The Duke in Disguise by Gayle Callen

Author:Gayle Callen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Meriel managed to avoid the Impostor Duke for the three days leading up to his dinner party. She had a few scattered conversations about the duke's brother with several stable hands and grooms, but most were too young to remember. A boy suggested that the head coachman knew Mr. O'Neill, but Meriel had not been able to find time to interview him. Stephen's welfare was more important than her investigating. She always had to make sure that the boy wasn't alone with the Impostor Duke.

The day before the dinner party, Nurse Weston took Stephen so that Meriel could go for a walk. Meriel headed straight for the stables. She had brought tarts from the kitchen on the pretext that Mrs. Theobald had sent them. Luckily, she found the coachman alone in his coach house office, and she gave him his tart. He was an older gentleman, still trim, his livery clean and pressed.

After putting aside the harness buckles he was polishing, he grinned and ate half the tart in one bite.

Meriel smiled at him and began to nibble on her own. "Mrs. Theobald can be very thoughtful," she said.

He nodded and took another bite.

"You deserve it, after you've helped look after Stephen when he wanders the estate."

He shrugged. "I don't mind."

"Were you here when the duke was young?"

He nodded and reached for another tart.

"It must have been even more work for you, what with two curious boys."

"They weren't bad, though the duke himself could be a regular mischief maker."

Meriel smiled. "I hear he liked to pretend to be his brother."

"He was good at it, too. Not so much the other way around. Master Richard didn't like to tease people."

"Have you seen him lately?"

"In London, on occasion, when the brothers meet." He sat back and closed his eyes in thought. "Master Richard had the newest carriage when I saw him six months ago. Four horses that put ours to shame, they did. It's good to see him doing well for himself."

Meriel gave her excuse of passing out the rest of the tarts and took her leave of the coachman.

So Mr. O'Neill was still wealthy, at least a few months ago. It would be hard to imagine a man losing so much in the brief time since the coachman had seen him. Meriel's own father had tried to correct his financial fate for years, until it had all fallen apart.

Money didn't seem to be a strong enough reason for Mr. O'Neill's masquerade. Another reason could be the power of the dukedom, but if it were that, Mr. O'Neill must be biding his time, for he hadn't exercised much power. What made more sense was that he thought he was a better duke than his brother was, and needed to prove it.

But where was the real duke? Did every second's delay put him in greater danger?

* * *

The next day, the dinner guests started to arrive early in the evening. Richard moved between the small chatting groups in the drawing room, feeling more and more at ease when no one seemed uneasy or overly curious.

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