AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You couldn’t have possibly thought coming to Kendal was an intelligent move,” Frederick said in a droll voice. “Not after what happened at Troop’s. We’ve all seen the papers.”
Adam sniffed, then winced again. “It’s what family does, isn’t it?”
I gaped at both of them. “Family?”
Frederick turned to me, already looking bored. “Adam is a cousin to both me and Xavier.”
“Not so distant, really. After all, our fathers are related. ”
My eyes were bugging out of my head. “Wait, what? You and Xavier are related?”
Adam just scoffed. “Please. I share barely any DNA with that overbearing gorilla. We are related primarily by marriage.”
“If you’re going to intrude, you should do it accurately,” Frederick put in. “After all, we do all three of us share a common ancestor in the tenth Duke of Kendal. He is why you are here, after all.” He turned to me as an aside. “The English gentry is a very small world.”
I blinked. “I’m confused. You’re related…but you’re not?”
“We all three have the same fourth great grandfather,” Frederick explained. “The tenth Duke of Kendal had two sons. One line continued down to Xavier. The other continued through our grandfather, a lower baron who was stripped of his title. And then to our fathers, who had none.”
I turned to Adam. “I thought your name was Klein, not Parker.”
“It is Klein. Mum was widowed young and remarried my father when I was a baby. She gave me his name.”
“You already know my mother is divorced,” Frederick supplied. “But yes, my father’s name was also Parker. It made the transfer seamless, I suppose.”
I turned back to Adam. “You weren’t going to tell me this?”
He just studied his nails. “It’s a distant connection. Xavier and I barely knew each other, like we said. There didn’t seem any point.”
“So…what, does that make you, a…?”
“It’s makes me a nothing,” Adam said, not quite able to mask the bitterness. “Which is what happens when your lying grandsire has his title stripped by the throne, and then your mother runs off with a Jewish diplomat. Try as I might, I could never fit in with them. Not that they’d ever want me. It’s just one more claim they have to get rid of.”
“Claim?” I repeated dazedly, glancing between the two of them. “Claim to what?”
“Neither of us has a claim to anything,” Frederick insisted, more to Adam than to me. “Much less to the dukedom of Kendal.”
“Tell your mother that,” Adam said. “She and Mum haven’t stopped searching for alternative records for a decade.”
Frederick didn’t reply.
“What is he talking about?” I wondered, tired of feeling out of the loop.
“The fact is that until ten years ago, we both thought one of us might have a claim to being the next Duke of Kendal. Until that stupid marriage certificate was found.” Adam spat on the ground. “I’ll never forget the day I realized I was going to remain a fucking elementary school teacher for the rest of my life. It was the same day I realized I was never going to stop working to overturn the whole damn thing.”
“Arrogant as always,” Frederick returned as he picked another daisy. “There’s no point.”
“Oh, please. Like Auntie thinks any differently. She’s been trying for years to get Parliament to strip the title on the basis of a godless marriage.” Adam snorted. “A Buddhist temple marriage? Rupert Parker? Pictures or it didn’t happen, so they say.”
“But it did happen.” I found my voice at last. “Henry went to Japan and got it from Masumi’s family. It’s why Rupert Parker had to acknowledge him as his son.”
“Convenient, isn’t it?” Adam put in.
“They would have verified it,” I said. Or maybe just assumed. “Parliament wouldn’t have just signed off on his inheritance. Would they?”
“Would they?” Adam parroted with the low tone of conspiracy.
All signs of the friendly compatriot from yesterday had vanished. All that was left was a bitter, mocking little man.
