Page 37 of The Nabob's Designing Daughter
“A good name, your grace. And if it’s a girl?”
“We’re still negotiating that,” the duchess said, with a wry smile. “Because, of course, it must be a boy. “Lovelace will be godfather,” the duke said.
“Yes, and we’ve thought to ask Ann to stand as godmother along with Penelope.”
Would the duchess never cease pushing Ann on him?
He mustered his courtesy. “That is a great honor.” If the child was a boy, Ann would be godmother to a future duke. Strachney would be thrilled.
“She is excellent with these two mischievous boys,” the duchess said ruffling Arun’s hair, “and a good nurse. In different circumstances, I wonder if she would have liked to be a midwife.”
Knowing Ann, she’d prefer to push her way into a profession as an apothecary, or perhaps even a surgeon.
“Strachney would never allow that.” The duke stood, dropped a kiss on his wife’s forehead and took her tray away. “But you are here to examine my lady, I presume, not talk about Ann.”
“Quite right, sir.”
“Come along, boys,” the duke said. “Back to the nursery. One game of dominoes.”
They leapt off the bed and departed, wheedling the duke for more than one game. The duke paused at the door. “Join me in the library after, Robillard,” he said.
All seemed wellwith the duchess and he left her in the care of her maid.
He met the duke on the landing, his neckcloth askew.
“Well met,” the duke said. “The curate appeared for the boys’ lessons, and so I escaped after one game. Come along. The others are still abed, I presume, and won’t bother us.”
Once there, he rang for tea and seated himself near the fire, indicating the chair across from him.
One didn’t refuse tea with an affable duke… and yet, would this interminable morning never end?
“Bad business with the poor lad. How is he?” Kinmarty asked.
“When I saw him early this morning he was diving into his porridge. No fever. Time will tell how well the leg mends. A neighbor promised to tend their chickens and their few sheep, but he and his mother are anxious to get home and see to them themselves. It’s likely we can send him home in a few days with some crutches if he’ll be safe there. Have you heard aught from Forbes about his father?”
“Packed a kit and left for a cousin’s house before he and the vicar could reach his cottage.” He paused and drummed the desktop. “He’s a Darleton tenant, I understand.”
His neckcloth suddenly felt too tight. “Aye, your grace.” The boy was, technically, his own responsibility, a burden he didn’t want. “Do you… do you have any advice to offer on the best way to deal with the father?”
“Outside of running him to ground and beating the pulp out of him?”
Errol had considered that notion and rejected it as a bit too direct as the first approach. Violence might be all the dastard would understand, yet he might turn it onto his wife and son once Errol left.
The duke set a booted foot on the fireplace fender. “I might suggest the Justice of the Peace but…” The library door opened, drawing his attention. “Ah, here is Henderson. Perhaps we should ask him. Do you have time for a chat, Henderson, or… I see that you’re frowning. What’s afoot?”
Henderson bowed and pulled over a chair. “I’m at your service, your grace, at least through tomorrow, and then I plan to leave for Inverness the day after. But yes, while I hesitate to make assumptions or point fingers, someone has been in my files.”
Errol’s chest tightened. The duke sat up.
“Is anything missing?” the duke asked.
“No, only disarranged. And I did see one of the guests in the corridor outside the study as I came around the corner.”
“I shall give you a key,” the duke said. “I ought to have done so already. If you would like to tell me the name of the guest, I’ll have a word with him.”
“It was Strachney,” Errol said. “Searching out Ann’s business.” His face heated but it was a cold rage building within him. “He encountered us in the woods and told us as much. He became belligerent with Ann. The fool actually took a swing at me.”
The duke pressed his lips together and shook his head. “I was about to say, Robillard, that I might suggest having the Justice of the Peace see to your tenant, Gillespie, but Strachney has set himself up in that role.”
