Page 35 of The Duke’s Hidden Duchess

She rose, because the moment had grown too large to remain seated within it.

“We are becoming friends, Your Grace, beneath all the strategy, and I placed no provision for that in our agreement. I am beginning to discover how much of the important business I neglected to put into writing.”

“You omitted all of it,” Nathaniel said. “Every term which matters has been made since the wedding; in libraries, passages and parks, without a solicitor in sight.”

She wished him good night and went upstairs. Upon the landing, she remained for a while with one hand resting upon the rail, listening to the silence of the room below.

***

The note arrived the following morning. It was written upon plain, unscented paper and addressed in a hand she had not seen for years but recognised at once. Selina stood in the hall for some time before opening it.

The four lines within were courteous and cold. With the false humility of a man convinced that he held the stronger hand, her cousin enquired whether the new Duchess of Wexford would receive the Earl of Merrow upon a matter of family business which it would distress them both to conduct through solicitors.

Selina had not seen Giles since the year her father was hanged. He had come to the house then to determine what might be salvaged and had departed with two paintings and no offer of assistance.

Selina read the note again.

Giles had never approached anyone unless he believed himself to possess an advantage. She did not know what he wanted from her now, but the courtesy of his language made her trust him less, not more.

She folded the note and placed it in her pocket, then immediately withdrew it and read the four lines once more. A housemaid entered carrying a coal scuttle, saw her standing motionless beside the hall table and quietly retreated through another door.

Selina had faced every consequence of her father’s fall alone. She need not face Giles in the same manner.

She rang for a footman. They had promised one another companionship and no lies, and the truth was that her cousin’s letter had alarmed her.

When the servant appeared, she placed the note upon his tray. “Take this to His Grace and ask him to join me in the drawing room when he has read it.”

Chapter Ten

Nathaniel still held the note when he entered the drawing room, and he did not return it.

“You will not receive him alone. On that point, I will not be persuaded. You may conduct the meeting and say whatever must be said, but I shall remain in the room. I will be silent unless you look to me; or unless I believe you to be in danger.”

Selina stood at the window with her back towards him, one hand closed around the edge of the curtain. She had sent him the note almost as soon as it arrived. He understood what it must have cost her and did not remark upon it.

“I had intended to ask the same of you. I wished only to establish that you would not use your presence to take the meeting from me. Giles will expect a duke to speak over his wife. He has known women spoken over all his life. It will unsettle him to discover that you intend to let me speak, and I want him unsettled.” She turned from the window. “You are therefore to sit in your chair and remain magnificently, expensively silent unless I give you cause to do otherwise.”

“I can be silent.” Nathaniel placed Giles’s note upon the table between them. “It is very nearly the only social accomplishment I possess.”

He drew another folded paper from inside his coat.

“There is something else you must know before he arrives. Sowerby sent his preliminary report two days ago. Rowland is deeply in debt, and the largest of his obligations is held by Giles.”

Selina released the curtain. “You have known this for two days?”

“Yes.”

“And you did not tell me.”

“I wanted to know whether the connection was more than coincidence before placing your cousin’s name before you.” Nathaniel held out the report. “That was not my decision to make. I should have told you when it arrived.”

“No,” she said, taking the paper. “It was not.”

She read the relevant passage twice.

“Do you believe Giles is directing him?”

“I believe Giles possesses the means to do so. We have no proof that he has used it.”