To Desire a Wicked Duke (Courtship Wars)
“Well, I only began forming a plan yesterday. You were mistaken earlier in the carriage. I was not stewing about our marriage. I was thinking about how to unite Fanny and Basil.”
A devilish light entered Rotham’s eyes. “So you are set on playing matchmaker?”
“What if I am?”
“You know you cannot save everyone, sweetheart.”
Tess gave him a quelling look. “Your cynicism is showing again, Rotham.”
“As is your idealism. You want to be a champion for true love.”
“I do indeed. I am determined to help my friends. Simply because I have lost any chance for love and happiness in marriage does not mean that Fanny must.”
A muscle flexed in Rotham’s jaw, but he made no comment.
Tess softened her tone. “Fanny has been extremely good to me. I owe her a debt for supporting me during the darkest period of my life, when I lost Richard so shortly after losing my mother.”
She was not playing on Rotham’s sympathies unfairly, Tess thought defensively. It was true that Fanny had helped significantly to bring her back to life and diminish her sorrow.
Rotham’s expression had turned enigmatic again, though, making Tess doubt that she was persuading him. Taking a breath, she tried a different tack.
“If nothing else, I believe I can help Fanny become more respectable by offering her my patronage. Until now I have been compelled to avoid her in public. I have visited her home in St. John’s Wood upon occasion, but I had to do so in secret. Because of my charities, I could not afford to be seen with a former Cyprian. It was immensely frustrating.”
“I imagine it was.”
She shot him a suspicious look. “No doubt you find my predicament amusing. You have never had to curtail your friendships to protect your reputation. You have no reputation to speak of.”
“Thankfully I have not.”
Tess couldn’t tell if he was mocking her again. “I warn you, Rotham, even if you disapprove of my continued association with Fanny, I don’t mean to give up my friendship solely because I am now your duchess.”
“I have no intention of dictating your choice of friends, sweeting.”
She felt a tension inside her ease.
“So you are set on making Fanny and her suitor one of your projects,” he prodded.
“Yes. I may as well use my new position to help them.” Tess fell silent for a moment, contemplating her unwanted fate. As a duchess, she might also have more freedom to be her own mistress—at least if Rotham’s word could be trusted.
Eventually a sigh escaped her. “I am becoming resigned to our union. You were right. There is little use crying over what cannot be changed.”
“I suppose that is progress,” Rotham murmured in a dry undertone. “So what do you wish of me?”
“I want your permission to invite Fanny to Falwell Castle. I will understand if you balk at inviting her into any of your main homes, which is your right. In fact, I thought of inviting Fanny to Bellacourt to keep me company here, but she advised against it. Yet allowing her to visit your remote castle in Cornwall is not the same thing. And it could be beneficial for Fanny.…”
Once the main course of roasted pheasant and fricassee of venison was brought in, Tess told Rotham more about Fanny’s new career as a Gothic novelist.
“And writing about the dungeon at Falwell would benefit her?” he asked.
“Yes. Dungeons are excellent settings for Gothics, and haunted dungeons would be doubly exciting for Fanny’s readers. Falwell Castle is said to be haunted. Supposedly your servants have sighted the ghost of one of your late ancestors.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“Hennessy told me. He is interested in the spirit world and has investigated ghost sightings around England and Scotland. In fact, he based the play he wrote for Lady Wingate’s house party on his research. Is there any truth to the rumors about ghosts at Falwell?”
“My steward has reported hearing ghosts there these past few months, but I haven’t had time to examine the matter yet.”
Tess decided this was not the time to mention Hennessy’s desire to explore Falwell’s purported ghost, but Fanny’s need was another situation altogether. “Well, haunted or not, your castle could offer the perfect atmosphere for Fanny’s creative endeavors and perhaps provide material for her plots.”