“You aren’t the person who started the rumor about me being a rake, then?”
“No! I heard it from Juniper Mills. I didn’t know if it was true or not, and I confess I asked someone—well, all right, a couple of people—whether they had heard the same thing. But most people seemed to know already. Forgive me, Your Grace. I suppose I thought it wasn’t much of a secret.”
Levi sighed. This was exhausting. It was leading him around in circles. “Tell me exactly what was said to you. Word for word, if you can.”
Holloway nodded. “Juniper told me that he wondered whether the duke had a girl in the country. I asked what he meant, and then he said, “Everyone knows His Grace is a rake and a rowdy,” which I thought was a funny way to put that. What an odd phrase. Never heard such a statement before.”
Levi nodded—thatwasan odd detail. “When you repeated the story, did you use the same phrase?”
“Your Grace, I apologize for my indiscretion.”
“Never mind that. You’re forgiven. Just answer the question.”
Holloway shook his head. “Just spoke naturally,” he said. “I said I’d heard you might have a girl out here in the country and wondered whether your new duchess knew about that.”
“You will not malign the duchess by telling such stories again.”
“No, I won’t,” Holloway agreed.
“Good. Because you might find your taxes doubled if you do.”
Levi stormed away. What good had any of that been? He was no nearer to an answer. The only thing he’d really gained was thatbizarre phrase—a rake and a rowdy—but what use was that, really? An odd way to speak, to be sure, but Levi knew no one who talked that way. It brought him no closer to discovering who was behind the rumors. And until he found the person responsible for propagating them, he knew he had no hope of putting a stop to them.
“Mother, stop that. Have you considered that the reason all your things are fraying is that you keep fussing with them?”
Levi’s mother couldn’t seem to stop fidgeting with the napkin in her lap, pulling it into her hands and threading it through her fingers. She scowled at Levi. “You don’t tell me how to behave in my own house,” she said.
“You don’t tellmehow to behave, in this house or any other, he countered. “Remember your place, Mother.”
“How can I do anything but? You never let me forget it. I think you are uncommonly fixated on keeping me in my place, truth be told,” she said. “If you didn’t need me to be kept low, I could be living a very different life.”
Levi sighed. “We aren’t going to have this argument all over again.” He picked up his wine and took a long drink of it. “I want to have a peaceful lunch and then return to the business of trying to control the rumors slandering my name. If it’s not possible to have a peaceful lunch here then I will do so elsewhere.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Levi. I haven’t disturbed your peace.” She took a sip of her own wine. “And as for the rumors that you are a rake and a rowdy, well, I’m sure you’ll put a stop to them soon enough.”
Levi sat frozen for a moment, unable to speak. Finally, he found words. “Mother…what was that you called me?”
“A rake and a rowdy? Is that not what people are saying?”
He couldn’t believe it. She had used that odd phrase—why? How? Surely she couldn’t be the person responsible for the rumors. She had harsh beliefs about men, and maybe she thought they were true of him, but she also cared deeply for the family’s good name. She would never say anything that could reflect poorly on any of them. She had too much self-consciousness for that.
“Where did you hear that?” he asked. “Who said that to you?”
“Why are you getting so upset? Isn’t that what people are saying?”
Not all people. Only those who heard the rumor before Holloway did.
Which meant that his mother might have heard it directly from the source. “Mother…where did you hear those words? Who said that to you?”
“Oh, who can remember something like that?”
“Please, try.”
“I think it must have been your cousin,” she mused. “Charles was out here several months ago and we discussed those rumors. You know, it’s very disappointing that he visits me more often than you do. I’m sure if he had been fortunate enough to inherit your dukedom he would see to it that I have everything I want.”
Levi shook his head, ignoring that last statement. “Truly, it was Charles who said this to you?”
“That’s right.”
