“Already seen to it, my lord.” She scraped the chunks of root vegetables into a bowl and wiped her hands on her apron. “He seems in fine spirits, and glad I am to see it.”
“Yes,” Drake agreed, admiring his uncle’s ability to survive any and everything with defiant jauntiness. He exited the kitchen and squinted as he stepped into the sunny garden. The day was bright. He just wished his spirits were as well. “Good afternoon, Uncle.”
Uncle George looked up from his book. “Well? How did it go? Will the first of the banns be announced this Sunday?”
“She knows.”
“She knows what?” Uncle George closed his book and set it on the table beside his chair.
“Lady Felicity and her sister peered into our garden yesterday. They saw its condition.”
“Did you tell her we are simply caught midway in finding moreservants to tend it?” Uncle George nervously patted his blanket-covered knees. “Good servants are often difficult to find. I feel sure she would find that an acceptable answer.”
Drake snorted and flicked a hand at the weed-choked garden. “This mess cannot be explained away as a few weeks of inattention.”
Uncle shook his head. “Nonsense. With the Wakefield charm, you can convince her of anything. Put some effort into it, boy.”
“I do not like lying to her,” Drake said through clenched teeth. “She deserves better.”
His uncle’s bushy gray brows knotted over his bruised and blackened eyes. He sadly shook his head. “You like her—a dangerous thing, boy.”
Unable to sit, Drake paced up and down the path of cracked flagstones. “I do indeedlike her, but it no longer matters. She made herself quite clear today. She wants nothing to do with me.”
“She said that?”
“She did not have to.” Drake scraped his tongue on his teeth, still tasting that deadly biscuit.
Uncle George shrugged and picked up his book. “Ah well, there are other dowries out there, and you do not necessarily need tolikeyour wife, you know. That is what mistresses are for.”
“That is disgusting.”
“That is a fact of life, boy. Your father dying while pining away for your mother is a rarity.”
“A rarity I would like to find for myself.”
Drake’s uncle blew out a huff that sounded like a hissing kettle. “Nonsense. Money first, boy. Everything else will fall in place as long as you have money.”
Drake had never realized just how avaricious Uncle George truly was, and the longer he toiled to protect him and right his wrongs, the more he disliked him. This was not the man of his childhood, the man who had told such fantastical tales and always had time to sit with himand chat as if he were an adult. No, this Uncle George was a self-serving, money-grubbing scapegrace.
Yateston appeared in the doorway, tense with an uneasiness that shouted from him. “You have a caller, my lord,” he announced, then cleared his throat. “Shall I return Mr. Pembroke to his room?”
Mr. Pembroke.Whoever had stirred the butler into such a state needed to be kept in the dark about Uncle’s true identity. “Yes, Yateston. Show Mr. Pembroke to his room,” he said, ignoring his uncle’s growls. “By the by, who is it?” He had visited all their creditors. Or at least, he thought he had. Had he missed one? Was it another solicitor bearing news of more unknown debts? Drake braced himself for the worst. At this point, nothing would surprise him.
Yateston threw out his chest and stared straight ahead. “Lady Felicity of the Broadmeres and her sister Lady Merry.” He held out his arm bearing Drake’s neatly brushed jacket. “I thought you might want your coat, my lord.”
Gads alive, had she come to finish him off with more poison? Drake grabbed the garment, yanked it on, and shrugged it into place. “Pray tell me you put them in the better parlor?” The other one had a broken window.
“Of course, my lord.”
Drake pointed at his uncle. “Stay in your room and stay quiet. I do not wish to add to the lies of omission of which I have already been found quite guilty. Understood?”
With an unhappy smirk, his uncle huffed and rolled his eyes, shooing away Drake’s request with a wave of his hand. “Go, boy. Charm the woman while you still have the chance.”
Rushing inside, Drake paused in the kitchen. “Mrs. Pepperhill, we will need tea. I realize we cannot offer cakes or biscuits, but pray, do whatever you can.”
Appearing as worried as he felt, the housekeeper bit her lip and nodded while glancing around the kitchen. “I shall find something, mylord. Never fear.”
Not reassured in the least, Drake strode down the hallway, dreading what awaited him. Had she brought her brother and brothers-in-law to speak in her defense? Drake shook his head.Do not be silly. Yateston would have said.
