“Cunningness!”
“Yes. I see your brother at meals and other odd times. He is a highly intelligent man. He is not the absent-minded academic the family joke him to be.”
“Oh, you don’t know Lord Malmsby. He is absent-minded.”
“If something does not interest him, he will not do it. He’ll wait and see if someone else will pick up that task. He has excellent stewards in place on his estates, true?”
“Yes, he has some of the best managed properties in the entire country.”
“Who hired them?”
“He did, in consultation with his solicitors.”
“And you assumed it was more solicitors than Lord Malmsby, didn’t you?” Bella smiled. “You should talk to those solicitors. Does he ignore his parliamentary commitments?”
“No. He votes, but he is not active in debates and discussions.”
“Are his friends?”
Aidan laughed. “Yes, he has some rabble-rousers among his associates. Makes one wonder why they keep him in the group.”
“They do because he is their leader,” Bella said. “Aidan, you have been so busy doing the mundane activities for the Duke you do not see what he really does! Consider where his study was when his children were little—on the same floor as their nursery, where he could watch over them and the staff taking care of them. What absent-minded academic does that? What peer does that?
“And what about his insistence that his son represent him at social events? I’m sure he had a delightfully rambling explanation of why this had to be, when in truth, it is so Lord Lakehurst might find his future wife. He knows that, with his writer’s temperament, Lord Lakehurst would be more inclined to stay home and write, versus socializing, especially given the fantastic stories he writes. I am in awe of the cleverness of your brother. I’m surprised your mother hasn’t taken him into hand yet. The man should remarry.”
Aidan laughed. “That won’t happen!”
“Maybe not, but it should. But we are not talking of the Duke. We are talking of you, Aidan. I am hoping we may be friends. You deserve the happiness I see others in your family have found. There is no reason you should be different from the others.”
“I’ve missed you, Bella,” Aidan said suddenly. “Even when I hated you, I missed you.”
She looked away for a moment, then looked back at him. “As have I, you,” she confessed. “But Aidan, we are not the people we were three years ago. It is time both of us looked to our own happiness, unfettered from outside influences. I hope we can support each other in this.”
Aidan gazed at her. His heart had not changed. He thought he loved her more now, loved the woman she had become more than the girl he’d courted. He took a deep, silent breath. “Yes, we can,” he softly said. Then, briskly, “We’d best find Mr. Martin and see what he wants to do next, and tell him about your finding.”
“Yes.”
Together, they walked back to the terrace, where they found Mr. Martin inspecting the area around the bench.
“Nothing to find around here,” Mr. Martin told them as they walked up the steps. “Your brother’s servants were evidently quite efficient this morning,” he said, pointing to the scrubbed and swept terrace.
“Yes, but Lady Blessingame found something the servants haven’t cleaned up yet,” Nowlton said.
Mr. Martin looked at her.
“This way,” Bella said, leading him to the door that led into the Lady Margaret Parlor. “Lady Malmsby had not wanted to encourage use of this room, so they kept it dark and closed last night.” She opened the door. “You will notice, Mr. Martin, how quiet the door is. Now look at the floor beyond the door.”
Mr. Martin squatted down to better look at the outside debris now in the room.
“This is my mother’s favorite room,” Aidan said. “She is particular about how this room is kept up.”
“But this room has not been cleaned,” Mr. Martin stated.
“It shouldn’t have needed a cleaning if no one came in it during the ball.”
“Yes, I see what you mean.”
From the music room came the strains of a violin.
