His Highness demanded Bates’s company once our vows were said,” he continued. “Perhaps he had been called upon to witness theirs. I, too, had my attention elsewhere.” He reached back to stroke the spot at the top of Felicity’s hip that carried his mating mark.
She batted him away with her napkin. “Does he enjoy a similar, er, status beyond his ducal duties?”
“He is an Alpha,” Alfred said. “Although he is not doing his duties. His father was challenged for primacy over their clan and lost. It is past time Osborn took up his mantle.”
“Challenged?” Felicity warmed up his tea and administered the requisite two spoonfuls of sugar.
“A rogue of his species fought for the right to command the Osborn holdings. It is an old, old custom ofversipellislife. George’s great-great-grandfather upheld such hidebound notions, but it has largely been abolished.” Alfred waved away the kippers proffered by Coburn at his mate’s minute flinch.
“Largely?” Felicity added jam to the scone, cut it half, and put the larger piece on Alfred’s plate.
“Veritably completely. As our kind have become civilized, so have many of our ways, but not all.” Alfred applied himself to his meal.
“I do not think Beatrice will countenance violence,” she said. “In fact I know she will not. I am not apprised of the details, but I can say with confidence her first marriage was not harmonious.”
“I have no doubt it was not.” He knew only too well what marriage to Castleton would have entailed for the unlucky wife.
“If she were wed to such as he without being any the wiser…” Felicity worried her eggs with her fork.
“Humans have unknowingly wed Shifters and remained in ignorance for the whole of their lives,” Alfred said. “I am certain the new duchess is informed regarding our kind, however. As you are now aware, one can tell if one knows what to look for. She held herself aloof to all and sundry, but when sundry wasversipellis, she was very much on her guard.”
He perused the rest of the letter. “Ah. Yes, here, Bates was likely required as a witness, for they were indeed wed directly after we were, in Carlton House.”
“Oh! But—” Felicity rose before a footman or three could pull out her chair. “This has every hallmark of an unwanted alliance. I shall write to her straightaway.” She threw her napkin down and then picked it up and folded it. How like her, ever striving to make less work for the staff. “Have you their direction?”
Arthur rose and took hisvera amoris’s hand. “I suspect they have taken up residence in Arcadia, the Humphries homeplace.”
“Arcadia. How beautiful it sounds,” said Felicity as she ran her hand along his arm to stroke his biceps.
Alfred shrugged. “If it has been uninhabited since his father’s time,” he said as they left the room, “I suspect it is in a state far less beautiful than its name.”
