“Well, your husband’s grandfather was married and sired four sons.However, his wife had died by the time he inherited the title.”She cleared her throat.“I expect having a wife would have interfered with his…er, habits.He did enjoy the ladies.”
Oh, yes.
The exploits of Alex’s grandfather were legendary.
This explained why the duchess quarters looked so very old and faded.
That debauched, old goat already had his heirs, all four sons, and saw no reason to take on another wife who might stifle his hedonistic pleasures.
No, the ladies who slept in here were merely temporary fixtures, and there was likely an endless parade of them.
Tulip felt a ripple of unease run up her spine.
She did not like this room.
“Your husband’s grandfather had thought to fix it up about twenty years ago,” Mrs.Granger commented.“He hired a young lady to decorate it and other portions of the house, but that plan fell aside.”
“Perhaps the room held too many ghosts.”
“Yes,” Tulip’s housekeeper said with a hint of sadness in her voice.
Did Mrs.Granger feel those cold prickles up her spine, too?
“We’ll get around to properly restoring the duchess bedchamber eventually,” Tulip remarked.“For now, I’ll just use the dressing area and store my clothes in the wardrobe.”
She was never going to sleep in here, however.
The mere thought of slipping under those bedcovers gave her the shivers.
She did not understand why this room left her feeling so cold, since Alex would never have anyone other than her reside in the duchess quarters.
And why should she care what the prior dukes had done with their ladies in here?
Perhaps it was the fact so many Davenport dukes had died tragic deaths in quick succession that rattled her.
But none of them had met their untimely end in here.
In fact, only Alex’s grandfather had died in the house.
Each of the others had died outdoors.
“I think I have seen enough here, Mrs.Granger.What is on the upper floor?”
The color drained from the housekeeper’s cheeks, but she quickly recovered.“Oh, nothing but the tower room,” she said with a casual gesture of dismissal.“No doubt soldiers were posted up there as lookouts for marauding invaders back when this place was first built.No one’s been up there in years.”
The door leading up to the tower room was locked when Tulip tried it.
“Your Grace, no!We shouldn’t go up there.Who knows what condition it is in?I’ll have one of the footmen inspect it first to make certain no vermin have taken up residence there.”
“All right,” Tulip said, sensing there could be more to this tower chamber than Mrs.Granger cared to reveal.
She would mention this to Alex.
They returned downstairs.
Mrs.Granger, aside from her obvious distress about that locked chamber, was proving to be quite pleasant.
She gave Tulip a tour of the main floor of the house whose rooms were mostly used for entertaining guests.They were as elegant as any found in the finest English manors nestled in the countryside but looked careworn.
