The Inheritance

by Joan Johnston

  Nicholas didn’t bother telling Phipps he wasn’t a Windermere. He felt possessive enough of Severn to be one.

  “The gentleman doesn’t need a decision now,” Phipps said. “Unless you reject his proposal entirely.”

  “I do.”

  “What?” Phipps was surprised by the duke’s quick, harsh response.

  “I reject the offer. I’ll take my chances on finding a buyer who’ll keep Severn in one piece. Tell the gentleman my answer is no, Phipps.”

  “Very well, Your Grace.”

  All the way from London, Nicholas hadn’t stopped thinking of what he had done. There was no reason for him to refuse a perfectly good offer for Severn. Why should he care what happened to the people there? He was heading back to Texas.

  Yet, when Phipps had spoken, when it had been borne in on him that Severn Manor would be no more, he had felt such a wrenching in his guts that he was nauseous. Nothing should mean that much to him. Severn did.

  Nicholas was torn apart, because now he was going to suffer no matter what decision he made. If he stayed at Severn, his son would be lost to him. If he went back to Texas, he took a chance that Daisy would insist on staying in England. And if he convinced Daisy to come to America with him, it would mean giving up Severn.

  Nicholas didn’t like his choices. But at least he had bought some time. Until spring. Or until he got another offer.

  At the foot of the stairs Nicholas remembered that Colin was waiting for him in the library. He headed that way and nodded to Higgenbotham, who opened the door for him. He let out a sigh of relief as he heard the heavy door close with the familiar thunk behind him.

  “Alone at last,” he said, draping himself in the chair behind the Sheraton desk.

  “I’m here, Pa,” Colin said, turning from his stand at the window.

  “You don’t count, Colin. You don’t want to rip out my throat for manhandling Daisy.”

  “I wouldn’t say that, Pa. I’ve gotten to like her a lot in the two weeks you’ve been gone. I’d have to object along with everyone else if you did anything to hurt her.”

  Nicholas groaned and covered his eyes with his hands. “Believe me, son. That woman doesn’t need any help. She does a damned good job of taking care of herself.”

  “Where were you, Pa? Why didn’t you come back sooner?”

  Nicholas dragged himself upright in the chair so he could reach the brandy decanter and glasses on a tea cart nearby. He poured himself a drink and swallowed it before answering. The brandy was warm going down, but it was a poor substitute for the two fingers of rye whiskey he needed.

  “I went to London,” Nicholas said. “I didn’t come back because I was looking for someone. It took me two weeks to find out that he wasn’t there.”

  “Who were you looking for, Pa?” Colin took the few steps that brought him to the mantel and toyed with the miniature portrait of a pretty woman that rested there. It took him a moment to recognize the woman as Daisy. A younger, smiling Daisy. His father’s voice drew his attention from the painting.

  “During the trip here, I told you the story of how I was banished from England when I was a boy.”

  “Sure, Pa.”

  Nicholas forked a hand through his hair in agitation. “I thought, so long as I was here in England, I’d try to find out who my real father is.”

  “Jehoshaphat, Pa! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Was that who you were looking for in London?”

  “There’s a man called Estleman, who seems to have spent some time here at Severn Manor about the time … And it seems he looks a good deal like me. Or I look like him. Anyway, there’s a chance he could be my father.” Nicholas sighed. “I heard he lived in London, so I went looking for him there.”

  “If he lives there, why didn’t you find him, Pa?”

  Nicholas grimaced. “He lives there, all right. He just happens to be away at the moment. In India.”

  “India? I don’t remember exactly where that is, Pa.”

  “A long way from England.”

  “When’s he coming back?”

  “In the spring.”

  Colin crossed and dropped onto the settee. “Jehoshaphat! No wonder you were mad as a hornet when you got home. You must have been thinking you’d finally be getting an answer and then got nothing. You shouldn’t have taken it out on Daisy, though.”

  Nicholas was struck by Colin’s words. Was that what he had done? Taken out his frustration with finding Estleman gone to India on Daisy? No. She had deserved everything he had said to her. She had reneged on their bargain.

  When he had woken to find her gone from The Wolf and the Lamb, he had thought she might merely have been too shy to face him, and had gone down to breakfast in their private parlor. It wasn’t until he dressed and headed downstairs that he realized she had flown the coop, like a chicken that suspects why it’s been invited for Sunday dinner. When he found, to his amazement and chagrin, that she had commandeered his carriage, he suspected she had gone home.

  His first instinct had been to go after her. But it was humiliating to have to chase after your wife. He wasn’t about to face all the servants at Severn with egg on his face. He didn’t like lies, and he wasn’t sure what the truth was. He had been angry enough that he figured it wouldn’t hurt either of them to have some time and distance between them.

  But why the hell had she left him in the first place? He hadn’t managed to scare the answer out of her this morning, but he intended to find out what had made her flee. Had he been too rough with her? He didn’t think so. He would have said she was as satisfied as he had been with their lovemaking. Not that he could recall much except sensations.

  He had never lost control with a woman as he had with Daisy. Nicholas frowned thoughtfully. Maybe he had hurt her. But he hadn’t meant to. And he intended to prove to her that he could be gentle. Tonight.

  It never occurred to him not to hold her to their bargain. He needed her like a desert needed water. He’d had a taste of her now, and he was a man starving for more. He hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind in London.

  Not that there hadn’t been temptations.

  He had called on the solicitor, Phipps, and had him track down Estleman. That had left him with little to keep him occupied. So he took in the sights he would have shown to Daisy, wondering how she would have liked the Thames, with its tide like an ocean, the Tower of London, the famous tombs at Westminster Abbey, and the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum.

  Nicholas missed her too much. He caught himself wanting to turn to her and explain something, or share some wonder that he found fascinating. He lost his appetite. He couldn’t sleep soundly at night. He was glad Daisy wasn’t with him when he awoke one night in a sweat, his heart pounding.

  The nightmare had come back.

  He managed to stay in London only because he knew he was very close to the end of his sojourn. That he might very well have an answer to the questions that had remained unanswered for so many years. And he had realized it was probably a good thing Daisy wasn’t with him. Because he had no idea how he was going to react when he came face to face with Estleman at last.

  Phipps had very nearly ended up being flattened when he announced that Estleman was in India until sometime in the spring.

  “Pa, there are a few things I think maybe I should mention to you.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Don’t get upset until you hear me out.”

  Nicholas leaned forward across the desk. “Why am I going to be upset?”

  “It was my idea.”

  Nicholas’s eyes narrowed. “What was your idea? Spit it out, Colin.”

  “While you were gone, Daisy went to visit the tenants, to talk about the change in crops, you know. Only, when we were riding over the land, it struck me again how much it’s like the hill country in Texas. Except for the stone fences, of course. And really, it’s more grass here than brush.”

  “Get on with it, Colin.”

  “Any
how, I had this idea and Daisy liked it, so we did it.”

  “Did what?”

  Colin took a deep breath and said, “Bought some cattle. Herefords, actually. Prettiest white-faced cows you ever saw, Pa.”

  Nicholas sat back and crossed his legs, a pose that should have given Colin warning that his father wasn’t hearing this news for the first time. “Didn’t that seem a rather radical step to you? These people are farmers, Colin.”

  “Not anymore,” he replied with a grin. “At least, some of them aren’t. Daisy and I figured five of the nine tenants ought to run cattle on their land. The rest can grow oats and hay to feed the stock. What do you think, Pa?”

  Nicholas pursed his lips. “It’s not a bad idea, Colin. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself.”

  Colin jumped to his feet. “Then you don’t mind, Pa? Daisy thought you’d be upset.”

  “She did, did she?” Nicholas said, hiding his grin behind his hand. “And she went ahead and did it anyway?”

  Colin gulped. “You aren’t going to get mad at her, are you, Pa?”

  “Don’t you worry about Daisy, son. I’ll take care of her.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Colin muttered.

  “What was that you said?”

  “Nothing, Pa.”

  Nicholas figured it was time to change the subject before he gave away the game. “It looks like everything’s set up for the party.”

  “Yeah. Everyone’s coming, Pa. All the neighbors from miles around, and the tenants, too. It’s going to be quite a shindig. I promised to help with the decorating in the ballroom, Pa. I’ve got to go.”

  “The ballroom?”

  “We’re having dancing with musicians and everything. I’ll get to try out some of the waltz steps Simp taught me. And Daisy helped me practice some English country dances.”

  Colin knew he wasn’t going to be able to avoid Lady Roanna at the reception as he had at the wedding. So he had made up his mind to dance with her, if she would, and enjoy her company. She couldn’t hurt him anymore. He had his heart safe behind high walls now.

  “It’s good to have you back, Pa,” Colin said as he headed from the room.

  Nicholas didn’t say it, but it felt good to be back. Especially when it had seemed for a moment in London like everything might be ripped away before he was ready to let it go. When he rode up the drive to the manor this morning, it had felt as if he were coming home. It had all looked so familiar. He could almost hear the whoops of laughter from Tony and Stephen. Almost hear his father shouting encouragement as they played cricket. The crack of the ball was real. And shattering glass, as he broke the leaded glass window in his mother’s bedroom.

  She had come downstairs with the ball, her face aglow with pride. “What a hit, Nicholas,” she said. And she had hugged him. His father had hugged her and whispered in her ear, and she had blushed and smiled and hurried back into the house.

  Tragically, that wasn’t the only happy memory he had at Severn Manor. Sometimes they bombarded him. He would walk into a room and see his family and his cousins’ family there. He would ride across a stream and remember lying there on his back, with his father beside him, fishing. It had been a glorious childhood. For eight years. Until some man, someone, had spoiled it all.

  Among those on a list Daisy had given him of guests she had invited to the reception were several “suspects” he had compiled with Charles and refined with Phipps in London. He would be terribly remiss not to investigate as many leads as he could at the party. Especially since the elusive Estleman could not be questioned for months. It would be a travesty if he ignored everyone else and then discovered Estleman knew nothing.

  Nicholas opened the desk drawer and pulled out the short list of men who might be able to shed light on his situation.

  Lord Prestyne

  Squire Templeton

  The Reverend Mr. Golightly

  Mr. Dabney

  Viscount Linden

  He would make the acquaintance of each one of them this evening. According to Charles, none of the men bore much resemblance to Nicholas, but that didn’t necessarily rule any of them out as his father. Except perhaps Mr. Golightly, who was old enough to be Nicholas’s grandfather. But the reverend had been here long enough to be in a position to know everything that had happened in the parish for the past twenty-seven years. Maybe tonight he would learn something about his past he didn’t already know.

  Anything was possible.

  Certainly tonight he would get some answers from Daisy about her flight from the inn. She wouldn’t dare to defy him. If she did, he would keep his promise and come after her. He could already feel her flesh, smell the scent she wore, imagine himself inside her.

  Nicholas laughed, a harsh, self-deprecating sound. What a fool he was. He wanted her so badly he was trembling at the thought of bedding her. He should leave Daisy alone. She was trouble.

  He laughed again. When had he ever turned his back on trouble? He had risked his life a dozen times for the reward to be had at the end of the trail. The reward of having Daisy in his bed, in his life, was definitely worth the risk of a little trouble.

  Of course, there was always the possibility she would give him more than a little trouble.

  Nicholas grinned. He was looking forward to it.

  16

  Nicholas admired Daisy as she descended the stairs. She was breathtakingly beautiful in an emerald gown that made her dark-lashed green eyes look huge and luminous. She had pulled her hair off her face, leaving only a few enticing tendrils that begged to be touched. Her lips were pink and swollen as though she had been well kissed, but he knew that wasn’t possible. He hadn’t seen her since early that morning. More likely she had been biting them in agitation. The love bruise he had given her on their wedding night was gone, and the dress exposed her bare shoulders and more bosom than he would have liked. She belonged to him. He didn’t care to share even that much of her with other men.

  Nicholas didn’t know where the possessive streak he felt toward Daisy came from. He certainly hadn’t felt that way toward any other woman, not even Colin’s mother. Of course, considering her profession, that would have been ridiculous.

  “Good evening, Your Grace,” Daisy said.

  Nicholas noticed her hand trembled slightly as she laid it in the callused palm he extended to her. “For tonight, do you think you could call me Nicholas? After all, we are husband and wife.”

  “If ever so briefly,” she shot back. Her green eyes flashed, and her swollen mouth flattened in a mulish cast.

  Nicholas smiled inside, but the expression never reached his mouth or eyes. This was the Daisy he was most familiar with, the prickly one that gave as good as she got. “Then let’s make the most of the time we have, shall we?” Nicholas whispered.

  He felt her shiver and saw her glance warily at him from the corner of her eye. There was nowhere she could run tonight. And she knew it.

  She reached up and touched a small cut on his jaw, then quickly withdrew her hand. “What happened to your face?”

  “Believe it or not, Porter cut me shaving,” Nicholas said. “He swore it’s the first time his hand has ever slipped.”

  “Oh, dear,” Daisy said.

  “It’s nothing. An accident.”

  “Oh, dear. I’m afraid it’s only the tip of the iceberg.”

  “What?”

  “You’ll see,” Daisy said enigmatically. Apparently the servants’ revenge for the duke’s behavior toward her had already begun.

  “Come, wife. Let’s go meet our guests.”

  Daisy wanted desperately to pull free of Nicholas, to run back upstairs and lock herself in her room. But that would accomplish nothing. She didn’t think a locked door would do much to hold him back if he wanted in. The best she could do was to put on a brave front and refuse to give him the satisfaction of knowing she was frightened.

  Only a few of the neighbors had been invited for supper. Everyone else was sch
eduled to arrive for the dance afterward. Nicholas and Daisy greeted each couple in the drawing room as they arrived. Charles and Priss were among the first to appear, along with the earl’s daughter, Lady Roanna.

  Daisy noticed that Roanna had eyes only for Colin, who was standing by the fireplace. As soon as the young woman had greeted Daisy, she headed toward him. Daisy didn’t have time to see how Colin greeted her because Priss claimed her attention.

  “How are you, Daisy?” Priss asked. “I must say marriage agrees with you,” she added after a searching look at Daisy’s face.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “You have a certain glow, of excitement, I suppose.”

  It was terror, actually. Daisy didn’t have time to correct Priss because the next guests were waiting to be greeted. “Hello, Mr. Golightly, Mrs. Golightly. It’s good to see you.”

  Mrs. Golightly dipped a quick curtsy, beaming at Daisy the whole time. “I’m so happy for your Grace. It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Imagine His Grace returning to Severn after all these years. And the two of you falling in love and getting married—it’s like a fairy tale ending.”

  Daisy stared at Mrs. Golightly, stunned. Where on earth had Mrs. Golightly gotten the impression that she and Nicholas were in love? Again, she wasn’t given time for a reply. The next couple to arrive were the first that Nicholas wasn’t already acquainted with, and Daisy needed to make introductions.

  “Your Grace, may I present Lord and Lady Prestyne?”

  Nicholas ignored Lady Prestyne and gave Lord Prestyne a searching look that he could see made the man uncomfortable. Nevertheless, he couldn’t help himself. He kept thinking that if he looked hard enough, he would see the answers he sought in some stranger’s eyes.

  Lord Prestyne was nearly as tall as Nicholas, but he had graying hair, which gave no clue to the color, and not much of that. His eyes were also gray, like Nicholas’s, but small and spaced close together. His nose was slightly bulbous, and his lips were thick and fleshy. If this was his father, Nicholas resembled him not at all.