How to Deceive a Duke by Lecia Cornwall

Author:Lecia Cornwall [Cornwall, Lecia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-11-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

Nicholas found Tobias Simmons gazing at the portrait of David the next morning, his cap clutched in his hand.

“I was going to send a carriage for you, Toby,” Nicholas said quietly.

The old servant turned, and wiped his tears on his sleeve, but it wasn’t sorrow in his eyes, Nicholas realized. It was anger.

“Pardon me, Your Grace, I didn’t see you there,” he said stiffly.

Nicholas felt his gut clench. Did Toby blame him as well? The man had been like a father to him and David after their parents died, had loved them both. Nicholas didn’t care what the rest of the world thought, but this was Toby, the man who’d dried his tears, taught him to fish, told him stories. To see hatred in this man’s eyes was worse than seeing it in Granddame’s.

“Come and sit down,” he said. “I expect you know why I’ve come to Temberlay.”

Simmons remained where he was. “I’ll stand.”

Nicholas took a seat under the portrait, feeling David’s bland eyes on the back of his neck.

“You were at the duel.”

The old man’s lips twisted bitterly. “I was.”

“You’re an unusual choice of second, Toby.”

Tobias glanced up with fire in his eyes, then lowered them, remembering his place. “Lord David didn’t want to involve anyone else. He was too ashamed.”

“For Lady Julia’s sake?”

Simmons shook his head and slid his eyes to the portrait above Nicholas’s head. “He made me swear not to tell anyone. With his last breath, he did.”

“Was it Lord Wilton who ruined Lady Julia? Or Lord Howard? Or the Earl of Wycliffe, perhaps?” Nicholas persisted.

Tobias looked surprised, then indignant. “So you know them all, do you? It wasn’t any of them. That gentleman did not arrive. His Grace challenged the men you mentioned for quite another reason.”

Nicholas clenched his fist, felt the ducal ring press into his flesh.

“Even if it breaks my word, I will speak,” Tobias said. “His Grace wouldn’t have been there at all that morning—wouldn’t have died—if it weren’t for what you did. You as good as killed him!”

Nicholas sat very still. Granddame had said the same thing. “I was in Spain, Toby, at war. How could I have caused any of it?”

“I heard Lord Wilton say it. He told David everything you did. You took his wife in adultery. Lady Wilton said that his child wasn’t his at all, but yours, gotten in wicked sin. Yes, you were out of the country when it was all found out, but what were you up to before you left? Since you were out of reach, Wilton decided that Lord Davy must be punished in your stead.” He choked on the nickname he’d had for David as a boy, and wiped his eyes angrily.

Nicholas’s heart froze in his chest. He’d never even met her. “That’s not possible.”

“I heard them say it!” Tobias insisted. “And you cheated Lord Howard at cards. He wanted revenge too, and joined Lord Wilton to ruin poor Lord David.”

Nicholas braced himself. “And Wycliffe? What is it I did to him, Toby?”

“Nothing I know of.

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