Page 32 of The Truth About Dukes
“To hell with my steak. Althea suspected the two of you knew each other, but how could Constance have known you? You were gone to that place, thirty miles from civilization.”
Thirty-two miles, actually. “Your word, Nathaniel, that you will not whisper this tale to Lady Althea, for it is not entirely my tale to tell.”
Nathaniel nodded—grudgingly, in Robert’s opinion.
“In her youth,” Robert said, “Lady Constance was not a lady. She was the younger sister of a banker intent on making his fortune as quickly and successfully as possible. You know the situation prior to that. I gather that in Constance’s adolescence, a falling-out occurred with her older brother, and Constance decamped for independent employment. She took a post as a maid of all work in the facility where I was kept. We struck up an acquaintance.”
Nathaniel swirled his wine, peering at Robert over the rim of his glass. “How old was she?”
“A very self-possessed and savvy fifteen, or thereabouts.”
“You didn’t—?”
“She wasfifteen, Nathaniel. Clearly from decent family. I was young enough to have untoward thoughts, but what did I have to offer her? Madness and obscurity? That makes a fine dowry. Her brother found her after a few months, but in that time, she and I became friends.”
An understatement and the truth.
“And now you want to marry her?”
“I have asked her to marry me, and I await her reply. She knows quite well that at any point, some meddling busybody who comes upon me in a shaking fit will decide I must be returned to the care of other meddling busybodies. Between you and the Wentworth family, I hope a judge can be persuaded to allow me to remain here at the Hall. My estate will nonetheless be managed by guardians, and they will doubtless leave my finances the worse for their efforts. His Grace of Walden will know how to protect the lady’s portion from such plundering.”
Nathaniel cut into his beef, which had to be cold. “Why do this, though? If you want a woman’s company, there are friendly widows who’d put no demands on you. Why complicate your life?”
That a man so clearly besotted would ask that question suggested that Nathaniel still saw his older brother primarily as an invalid.
“Because if I do not marry now, before my competence is brought into question, then I will not ever marry, will I? Lunatics are presumed incapable of knowingly taking nuptial vows.”
“You assume you will be found incompetent. You’re a duke, for God’s sake. Who will think to attack you?”
How quickly Nathaniel had gone from being an over-vigilant protective sibling, anticipating every possible threat, to a man convinced of life’s benevolence. The shift in Nathaniel’s perspective felt to Robert like a minor abandonment and a major relief.
“Anybody with a grudge against our dear father could attack my legal fitness,” Robert said. “Anybody in need of substantial coin. Anybody with a grudge against Althea’s family or against you. I am a duke, but I am also afflicted. I was incarcerated for nearly half my life due to that affliction, and I am not entirely well as we speak. Nor will I ever be. One must face facts, Nathaniel.”
On this subject, Robert had become the elder, the head of the family. He took an odd satisfaction from that, though not a happy one.
“You have no need to rush into marriage simply to produce an heir. Althea is more than willing to accept that responsibility with me.”
“How very generous of you both.” Also a trifle arrogant. The Almighty alone decided which couples had male children and which did not. “Does it not occur to you that I might want a wife, somebody who accepts me as I am and will advocate for me as fiercely as you have? Might I not represent companionship that suits Constance better than what a more socially prominent, self-important man could offer her?”
“Crooked pots and crooked lids, Robert? Althea is cross with me when I use that analogy.”
“I am not cross with you. I will merely point out that we are all crooked pots, to one degree or another. Assuming Lady Constance accepts my suit, will you stand up with me?”
Nathaniel, to his credit, did not hesitate. “Of course I will. What do you take me for? I would ask one thing of you, though.”
“Name it.”
“Find out exactly what sent Lady Constance fleeing her brother’s household. She would have known how dangerous a course she set for herself when she left, and to accept employment as a maid of all work…Something went seriously awry, Robert. Something that might yet be amiss. Ask her about it. You don’t want Walden or Lord Stephen as an enemy, and some affront to one of them might lie behind her flight.”
Sound advice, if a bit cautious.
“I can do that. You should take Lady Althea to the orchard, you know. The plum blossoms have a lovely, delicate scent.”
Nathaniel looked like he wanted to say something more, then apparently thought better of it and went back to sawing away at his cold slice of beef.
Chapter Eight
“You are not to shout at me,” Constance said. “You are not to pace about like a caged hyena. You are not to clench your jaw as if biting back every foul oath you learned before the age of ten.”
