The Duke (Silver Linings Mysteries Book 6)

by Mary Kingswood

“It was. His face had been damaged, poor fellow, so although the clothes and the hair and so on were right, it was that birthmark that sealed it. And… and perhaps I did not look too hard. It is not an easy thing, I find, to gaze upon the dead form of a brother.”

  Ger reached across to clasp his hand. “Forgive me! Ran… are you angry with me?”

  “Angry? Good God, no! I am only glad that you are alive, brother. It never felt right, taking your place. Believe me, I shall be heartily glad to relinquish it.”

  “You do not blame me? For not telling you I was alive? For a whole year you thought I was dead.”

  “And what would I have done if I had known? It would have put me in an impossible position. I could not have claimed your seat in the Lords, could never have married… no, if you chose to stay hidden, you could not have told me.”

  Ger swirled the wine in his glass, gazing down into it with sudden intensity. “You are betrothed to Ruth… that was in the Gazette, too.”

  Ran stilled, aware of the sudden tension crackling in the room, like a bolt of lightning. Ah yes, Ruth…

  He took a sip of wine to steady himself. “I imagine Orrisdale will cut up rough about that, once you reappear. He wants her to be a duchess.”

  “What does she want for herself?” Ger said, his voice not quite level, still not looking at him.

  “She has always had a fondness for you,” Ran said. He tried to speak lightly, but his voice sounded oddly distant to his ears. “I imagine she will be glad to have you back.”

  “The trouble is… there is a complication.” Ger rubbed his nose thoughtfully. “I have met someone, Ran.”

  “Oh.” That was hopeful. If he no longer wished to marry Ruth…

  “Her name is Ginny Chandry, and she is a wonderful person, Ran, just amazing.” He looked up then, his face lit up with enthusiasm. “She is not a great beauty, and she has no accomplishments, but she is so good and sensible. I am calm when she is with me, not bouncing all over the place and not driven into despair. Ginny makes me feel as if I am a good person too, as if I am useful and worthy and life is worth living after all. She is the love of my life, brother, and I find it impossible to exist without her.”

  “I cannot wait to meet her!”

  He laughed merrily. “You have already met her. She came to talk to you — about me, actually. Since I could not go myself, she attended a meeting at the Pendower Inn to report on what I remembered about the shipwreck.”

  Ran dredged through his memories, but could not remember a Ginny Chandry. “Hmm. There were a lot of people who came to talk to us, and I was… not myself. Everything was confused in my mind. I shall recognise her when I see her, no doubt, and if you love her, then she already has my regard, brother.”

  “I am sure you will like her. And…” He lowered his head shyly. “…there is a child coming… in the autumn.”

  “Then you are married!”

  “No.” A shadow crossed his face. “Not married.”

  “But you must marry at once, Ger. Or before the child is born, at least. What if it is a son — an heir? You must marry. Unless… Ger, is she dreadfully ineligible?”

  “Well, I do not think so! I should never fall in love with a dairymaid, or anything of the sort. The Chandrys are perfectly respectable.”

  “Respectable?” That sounded suspiciously like lower gentry. Not at all suited to the peerage.

  “They own half of Pendower, actually, and in Ginny’s grandfather’s day they were very well-to-do, but her father was something of a rogue. He scattered his affections liberally into every family in the district, and then when the inevitable by-blow happened, he let the family off paying their rents. Ginny and I have spent the past year trying to get the finances back into some sort of shape. So she is from a gentleman’s family, but that is not it, Ran. The trouble is that she despises the nobility, root and branch, and when she finds out that I am a duke, I doubt she would even want to marry me.”

  Ran frowned over that. “So what will you do with her? Settle some money on her and leave her here, or—?”

  “No! I promised her I would keep her with me, wherever I go, so she will come to Valmont with me. But after that… well, who knows, but first I must tell her all this. Lord, it will be a dreadful shock to her — that her humble clerk is actually a duke.”

  “Do you think… will she leave your protection?” Ran said, hesitantly. “After all, if she is so set against the nobility, she might want nothing more to do with you.”

  Ger drummed his fingers restlessly on the table. “I should not imagine so, but…” His voice tailed away, and the anxious look on his face reminded Ran of the times they had been summoned as boys to meet some great lord or other that their father was entertaining. Ran wanted to hug Ger and tell him, as he had so many times before, that it would be all right, everything would be fine, they would brush through it together.

  Instead he said, “Do you want me to come back to Pendower with you today?”

  He pondered that, frowning. “What do you think?”

  “Better to bring her here. I might be recognised in Pendower, and that will raise all sorts of questions. You know how rumour flies about, and no one else must find out the truth before she does, because you might change your mind about returning to Valmont once you have talked to her.”

  “No,” Ger said, his face sombre. “I have to do my duty, Ran, as you have always done. I thought for a while that I could evade it, but I cannot. I am my father’s eldest son, if only by twenty minutes, and therefore I am the Duke of Falconbury now, whether I like it or not. Ginny will either accept that and come with me, or… or she will not,” he ended bleakly.

  “I hope, for your sake, that she will, but she has to be the first to know, and it needs to be done privately, Ger. Too late today, I daresay, but bring her here tomorrow. Then we can talk about this and see what is best to be done.”

  ~~~~~

  Willerton-Forbes and the captain forbore to question Ran, but over dinner that day, he told them everything. Concealment would be wrong, for the lawyer and his companions were responsible for the glorious discovery that Ger was still alive, and Ran must be forever grateful to them for that. Even if Ger had chosen to remain incognito, he would have known that his brother was still in the world and that would have been enough. It might even have been simpler if he had done so. Now there were complications. Ruth was one such, and there was this Ginny Chandry for another.

  So he concealed nothing from the lawyer and his friends. Surprisingly, it was Neate who had most to say.

  “While we were waiting for you to arrive, my lord, I took the liberty of wandering over to Pendower, and putting up at the White Horse inn for a couple of nights. Your brother the duke is well established in the village, and no one in the least suspicious. Said to be quiet, keeps himself to himself, but good with money and happy to help out when needed. He acts as secretary to a ship owner. The Chandry family…” He laughed, and tugged his ear, pulling a rueful face. “Bit wild! The father died a couple of years back, having married three times. The first wife was from the local landowner’s family. One son, who married one of the Thorneywell girls, Earl of Furneish’s line. Miss Chandry is from the second wife. She has a brother who’s a bit of a rogue like his father, although no harm in him. Then three younger children from the third marriage. Eldest girl married to the landowner’s son. Step-mother married the landowner — Lord Carsham, and he lives in the house with them. Expect you know him?”

  “A little. I stayed with him last year, after—”

  “So you did, so you did. Anyway, Miss Chandry is five and twenty, pretty, lively, and very well liked, although she has a reputation for eccentricity and for speaking her mind. Never married, although she’s had plenty of offers. Was thought to be entirely lacking in susceptibility to persons of the male variety until His Grace happened along. Everyone is very pleased with the way matters have worked out, what with a personable young man washing up practically at her feet and
the romantic way she nursed him back to health. A marriage is widely expected.”

  There was a long silence.

  “She seems very well connected,” Captain Edgerton said cautiously. “Lord Carsham, the Earl of Furneish…”

  “But not a suitable duchess,” Ran said, and no one contradicted him.

  Another long silence.

  “She is with child,” Ran said baldly, and an uneasy sigh escaped from the captain.

  “That makes things awkward, but such problems are not insuperable. A cottage somewhere, an annuity…”

  Neate tugged at his ear again. “From what I hear, the lodges at Valmont have been used for such purposes in the past.”

  “That might be too close for his duchess,” Willerton-Forbes said, adding gently, “He will have to marry, of course.”

  There was a long, sympathetic silence.

  “He was supposed to marry the Lady Ruth Grenaby,” Ran said bleakly. “Who is presently betrothed to me.”

  ~~~~~

  Ginny Chandry was taller than Ran had expected, a softly rounded woman who entered the parlour at Trehannick without a trace of anxiety, her clear blue eyes gazing at him with undisguised curiosity. Her hair would have been a dull brown without the hint of red that gave it the look of burnished wood. A sprinkle of freckles across her nose was the only defect to an otherwise pretty face. An unadorned, practical gown, plain straw bonnet and a dark green pelisse that might have been fashionable five years ago made her look exactly as she was — a provincial spinster of little wealth and no elegance. But her smile was warm and open, and the shine in Ger’s eyes as he looked at her ensured that Ran would find no fault with her.

  “Ginny, you will remember Lord Randolph Litherholm. Miss Virginia Chandry.”

  She curtsied, he bowed. “Of course I remember you, my lord.”

  A long pause as Ger chewed his lip and looked anxious. It was clear that he had not yet revealed his secret.

  “Ginny… I need to explain that…” A long pause, as Ger took a nervous gulp. “Ran is my brother.”

  Ran held his breath, but the blue eyes showed no shock. Instead, her smile widened. “Oh, I know. You are the duke that was thought to be drowned. I have known that for a long time.”

  Ger’s look of astonishment was so great that Ran burst out laughing. “Well, you said she was an amazing person, Ger, and so she is. I did not expect that, and neither did you, it seems.”

  “Oh, you call him Ger!” she cried. “Gervase, of course. Ger and Ran. Ran and Ger. I like that.” Her accent was good, he noted with relief, although there was just a hint of Cornish lilt to it.

  “I am glad to discover there is something you did not know about us, ma’am,” Ran said, bowing. “Please sit, have some wine and pray explain how you know who Ger is.”

  “I should like a little wine, thank you,” she said, taking the chair he held out for her, “but it would please me if you were to call me Ginny, as Jon — I mean, Gervase — does. You are brothers, after all, and ma’am sounds so horridly grand.”

  “You mean that I am being condescending,” he said ruefully. “I beg your pardon! I meant only to be polite.”

  “Oh yes, I know, and if we were strangers— Of course, we are strangers, but I hope that will not be so for long.”

  Her expression was so guileless that he could not be offended, but he wondered if she fully appreciated the enormity of the step that Ger was taking. Did she think this was just a passing visit, and Ran might drop by from time to time? Or did she understand that Ger was about to leave Cornwall altogether? His heart misgave him. However cleverly she had deduced the truth, she could not possibly appreciate the world that the Duke of Falconbury inhabited.

  But he could not express such fears, so he poured wine for them, and produced a plate of cakes wheedled from the kitchen by the persuasive tongue of Captain Edgerton, and sat down to listen.

  “When Jon was first brought to Pendower House, he was nine parts dead — a broken leg, and battered about everywhere, so he lay unconscious in his bed, and I was set to watch him for a while, as I was sewing. For a moment, he came half to his senses and cried out, ‘Ran! Ran!’ Nothing else. Well, naturally I assumed he was talking about the ship — that he ran away from a big wave, or some such. Or perhaps he’d run away from some past life. But he never said it again, and I never asked him what he meant. If a man has secrets, it is not for me to coax them out of him. Quite a while later, Mr Willerton-Forbes came to give Jon his thousand pounds from the Benefactor and he mentioned your name — Lord Randolph Litherholm. And Jon jumped. Oh, he recovered very quickly, but he started because the name meant something to him, and that puzzled me. That night, when I was just dropping off to sleep, I realised — Ran! How odd it is when that happens, that something pops into one’s mind at the most unexpected moment. And then everything made sense, because it was obvious that Jon was very… very cultured, I suppose. Understanding Latin and playing the pianoforte, and he knows about faro banks and the government and the old wars — things that most ordinary people know nothing about. And it was also obvious that he’d had a different life in the past, and he was not used to being a mere secretary. He talked about horses to my brother, many horses, and he has never been a groom, so it was not hard to work out.”

  “How did you account for the fact that the duke had seemingly been identified and buried?” Ran said.

  “Oh, I just assumed you’d made a mistake, my lord,” she said, with a smile. “Easily done, under the circumstances.”

  There was an assurance about her that unsettled him, for he liked a woman who was gentle and graceful, like Ruth, rather than this confidence that bordered on pertness, but when she smiled, her whole face softened and her eyes twinkled in such a charming manner, that he could entirely understand her fascination for his brother.

  And yet… she was hardly eligible to be a duchess.

  “Ginny,” he said cautiously, “Ger is set upon taking up the reins of his old life… becoming the Duke of Falconbury again.”

  “I guessed as much,” she said, quite composed.

  “Where do you feel you would fit into that life? Or would you prefer not to?”

  For the first time, there was a flicker of uncertainty. She threw an anxious glance at Ger. “You won’t leave me behind?”

  “Never,” he said. “You have my word on it, and if you want us to marry—”

  Her face relaxed. “Not marriage, no. I shall fit into your life exactly as I do now — as your mistress.”

  Ger frowned. “Is that truly what you want?”

  “Of course it is,” she said, her composure absolute. “Why do you think I’ve never pressed you to marry me? Why do you think I came to your bed without a wedding ring? You are a duke, Jon, and you have to marry someone from that world — a grand lady who knows how to behave. Not Ginny Chandry from Pendower. If you had stayed as Jonathan Ellsworthy of Pendower, well, we would have shared a little cottage somewhere and no one would have cared about it, except the parson, maybe. But if you are to go back to being a duke, then, if you marry at all, you have to marry your grand lady and I have to be your mistress, and that is an end to it.”

  “Then I shall not marry at all,” he said defiantly. “We shall live in unwedded bliss, my love, and Ran will marry and produce the heirs to continue the line.”

  Ran laughed, relief warming him. “That suits me very well.”

  10: Of Dandies And Valets

  Once Ger had made his decision to return to Valmont, he was all for leaving at once.

  “What is the point of lingering?” he said with a shrug. “Let us get the business over with. Besides, I can barely wait to show Ginny the Long Gallery and the Porcelain Room and the State Banqueting Room and the Roman Grotto.”

  “Ginny has lived in the same house for her entire life,” Ran said, amused. “She can hardly throw a nightgown and a couple of spare handkerchiefs in a valise and leave on the instant. Let the village give her a proper farewell.
”

  But Ginny, he discovered, was made of sterner stuff. “Since I own precisely five day gowns and two evening, two pelisses, one cloak and three bonnets, including my Sunday best, it should not take me more than an hour to pack. Jon — I mean, Gervase — owns even fewer clothes than I do. We can tell everyone this evening, pack tomorrow and then leave the day after.”

  “We shall need a carriage for Ginny,” Ger said. “You and I can ride.”

  “What about a maid? Or a valet?” Ran said, but they just laughed.

  After they had gone back to Pendower, Ran spent the rest of the day writing letters. It had been agreed that, in order to avoid awkward questions, they would simply say that Ger had lost his memory when his head was hit during the shipwreck. And it was true enough, after all, for he had lost his memory.

  Ran had thought to bring his address book with him, but before he had finished the first sheet, he devoutly wished he had brought his secretary as well. He was not used to so much quill work. There was one person he missed even more than his secretary, however, so his first, heartfelt, letter was to his valet.

  ‘Trehannick Inn, Cornwall. Giggs, For the love of all that is Holy, get yourself and some decent clothes for me to the Half Moon Hotel in Exeter as fast as you can fly and await me there. Take the big travelling coach and a team of four. Spare no expense! I depend upon you so do not fail me. Randolph Litherholm’

  He wrote then to Max, to warn him of the impending upheaval, and to ask him to alert the servants when he felt the time was right. Then to his four sisters, to his uncles and aunts, to a number of cousins, and to one surviving great-aunt. Lawyers, bankers, agents, managers. Family friends who would expect to be informed. The King and the Prime Minister. And finally, to the Duke of Orrisdale, a difficult letter, but he felt rather pleased with the wording.

  ‘Trehannick Inn, Cornwall. My Lord Duke, I write to inform you that my brother Gervase was not drowned aboard the Brig Minerva as supposed. He survived, although suffering from loss of memory, and has now been discovered alive in Cornwall. We leave for Valmont almost at once. I leave it to you to convey the news of my change in status to the Lady Ruth as you think best. This will delay my arrival in town, but I shall come to see you as soon as I am able. Randolph Litherholm.’