Page 22 of A Spinster for the Rakish Duke
“But…,” he interjected but hesitated, torn on what to say next, “but you’re staying here with other men... It isn’t proper…”
Emma sighed and stood up. “Very true, Mr. Dole, but it is my brother’s home, and he should be here. With any luck, he will return soon. If it makes you feel any better, think of him as my guardian during this time. I am afraid I cannot dally any more today as I have to keep looking for Benjamin. Now if you’ll excuse me,” she said, ushering him towards the door.
“But, Miss Bradford, we are still betrothed, are we not?” he said, somehow still sounding pitiful as he continued to push the subject that he had been apologizing for only moments ago.
“For the sake of simplicity in answering, let's say yes. But that doesn’t mean that what I said earlier has suddenly lost its merit,” she said firmly as she walked him out the door.
His response to this was to smile meekly. Emma did not return the smile, instead wishing him a brisk “Good day” and closing the door.
She leaned her back against the door with a sigh of relief, bracing her head in her hands and taking a moment to let the aggravation of talking to that man roll off of her while she composed herself.
It was when she went to find the others that she found a note from Donovan letting her know that he and Mr. Herst had left to go to the Inn of Courts, so she would have the time and privacy she needed to talk to Mr. Dole.
While it was very considerate of them to quietly slip out, she felt flummoxed all over again. There was no way she could simply wait here for them to return when they were looking for Benjamin. She grabbed her coat and prepared to catch up with them. After all, how hard would it be to find them in an inn?
Chapter Sixteen
“Why is it, Mr. Dole, that you did not come to help me search for my missing brother?”
Donovan smiled at this little quip. God bless that woman. His brother had referred to her as Lady Cheek, and if it hadn’t been a pseudonym developed by the one and only Alistair Connor, Donovan would have found it delightfully fitting.
As much as Donovan would have loved to stay and listen to Emma tear this man’s argument down around his ears, he knew it was far from the proper thing to do. He had despised Joseph Dole since he had made his acquaintance several years ago. To learn he was the man that Emma was engaged to had made his stomach turn and his face burn hot. It would have lived with him and cast a dark angry shadow over his day, had he not heard Emma Bradford putting Mr. Dole in his place only a moment later.
Mr. Dole had proven to be an immense obstacle to the investigation into his parents’ deaths. The mysterious carriage accident occurred within a particular time frame, a time frame of extreme importance to the business dealings of his father. This fact led Donovan to believe an element of extortion likely played a role in the deaths of the previous Duke and Duchess of Lowe. When Donovan traveled to the Inn of Courts on multiple occasions to enquire about business dealings, it was Mr. Dole he often found on the prohibitive end of the action. Mr. Dole would block his access to documents and records for the sake of the “privacy of clients” and would always do so with an air of snide smugness.
He had mixed feelings about his involvement in the present situation, to say the least.
“Do you think it was wise, Mr. Connor, to leave Miss Bradford with that man?” Herst asked him.
“Did anything about that situation lead you to believe Miss Bradford wasn’t fully capable and in control?” Donovan asked with a slightly wry smile.
“I suppose not,” Herst answered and tried to return the smile, but he couldn’t remove the look of worry from his face. “But... don’t you think she might be cross if we continue the investigation without her?”
“While leaving then was more meant in consideration for Miss Bradford’s privacy, it, unfortunately, had an additional benefit.It would have been very difficult to ask questions around the Inn of Courts while not revealing my true identity.”
Herst's brow furrowed as he tried to puzzle out what Donovan could have been referring to. “Why is that?”
Donovan took a deep breath. “I, with my title included, have garnered a bit of a reputation at the Inn of Courts for being a nuisance.”
Suddenly, Mr. Herst let out a gasp followed by a short laugh. “I never put it together! You are that Duke! The one who bothers all the solicitors like he is one of the watch who caught them stealing sniffs from a brandy barrel.” The young man let out a delighted cackling laugh before Donovan’s hard look silenced him.
“I was aware I had garnered a reputation, earned or not. I did not realize it had traveled so far as to reach all the way to the apprenticeship,” Donovan said, a touch of embarrassment in his voice.
“Don’t take it as a mark of shame, Mr. Connor. All we apprentices have to do all day is read big musty tomes of the law written in teeny tiny handwriting. Makes any sort of gossip really seem appealing. I remember one time when I and the lads talked half the day away about a stray tomcat who had gotten in the building and had yet to be found,” the solicitor’s apprentice remarked with almost a sense of whimsy.
“Surprisingly, that does make me feel a bit better,” Donovan said with a dryness that Mr. Herst obviously did not catch as the younger man continued to regale the Duke with tales of surprisingly recent days gone. These stories would continue until they stood outside the Inn of Courts.
“Mr. Herst,” Donovan said interrupting a story he wasn’t following all that well as it was being told rather anachronistically, “I appreciate all the help you have given me thus far when it comes to the matter of my title and its acknowledgment or lack-there-of, but while we are inside there is no chance I will not be recognized, so, for the time being, we must return to the proper decorum.”
“Oh,” Herst said, only the slightest hint of disappointment in his voice. “Of course, Your Grace. Almost a relief actually. Been kind of uncomfortable referring to you as mister all this time,” the young man said with very little conviction.
“Really? Honestly, the relief has been having someone talk to me like a normal person. The only people who haven’t treated me as a title first and person second have been Miss Bradford and my brother, and my brother doesn’t exactly make for good company.”
“He did seem rather brusque, Your Grace,” Mr. Herst said with an eloquence that Donovan was surprised he could muster.
“Mr. Herst, I didn’t realize you had a subtle sense of humor,” Donovan said with a laugh before gesturing them to head-on,leaving the younger man to look confused, unaware that he had made a joke.
“Your Grace, if I may be so bold, I was aware that you had garnered a difficult reputation with the solicitors of the city of London, but I don’t think you need to go about hiring the apprentices of the lesser members of our fraternity.” The thin, serpent-like gentleman barely contained a breathy laugh.
