Page 50 of Marry in Secret
Thomas examined them. Each one was an authority to pay the bearer the entire quarterly allowance, and was signed by... Thomas. If he didn’t know better, the signatures would have fooled even him. He swore and pushed them back across the desk. “I agree it looks like my signature, but I swear to you I never signed any of these. I’ve never authorized a payment to any other person. I didn’t even know that my uncle was continuing to pay my allowance.”
Filbert looked skeptical.
“Dammit, I haven’t even been in the country! How the hell could I sign those blasted things when I was imprisoned on the other side of the world?”
Filbert pursed his lips. “Can you prove you were out of the country?”
“I have a witness to my return, and I can prove the navy has me listed as dead—will that do?” Filbert hesitated, and Thomas added, “Dammit, why would I be claiming such a thing if all this time I’d been signing those notes andcollecting my allowance? What would be the point of my coming here—to tell you I’m not dead? When you never imagined I was dead in the first place?”
Filbert pursed his lips. “There is that. It is most perplexing.”
“It’s more than perplexing,” Thomas said grimly. “Someone has been systematically stealing my money—and with the bank’s connivance.”
“Connivance?” Filbert was shocked. “Never that, sir. Oh, no, no, no! Never call it connivance. We weredeceived—you must admit that is a very convincing facsimile of your signature. I shall instigate an immediate investigation. Never fear, we will get to the bottom of this, sir, be assured.”
Chapter Seven
He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold hearted, and rather selfish, is to be ill-disposed...
—JANE AUSTEN,SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
“Will you come with me to visit the duke?” Rose asked George. “I need a break from writing all these wretched notes.” She stretched her aching fingers. She’d been writing notes for the last day and a half and was only three-quarters through the list of people who needed to be notified of the change of purpose of the ball.
“Why do you want to visit him?” Caution laced George’s voice.
“I need to apologize to him, about, about the... the cancellation of the wedding.” So awkward. She couldn’t even think of a polite phrase to describe what had happened.
“Can’t you just write him a nice apologetic letter?”
She could, of course, but she felt she owed it to him to apologize in person. “I think what happened caused him a lot of embarrassment. A letter seems insufficient.” And rather cowardly.
“It wasn’t your fault. You were as surprised as anyone when Mr. Beresford turned up. And the duke didn’t seem embarrassed to me. More irritated.”
“Whatever he felt, I still need to apologize. In person.”
George wrinkled her nose. “So why do you need me? I was going to take Finn for a walk.”
“I cannot call on an unmarried man, not in his home, not by myself.”
“Why not? You’re married, after all. And you said you’d be free once you were married.” George was refreshingly indifferent to the niceties of social conventions.
Rose laughed. “Not quite that free. Please come, George. Emm is taking a nap—this baby makes her so tired—and Lily is off somewhere with Edward, which only leaves you or Aunt Agatha to accompany me, and if she comes she’ll make me feel like a naughty schoolgirl.”
Aunt Agatha had indicated she would come again in the late morning, before visitors started arriving—a lot of curious Claras had called the previous day, wanting to sniff out the details of the scandal, and they were expecting even more today. Rose wanted to have the apology over and done with before she arrived. Otherwise Aunt Agatha was sure to insist on going.
And if Aunt Agatha accompanied her she would be sure to treat Rose like a naughty schoolgirl instead of a grown-up married woman. Besides, it was Rose’s problem, and she would deal with it herself.
George might hate polite social calls, but there would be no better companion for such a visit. She wasn’t the slightest bit intimidated by the duke and didn’t understand why everyone else found him so formidable. That attitude would help Rose through an interview she dreaded.
George sighed. “All right, but can we take Finn? With all the rain we’ve had, he hasn’t had a proper run for two days.”
“Of course. We can cut across Berkeley Square, and he can have a bit of a walk there, then after I’ve spoken to the duke, we can go for a lovely long walk in the park and he can really stretch his legs.”
Ten minutes later, dressed in hat, gloves and warm pelisse and carrying an umbrella each, they set out for the duke’s residence, Finn leading the way.
***
“Lady Rose Beresford and Lady Georgiana Rutherford to see the duke.” Rose handed the butler her card. This was another thing she needed to do: have new calling cards made. The “Duchess of Everingham” ones she’d ordered would be no use to anyone now.
