“Yes, my lord. The London house on Putnam Place is yours, rather it is yours for your lifetime.”
“I quite understand. Aught else?”
“There is a hunting box in Cornwall that is entailed, near St. Ives, I believe, and some two thousand acres of rich farmland. There is nothing else, my lord. I’m sorry.”
“There is not a single bloody sou for the upkeep of this monstrosity of a house?”
Mr. Wicks said slowly, “Your uncle, the former earl, feared that you would simply consign him to the devil if he left you nothing to keep up the entailed properties. Thus, he has left me the trustee for all the Wyndham properties, monies, houses, possessions. I am also Lady Duchess’s trustee and guardian until she reaches her majority. When she reaches the age of twenty-one, she is to act in joint trusteeship with me to oversee all the entailed Wyndham holdings. The incoming principle from all the Wyndham holdings is excellent and continues to grow each year. There are properties in Devon, Sussex, and Oxfordshire. However, my lord, the monies are not within your discretion.”
Marcus said nothing. Indeed, he looked rather bored, dismissing both them and the killing blow struck him by his uncle, long-dead, no longer here to gain his vengeance.
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned a negligent shoulder against the mantel. He laughed then, a very soft, bitter laugh. “You were wrong, Duchess. Will you now admit that he hated me? Will you admit that this is no simple nose-rubbing? The bastard—no insult intended to you, Duchess—the bloody damned bastard hated so much that I would succeed him that he has turned me into a poor relation, dependent on Mr. Wicks here for the very bread I eat, for any repairs I deem necessary to make, for the payment of all our servants. And doubtless dependent on you, his bastard, for any crumbs you would wish to throw my way, all this because of his hatred for me. He has crushed the hopes of his own progeny and future Wyndham generations.”
Mr. Wicks looked unutterably depressed. “Let me say, my lord, that I argued vigorously with your uncle, but he wouldn’t be swayed. He did hold you in remarkable dislike, I will admit that. However, he did agree to leave you a, er, quarterly allowance.”
Marcus looked primed for violence. “No wonder you all but laughed at me last night, Duchess, with me going on and on about becoming your guardian, providing you a dowry, protecting you as I now must protect my family. Now you have everything. Now you no longer need a man to see to your needs. Yes, you must have found all my prosings quite entertaining.”
“No, I did not. You must allow me to explain, Marcus.”
To her surprise, he managed to say with the utmost calm, “I don’t think so, Duchess. Well, I
believe that I will consider this. Good day to you, Mr. Wicks.”
“But, my lord, there is more. You must stay! You must listen to me!”
“Even more than this? I think not, Mr. Wicks. I think I am quite up to my craw with your revelations.” He nodded to her, then strode from the room, not looking back.
Mr. Wicks shook his head. “It wasn’t an honorable thing your father did, my dear. Certainly making you legitimate was well done of him. Providing you a substantial dowry would have been proper, but this—leaving you everything and leaving his lordship an allowance, nothing more, leaving him the supplicant for any funds he will need—it is abominable.”
She was staring, unseeing, at the toes of her dark blue slippers that peeped from beneath her gown. “You didn’t tell me all of it, Mr. Wicks. You gave me no hint of what my father had done. You simply told me that he had left me quite a rich young lady, nothing more. What he has done is reprehensible. I won’t allow it. I won’t be a party to it.” She looked at him full in the face now and her look was fierce. “Listen to me, sir. I fully intend to undo all that he did. Marcus doesn’t deserve to be served such a turn. I refuse to allow him to be beggared. The nerve of my father blaming Marcus simply because he wasn’t there, possibly to drown along with his cousins.
“You and I controlling his purse strings? You and I giving the earl of Chase an allowance? No, it is hideous. I will see it undone immediately.”
She rose and began pacing. He’d never seen her so animated before. She turned suddenly and said in a deep commanding voice, “See to it, Mr. Wicks. You can leave me something, but all the monies, all the other houses and properties, any and all holdings must be returned to Marcus.”
Mr. Wicks said very gently, “I’m sorry, my dear, but I cannot.”
“What do you mean you cannot?”
“Your father foresaw that you could possibly react in this manner. He knew you were good-hearted, loyal, if you will, to your cousin. He said that if you refused the complete inheritance and all responsibilities it carried with it, then it would all be turned over to the wife of his youngest brother who died some five years ago, the wife and children living in the Colonies.”
She took the sheet of paper from him and read: Mrs. Wilhelmina Wyndham of Fourteen Spring Street, Baltimore, Maryland.
“There is quite a large family, I understand. Three children born of the union.”
“But I have never heard of this Wilhelmina, who would be my aunt.”
Mr. Wicks cleared his throat. “Well, it seems the late earl’s youngest brother was what one calls a gamester, a bad penny. He lost everything, including an inheritance from a distant aunt, and his father ordered him gone. He went to the Colonies. There he met Wilhelmina Butts and married her. To be blunt, Grant Wyndham was your father’s favorite brother, despite his dispossession by your grandfather. He thought it would be a great joke to bring his rakehell brother’s family back here, give them all the money—that is, ma’am, if you refuse to accept the responsibilities he’s laid upon you.
“You see that your hands and mine are tied. I will assure you, Duchess, that I would never treat his lordship as a pensioner, despite my issuance of a quarterly allowance for his personal use. I won’t treat him like a poor relation. I won’t be a tyrant about funds that he needs for maintenance or repairs for the entailed properties or lands. In short, I will consider his pride of the utmost importance.”
“You don’t know Marcus, Mr. Wicks. No matter your assurances, your kindness and understanding, he won’t accept it, ever. Marcus is a very proud man, but he’s even more than that, he’s perhaps excessively principled and holds himself to the highest standards. He’s actually quite magnificent.”
Mr. Wicks looked at her oddly, but just for a moment, then said, “Perhaps he won’t accept this. But then again, duty is a powerful thing. Does he want to see a vast estate gutted? I hope not. I do fear, however, and I said this to your father, that after I have gone to my heavenly reward, the man who takes my place may consider himself a very powerful being indeed and treat the earl like some sort of indigent charity. I fear that. As I recall, your father merely rubbed his hands together and laughed.”
“You have considered this a great deal, Mr. Wicks. Have you found no way out of the mess for Marcus?”
He brightened at that. “Oh yes, indeed, there is a way, yes. Your father, after he laughed, told me what he planned, but you and the earl won’t perhaps be inclined to, er, follow through with it.”