AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not in my experience,” Alice said firmly.
“Your experience of one conversation lasting all of a few minutes,” Simon mocked.
“And what exactly is your experience? Have you ever spoken to the Duke before?” Alice said.
“No. And I wish never to do so again.”
“Then what is it that concerns you so greatly about him?” Alice demanded.
“Is it not sufficient that I say so?” Simon asked.
“We really do speak from experience, Alice,” Ruth put in earnestly. “I wish you would simply trust us.”
“It is difficult to trust when one knows that things are being kept from one,” Alice protested.
Ruth and Simon looked at each other. Simon wearily rubbed at the bridge of his nose and waved a hand towards Ruth.
“Come, Alice. Sit down and I will explain,” Ruth said, guiding Alice towards a chair.
Once seated she hesitated, as though deciding how to say the words she had for Alice.
“In truth, it concerns both the current Duke of Redwood and his father. I’m afraid that they have a history of animosity towards our family.”
“One that is no fault of ours,” Simon put in.
“Once, our father was in business with the old Duke. Both men benefited from the arrangement. Both families became wealthy. But then…the Duke of Redwood betrayed our father.”
“How?” Alice asked.
“He cheated him,” Simon interrupted. “Swindled is the word. And when our father tried to do something about it, he hid behind expensive barristers and his title of course. Threatened to ruin father, mire him in scandal. It left our family almost bankrupt.”
Alice gasped. That was not a word she would ever associate with her father. She had certainly not been aware of any such financial hardship as she was growing up.
“I believe it precipitated father’s death,” Simon said somberly. “And for that, I cannot forgive the Redwoods.”
“But that is the old Duke. How does this affect the current Duke, Harold?” Alice asked.
“Like father, like son,” Simon said dismissively.
“It concerns…” Ruth said, then hesitated.
She looked helpless, as though the words were being dragged from her, against her will. She wrung her hands in her lap and looked to Simon. For his part, Simon poured himself another brandy, staring at the amber liquid.
“It concerns Edward,” Ruth finished.
Alice felt her heart flutter. Edward had been the eldest of the Hathway children and had inherited the title on the death of their father. Until his own untimely death had led to Simon inheriting the mantle of Viscount. She missed Edward terribly, he had been her hero as a child, strong, kind, and noble. In the last few years, he had become distant. She had attributed this to the pressures of the peerage.
“Edward was trying to rebuild what the old Duke had taken away from us. He was courting a lovely young woman by the name of Eloise. It seems that the current Duke is a jealous man. Edward had bettered him in business and won the heart of Eloise. The Duke could not stand this. He seduced her. When Edward discovered this, he called off the engagement. In her despair, Eloise took her own life.”
Ruth’s voice wavered as she told the story but she did not pause once the words had begun. It was as though she sought to tell the tragic tale in one, to get it out into the open without any further delay. Alice felt her heart sink at the revelation. A seducer. And a man who had a hand in the death of a young woman.
“And Edward?” she asked in a small voice. “Did this play a part in his…”
“His death? Yes, of course it did. Edward was never the same afterward,” Simon snapped. “And the Duke of Redwood is to blame. Do you now see why Ruth warned you against him?”
Alice felt a keen sense of loss. Her acquaintanceship with the Duke had only lasted for a few minutes but had made a lasting impression on her. He was so different from all of the other men she had met, so refreshingly different. And he seemed in step with her own dreams and ambitions to see the world, to experience adventure.
To find out that he was hated by her family. That his family had been responsible for so much of the tragedy that had befallen her own, was crushing.
