Page 85 of The Scandalous Love of a Duke
‘What?’ John asked, crossing to the decanters. He poured himself a drink, as Harvey collected a file from the desk.
‘This.’
John looked at the leather folder Harvey held out.
‘Lady Edward’s history, Your Grace. I have not read it. I did not like to. The statements were drawn from a colleague in Captain Harding’s regiment, and also the former owner of a London gambling house.’
John felt his eyebrows lift and his blood ran cold. Half of him did not want to know. The other half could not stand not knowing.
The brandy burned his throat as he drank from the glass and took the file.
He sat behind his desk.
Harvey stood in silence as John opened it. Anger and disgust rose with every word John read. He knew they were true. They explained so much of what he had known and not understood.
From his father’s death his mother had lived as a man’s mistress.As a whore!She had been kept by four different men across the ten years, passing from one to another. It was noted that on two occasions she had been passed on via a hand of cards. The second time this had happened in a card game, the last time she had changed protector, Lord Edward Marlow, John’s stepfather, had won.
John let the last paper fall from his fingers and picked up his glass. His teeth were clenched hard against a desire to annihilate the men who had treated her so badly. By these accounts, although they were scarce on detail, his mother had neither been willing nor content but used.
John’s hand covered his mouth for a moment, and then his fingers swept through his hair.
This was not a burden lifted but another to bear.
His gaze rose to the portrait of his grandfather. After his father’s death, the duke had gone to France and collected John, but he had left his mother there,his daughter.He had left her there with no money and no home and left her with no choice and no help…
He saw his mother’s face as she had run after the carriage when he was ten. How must she have looked when he was no more than a babe in arms.
John drained his glass, closed the folder and stood. Harvey watched him.
‘Thank you, Mr Harvey. I appreciate you bringing it here. You may go now.’
‘You’re welcome, Your Grace. Contact me if there is anything I may do.’ With that Harvey bowed and left.
John took a deep breath, and then went to ask the footman outside to fetch his mother. ‘Please tell Lady Edward I wish to speak to her here. She may wish to bring Lord Edward.’
The footman bowed before disappearing.
John shut the door then returned to the desk to collect and refill his glass.
When the door opened again he turned to see his mother slip into the room, alone.
‘Mama, sit down.’ He tried not to sound bitter but he probably failed.
‘What is it?’ she asked uncertainly, sitting in an armchair opposite his desk.
She was the daughter of a Duke. To him she’d always seemed so perfect, sparkling and beautiful – it was like looking up at the sun.
‘I know,’ he said.
She stared at him, clearly not comprehending. But then her chin tipped upwards and her posture straightened, fractionally. ‘What?’
‘Everything,’ John answered as he rested his buttocks on the lip of the desk and crossed his feet and arms.
Her eyes widened.
‘As you would not tell me I had Harvey find out. I have it all here.’ He threw a glance at the file on his desk. ‘A statement drawn from a man in my father’s regiment, and a Madam who ran a club in London you used to attend with Lord Gainsborough.’
Her skin paled and her hand pressed to her chest. ‘Why did you do that, John?’
