“Well, I suppose I did, but the other two of my little company, my fellow chimney sweeps, they both drank too much, gambled too much, stole things, and got themselves killed—one in a duel, one strung up for horse thievery, before they were seventeen years old. I was the only one who was successful. And you know why I think it was?”
“Obviously we don’t,” said Elizabeth.
“Because of me,” said Neithern. “If I could deceive everyone I was a duke, you could do the same.”
“You weren’t a duke yet. Your father was still alive,” said Houseman. “And it was more that I wished to see you again, and I couldn’t do that if I couldn’t be accepted into your society. I had to have enough money that such a thing was conceivable, which was not an easy task, you know. I had to make quite a great deal of money.”
“But you didn’t,” said Neithern. “You have avoided me.”
“Ah, yes,” said Houseman, sighing. “Well, I suppose there’s another wrinkle this story, that I shall share with you at this point. After all, there is no point in concealing it any longer.”
“What is it?” said Neithern.
“It’s to do with your uncle,” said Houseman. “Bishop Sulles. The Right Reverend Sulles, we may call him, I suppose.”
Neithern furrowed his brow. “I’ve not spent much time with him, truthfully. My grandmother always said it was better to limit my time with him.”
“He saw me and suspected something,” said Houseman. “As many have noticed, we look alike. And that was when I realized that what I was doing to you was no favor. I was ruining you. I had already built this house, however, and I…” He groaned. “I do like to watch you, to see you from afar, I suppose?”
“How were you ruining me?” said Neithern.
“Well, if I were to show myself, to come into your life and tell you the truth of yourself, it would only harm you. If anyone else discovered the truth, you would be stripped of your title and your place in society. I had no wish to do that to you.”
Neithern nodded slowly.
“Bishop Sulles knows?” said Elizabeth.
“He doesn’t know everything, but he knows enough to make guesses that are too close to the truth,” said Houseman. “He knew that I was being denied a box at The King’s Theatre—these things are inherited by families, after all, and I was not proper enough or from the right blood enough to be able to have one. He said he could make it happen for me if I were to cooperate with him. He wishes, you see, to be the duke himself.”
“Of course,” said Neithern. “In fact, he should be the duke, should he not? He should have inherited. I am an imposter.”
“Well, the man has entirely too much power as it is,” said Houseman. “He is not a good man, you see. He has…” He shook his head and Caroline could see that his face had drained of blood. It was entirely white. “I drank with him once. I saw what he did to the women he hired for sport. It was appalling.”
“So,” said Elizabeth, “when your grandmother said that she didn’t wish either of her sons to be the duke, she had reason. They were both afflicted in similar ways.”
“She isn’t my grandmother,” muttered Neithern.
“Now, now, none of that,” said Houseman. “However this came about, it is yours now, and I don’t wish to take it from you.”
“Yes, but it really shouldn’t be!” cried Neithern.
“Certainly, it should. It was purchased through the suffering of our mother,” said Houseman. “She bought it for you, in fact.”
Neithern bowed his head, seemingly having no answer for this.
“So, none of that,” said Houseman again, quietly. “It is yours. You are the Duke of Neithern. Nothing needs to change.”
“Everything has, of course,” said Neithern. “This is why I say she isn’t my grandmother, because she is not the same. I would never have described the woman as warm or attentive, of course, but compared to now? Well, there is a change in her, at any rate, and I think she feels differently towards me. She only agrees to keep the scheme going forward because to admit otherwise would damage the reputation of the family.”
“Well, it has been a shock for her to discover these things, undoubtedly,” said Houseman. “But things may indeed settle back to something resembling normal.”
“What about Bishop Sulles?” said Elizabeth.
“Well, I have refused to help him,” said Mr. Houseman. “I only wish I could have realized before I went to the expense of having this house built right here, so close to you. It is entirely too dangerous, having us associated the way we are.”
“Would Sulles expose all of this, however?” said Elizabeth. “Would he destroy his own family’s reputation, knowing that afterwards, he would be the duke of a disgraced name?”
“I think his scheme leaned more towards the idea of using me to convince you to run off and live on the continent, andto pretend you were dead or something of that nature,” said Houseman. “I do not think he wished public exposure of all of this.”
