“I suppose so,” said Neithern.
“It is odd that he bought this house right next to yours.”
“He had this house built, in fact,” said Neithern, peering up at it. “Would you believe that? It’s only four years old. Have you ever slept in such a new house before now?”
She looked at the house, which didn’t look new to her eyes, she supposed. It had been built in the style of an old manor house, but now that she scrutinized it, she could see that it did not have the wear of the old houses, truly. “He had this built? What an expense.”
“Yes, yes, he’s very rich and very eager to flaunt it,” said Neithern. “But I like him, Houseman, I must say. I like him fine.”
“He seems quite polite and agreeable,” said Elizabeth, who was still looking at the house. “Well, he knew that you lived there, and he built this house butting up against your lands, and you both look alike. And it’s only a coincidence?”
The duke laughed. “I have this theory about the human race, that we are cursed with a capacity to look for meaning positively everywhere, even in places where there is no meaning at all. We look for meaning to ease our pain, but we end up creating meaning instead, and these created meanings cause us more pain.”
“Creating what meaning?” She was confused. She turned back to look at him.
“Well, take for instance the entire idea of the peerage or of wealth, in general.” He gestured. “Did our families, Miss Bennet, yours and mine, deserve this wealth anymore than Houseman did?”
“I…” She furrowed her brow. “No one would think of me as wealthy exactly, Your Grace.”
“No one?” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Your servants would not? The butcher would not?”
She bowed her head. “W-well, I suppose I see what you are saying, but most of it isn’t really mine anyway, and I am not in materially a better position than many. I feel rather precarious almost all of the time, in truth.”
He raised his eyebrows. “And you were asking about whether or not I walked in the mornings? This was not because you wished to throw yourself in my path and attempt to charm me into marrying you?”
She felt herself blushing. “Trust me, Your Grace, I could not marry you.”
“No?” He considered. “Pity that, I think. You intrigue me.”
She turned on him sharply, shaking her head. “No, Your Grace. Don’t say that. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
He stepped closer to her. “Explain yourself, Miss Bennet.”
She shook her head. She couldn’t just come out with it, that she was his half-sister. Even if he believed her, after she’d just said that thing about feeling precarious, about not beingwealthy. He would think she wished his family to give her some kind of dowry, to acknowledge her. “I cannot explain, Your Grace.”
“Why not?”
She swallowed. “There are secrets that I feel that I must not reveal, I suppose. And please do not press me on this.”
“Secrets,” he repeated. “I have secrets, too, Miss Bennet. How about if I reveal something to you and then you will have that to hold over me.”
“No, Your Grace, I don’t think—”
“My father,” he said.
“What about your father?” she said, breathless.
“He was mad,” said Neithern. “He was kept locked away for my whole life, locked up in a tower, the doors padlocked, served only by strong male servants. One would hold him down while the other brought his food and cleaned his chamberpots. They let him out sometimes, for various social functions, when I was young, but he always fouled them up in some way so eventually, they never let him out. And then, he died.”
She was stunned by this. “Mad? Locked up, you say?”
“I don’t have to tell you, Miss Bennet, that if news of this were common knowledge, it would not look good for my family. If it does get out, I shall know it was you who spread the tale. I shan’t be pleased.”
“I would never do that,” she said.
“Well? Why shouldn’t I marry you?”
Elizabeth opened her mouth, ready to tell him the truth, because this secret about their father explained why it was that her mother felt free to live her life without worry that the late duke would come after her. If she had known her husband was locked away, she would not have feared his reprisal.
