A Whisper of Treason

by Connolly, Lynne

  Adam loved her very much, but Delphi wished he wouldn’t shower her with so many gifts. She needed none of them. She had everything she wanted under this roof.

  Today, that included her brother, sisters, and their spouses. The house rang with children’s laughter. Damaris had two children now, and Dorcas had her adorable little girl. To see the burly Duke of Blackridge handle the mite was a source of amusement and fondness in equal measure. His hands encompassed his daughter, so large that the baby could scarcely be seen.

  After placing a diamond rose in Delphi’s hair, a necklace around her throat, clasped a pair of bracelets on her wrists and hanging earrings from her lobes, Addison stepped back and regarded her mistress critically. “That will do, Ma’am,” she said, and handed Delphi her fan.

  At last. After a brief word of thanks, Delphi left the room and walked sedately to the end of the corridor. Then, with nobody in sight, she lifted her skirts and raced up the stairs to the floor above. If she hurried, she just had time.

  Blessed silence pervaded the nursery wing, even though this part of the house was more full than it had been for years.

  The silence wouldn’t last long.

  Delphi opened the door and crept over to the crib that stood in the center. The door to the connecting room lay slightly open, she was glad to see. The nurses would be there. Not that they were needed at the moment.

  A figure leaned over the crib, murmuring in an easy flow. “You are dearly loved, Alban.”

  “So he is.”

  Adam didn’t start at her presence. He’d told her he always knew when she was nearby. “He’s the most adored baby in Christendom,” she added with a smile.

  From the moment the midwife had placed his son in his arms, Adam had been completely besotted by the boy. But then, so was Delphi, despite the pain the baby had caused her.

  She leaned over and gently stroked Alban’s downy cheek with the back of her forefinger. Her baby snuffled and she froze, but he settled back to sleep, his lips twitching in a half-smile. The nurse said the smile was gas. Delphi knew better.

  “We need not fear for his lungs,” Adam commented, not taking his gaze from his son. “He bellowed all the way through the christening service. The bishop’s voice is almost gone from yelling over him.”

  “Alban certainly made the chapel walls ring. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the windows had shattered.”

  Adam turned to face her, a smile warming his face. “At least the roof didn’t come down on us.”

  “No, indeed. I am not sorry for destroying that ceiling in Rome. I’d do it again.”

  “It was a terrible example of its kind,” he said smoothly. “It deserved to be destroyed.”

  “I thought it was quite elegant.”

  “You didn’t have time to study it well enough.” He tucked his finger under her chin, tilted it up and kissed her. Long and loving, sweet rather than passionate. But then, they had resumed marital relations at the beginning of the week, although he had insisted on “taking care”, as he put it. “I have all I need in this room. The two people I love the most.”

  “What about your mother?”

  He smiled. “Yes, her, too, but let me have my moment. I was trying to be romantic.”

  “You don’t have to try.” This time, she initiated the kiss. She’d missed intimate relations as much as he’d missed her. Well, perhaps not quite so much since she’d spent some of the time between Alban’s birth and last week healing.

  Although she had given birth easily, or so the midwife had said. “Six hours and you popped him out like you had somewhere else to go.”

  It hadn’t felt easy to Delphi, but then, who was she to gainsay the experts?

  Her little book on the life and campaigns of Trajan had gone down very well. At the time, she’d considered it her greatest achievement. But not for long, since its publication had occurred a month before Alban’s birth. Her tiny son was born a marquess, but she preferred not to think about that now. He was her beloved, the tiny miracle that astonished her every time she set eyes on him.

  Adam smiled broadly. He did a lot of smiling these days. “Come, my duchess. Let’s join our guests. I got word that the Trensoms arrived while we were changing, so I had dinner put back half an hour. They should be downstairs now.”

  “How is Annabella?”

  “Desperately excited, and desperately worried. A young lady’s come-out is never entirely comfortable. And her sister is deeply jealous, but Matilda promised her that her time would come.”

  Neither Matilda nor Harry had seen why the sisters’ come-outs should be rushed. They should be old enough to enjoy it, and old enough to have a say in choosing their husbands. So this coming season, due to begin in a few days, would be Annabella’s first. Delphi felt for her.

  When Adam took her hand and lifted it to his lips, Delphi felt that familiar thrill right down to the tips of her toes. She would never get used to it. His smile warmed her, deepened, and he leaned forward to touch her lips with his. “I’m tempted to spirit you away and keep your magnificence to myself, but that would never do, would it?”

  “They’ll probably come and find us,” Delphi retorted, returning his smile.

  He heaved a mock sigh. “So they will. Your family is most unconventional.” He drew her hand through his arm. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  They went downstairs to join their family.

  The noise guided them. Even if they hadn’t known they were using the Green Drawing Room tonight, the excited voices would have taken them there. The four Dersingham siblings, their spouses, and now Matilda, her husband and his daughters—their daughters now.

  The large room was filled with people, noise and happiness. Nobody here was unwelcome or unloved. Even the vicar and his wife, a charming middle-aged couple Delphi had taken to immediately, belonged here. Mr. Rowling had been worried that the duty of christening the son and heir of the Duke and Duchess of Kilsyth would be given to someone of higher stature than his humble self, as he’d put it. Delphi and Adam had been quick to reassure him. “For what bishop paid regular visits to us, to ensure our comfort?” Adam had said, and Delphi had heartily agreed.

  Releasing Adam’s arm, she went to embrace Matilda, as much her relative now as she was Annie’s. “When did you get back from Rome?”

  “Two weeks ago,” Matilda told her. “And while it’s a lovely city, we were glad to see the back of it. It’s so good to see you, my dear. When do we get to see the baby?”

  “If you’re very quiet, after dinner. Alban is not the most placid of babies, and when he sleeps, the whole castle sighs with relief.”

  Matilda lifted a brow. “Dear me! Imagine what that was like in the little house Annie and I used to live in! The downstairs was totally made over to the silver business, so we had no space to speak of. The boys could be—well, boisterous.”

  Annie, Lady Carbrooke, joined in the conversation. “William and George have more room now. And more direction. I have found the best tutor possible for them. William is taking a scientific bent these days, and Mr. Anderson knows just the places to take him. The business prospers, and his inheritance will be considerable.”

  “Do you intend to hand it over to him when he comes of age?”

  Annie laughed. “No, indeed! The business is mine, and I will let the boys have it when they have proved their worth. Besides, they might want to do something else.”

  The businesswoman who was also a countess. Delphi was proud of her.

  “The widow Beauchamp is back in London,” Trensom said casually.

  That stopped the conversation stone cold. “Widow?” Delphi echoed.

  “Yes, didn’t you hear? The duke died on the journey back to London. Her husband spent the whole journey raging at her, according to my sources,” Trensom said. “I had a man assigned to them. Merely to ensure they arrived home safely, you understand.”

  Trust Trensom to put a servant in the household, because that was what he had
undoubtedly done. “They started out in February, at the first thaw. When the Beauchamps arrived in Paris, they took a house near Versailles, all three of them, since she refused to travel without her brother-in-law. The servants heard the duke raging at his wife, and her crying, as usual. Then silence.”

  “She killed him?”

  Trensom shook his head. “He dropped dead. An apoplexy, I’m told.”

  “Oh, how dreadful!” Annie clapped her hands to her cheeks.

  Trensom nodded. “Indeed. Her grace chose to remain in Paris until she felt she was strong enough to travel. Hence, she has only just arrived in London.”

  Everyone in the room knew about the duchess’ affair with her husband’s brother, and the reasons why Trensom had snubbed Beauchamp when recommending Lord Billingham for the post. Nobody wanted a traitor representing the interests of the Hanoverian court.

  Trensom continued his story. “The duke had decided to travel home in a fit of pique. He refused to allow Lord Joshua to come with them. Lord Joshua writes to me, which is how I heard of the latest development. He is considering continuing his business in London so that he may support the widow. Signor Raffetti will continue in Rome.”

  “She has everything she wanted, then,” Damaris said, her voice hard. “A position of power, and a son who will consolidate it for her. Not to mention the man she loves by her side.”

  “They can never marry,” Trensom put in. “A woman cannot marry her brother-in-law.”

  “That must be a cruel fate,” Matilda said. “She has everything she once thought she wanted. She’s a widow, and the mother of a duke. But she has nothing, except ceremony and pomp and bringing up her little son. If she’d had a girl, Joshua would now hold the title, and they could thumb their noses at society. I daresay, they could have made some kind of life together. She can’t do that now. Not with the future Duke of Beauchamp in her care and the eyes of the world on her. With a girl, she could have disappeared, lived quietly somewhere, but people are watching her now.”

  “That’s her concern,” Delphi said, surprised at how little this twist of fate mattered to her. Once, she’d have crowed over Elizabeth’s downfall. Now, she felt sorry for her. Locked in the world she had yearned for, forever denied the man she loved, Elizabeth had a hard life in prospect.

  Blackridge, the Duchess of Beauchamp’s childhood friend, seemed the only person who was genuinely sorry for her. But although his eyes revealed his regret, he said nothing.

  “She has everything she thought she wanted,” Delphi repeated. “But I have everything I didn’t think I wanted. But how wrong I was! This is exactly what I want.”

  Adam didn’t have to say anything, the love in his eyes said it all. He raised her hand to his lips. “You gave me the greatest happiness in the world. And then you gave me a son.”

  Author’s Note

  I started this book with the received information about the residence of the Stuarts in exile in Rome, but as I did more research, I found something very different. The legend of the shabby, cramped residence seems to have been promoted by the Stuarts’ enemies, not the least of which was the monarchy of Great Britain. Ambassadors reported what their masters wanted to hear.

  While recent histories recount that the Stuarts had their residence in the Palazzo Muti, that’s not really the case. When they lived there, it was known as the Palazzo del Re. Engravings from the time show a huge range of buildings and rooms. They lived there by the grace of the pope, and when Henry became a cardinal, he confirmed their residence. In fact, he paid for it. Also, the residence wasn’t the shabby, second-rate place that is often depicted. It held significant treasures and was well maintained.

  And to my surprise, I discovered that the many British visitors to Rome went to the Stuart court, and were received there, whether they were Hanoverians or not. “Everybody” went there, and it was one of the sights. It also provided a center for the expats and the visitors to congregate, in the absence of an embassy.

  Rome never had an ambassador in this period, but there was the occasional attaché. I made Trensom one of those.

  As the Stuart line died off, Cardinal Henry Stuart became the heir to everything, and became a considerably rich man. When he died, the bulk of his possessions were left to the Church, which is how some very odd artifacts that might otherwise have remained in London are now at the Vatican.

  The house that Adam hires in Rome owes much to Keats’ House on the Spanish Steps. It’s a fascinating place, not least because Keats spent the last months of his life there. It was generally hired by the British residents in Rome. I did tweak it a little, to make it more acceptable to a nobleman.

  Thank you so much for joining me in the journey to find each Dersingham their happy ending. You never know, they might pop up somewhere else sometime!

  About the Author

  I write stories, and I always have. And I love a happy ending, especially a well-deserved one.

  I’m an award-winning, best-selling author of historical romance. I fell in love with the eighteenth century when I was nine years old, and it’s my dream job to write about the people who lived and loved back then.

  I used to work in marketing, and I have more letters after my name than in it, but I don’t use them much anymore.

  I live in the UK with my family, including my muse, Frankie the Nonsense, a ragdoll with no decorum. I love traveling, and I get over to the States at least once a year.

  My website is at lynneconnolly.com. Twitter @lynneconnolly and my Facebook page is here: facebook.com/lynneconnollyuk. My blog is at lynneconnolly.blogspot.com.

  I also have a newsletter. If you’d like to join it, email me on lynneconnollyuk@yahoo.co.uk or fill in the form on my website.