Chapter 1
May 30, 1882
Brentwood Hall
Somerset, England
The sound of a woman’s laughter rang through him like the tinkling of chimes.Light, fantastical, amusing, Victor felt the trill of it in his bones but focused on his mother’s welcome.It had always been so easy to surrender to her crushing hugs.
“Darling, oh, you do look marvelous!”She drew away, grinned at him and patted his cheek.“Such a long sea voyage can debilitate one.”
“The carriage from the station in Bath was worse than our ship, I’m afraid.”He sank into the cushions of the sofa.He hadn’t been so at ease since he left his own house in the British Quarter.
“Oh, horrid, darling, but you’re home safe and sound.”She let her turquoise eyes feast on him while she hung onto his hands.
Victor let her get her fill.He’d always loved her, his father and siblings and this sprawling Palladian mansion she’d made into a haven.Away from the rush of London, it was quiet.Blissful compared to the cacophony in the streets of Shanghai.
“I’m so relieved you’ve come.Your Papa is upstairs in his sitting room, waiting to receive you.He’s feeling more chipper this morning in anticipation of your arrival.”
He squeezed her fingers.“I hurried from London as soon as I got your letter.He’s had another turn, has he?”
“Since his poor spell last month, he’s become more frail of body as well as of mind.”She shook her head, her large eyes hooded and weary.For a woman of fifty-one, she still did not look her age.With hair bright as old gold and eyes of turquoise, she’d always been a vision.That of course was the reason she’d attracted the widowered seventh duke of Brentwood only three months after his first wife’s death.To hear them tell the story of their first meeting, they’d fallen in love in an instant in the bank where her father and the duke kept their accounts.Impetuous as the duke was known to be, his second wife matched his impulsiveness.In the next month, he’d proposed and she’d accepted.Against all rules of mourning and decorum, they’d married two months later.Victor himself was the proof of their sexual attraction, his birth coming only months after their wedding.
But his father grew older and his temperament had changed.Victor understood from his mama that his father’s recent memory lapses had only increased his rash behaviors and his brother and two younger sisters bemoaned their father’s ailment.The man had been a firebrand and they missed his humor and his determination.
“He is much worse.”Her lower lip quivered, but she fought her tears.The fragrance of roses wafted into the conservatory from the open glass doors.
So did the sound of that young woman laughing…and she did so with young children.His own, he would wager.
“Tell me about his attacks.”Victor was eager to learn about the man he’d revered all his life, unhappy to note the discussion concerned that man’s failing health.He didn’t want to insult his father, nor antagonize him.The first he’d never had reason to do, but his mother had written him that the second was now easy to do.“What does the doctor say?I must know before I talk with him.”
“He seems to have moments when he is simply not with us.He stares into space, then suddenly returns, remembering bits of conversation from minutes before he drifted away.If you ask him about such lapses, he turns irritable.So you must be attentive to your conversation when he seems suddenly not to hear you.”
“Very well.I will.”
“He has a proposition for you.”
Victor sighed and brushed a speck of lint from his trousers.“The Welsh farms again?I don’t want to debate taking them over for him.I am no estate manager, Mama.”He’d gone to Shanghai years ago to make what fortune he could from business.That and to escape the detritus of Alicia’s scandals.
His mother patted his hand and her marvelous eyes twinkled.“Not that.Something else.”
He detected skullduggery, not unusual for his parents.“What have you and he concocted?”
“He will tell you.Swore me to secrecy, he did.When you go up, he’ll present it.”
He shook his head.“I don’t care to argue with him.”
“Then don’t.Listen to him.”She shook back her hair, her tiny pearl earrings dancing in the sunlight.“You’ll be intrigued.”
Will I?Few prospects catch my imagination.A long sleep by a quiet cove is the one that might.“For your sake, I’ll try to be.”
“Not just for my sake, but yours as well.The girls too.I’m so glad you sent the girls up to us while you finished your meetings in London.They’ve been a delight.To your father.Me.And Richard.”
“Ha-ha!”shouted a woman from the garden.“I see you, Viv.You are out!”
“No, no, no!”squealed his oldest daughter.
Gales of laughter filled the conservatory.
