Clearing his throat, he glanced around his study, his gaze flicking over his things. Souvenirs, reminders of a world he’d escaped and would never return to. Strands of knotted rope, each knot a sailor had to learn. A chipped, half-rusted knife thathad saved his life more than once. Pots of spices worth a fortune, flavoring meat in a way that would shake English society to the core. There were strange pictures, jewelry, and tapestries he’d bought at odd, colorful markets on the other side of the world.
Not all of the memories were bad. Just most of them.
Clearing his throat, Stephen tore his gaze from his trinkets and glanced back at his grandmother, who was regarding him with those shrewd, perceptive eyes.
“I hope you weren’t unkind to Amelia when she was in here,” she remarked.
“Unkind? Me? Never, Grandmother.”
“Never unkind? My dear boy.” Letitia laughed, shaking her head. “I can only assume you haven’t seen yourself boxing. It’s terrifying to watch.”
Stephen sucked in a breath, his eyes widening. “And when didyousee me boxing, Grandmother?”
Letitia grinned. “Can’t an old woman keepsomesecrets?”
“Not that one,” he shot back grimly. “Let’s hear it, Grandmother. I’d like to know how this happened.”
Letitia huffed, adjusting her grip on her walking stick. “Very well. Several years ago, before I was entirelyreliant on this cane, I visited an underground boxing event.”
“Youwhat?” Stephen sputtered.
“Oh, calm down. You may be a duke, my boy, and the head of this family, butIhave lived a great deal longer than you. It was…” she trailed off, waving her hand vaguely. “Not very many years after you returned.”
A cold sensation shot through Stephen at the reminder.
His return was something he did not like to think about too often. He’d come back too late. Too late for everything. Years of his life had been eaten up by war and slavery, and he’d constantly hoped the ship that had kidnapped him would return to England, though he knew in his heart the captain would never be so foolish.
It had happened countless times across the country. Most of the men who were swiped up by ship captains desperate to swell their ranks before the war began in earnest were nobodies, drunken fools nobody missed. Some men were missed, of course, but the captains claimed they’d signed up while drunk.
The country was at war and sailors were needed, so the authorities turned a blind eye. Most of the abducted men died at sea or disappeared. Some, broken and entirely ruined, stayed on as sailors. A few returned. It was unusual for men with no seafaring background to be press-ganged, however.
Which is why I know that my abduction was no accident,Stephen reminded himself grimly.
Clearing his throat, he put all thoughts of press-ganging and those dire years out of his head and returned his gaze to his grandmother.
“So, about this underground boxing match,” he said sternly. “They let you in?”
She shrugged. “There were women in attendance, but I thought it easier to dress myself up as an old man.”
“Grandmother!”
“Oh, calm down. You worry about me entirely too much. I simply wanted to know where you were sneaking off to, and I found the answer. You were engaging in boxing matches. Hardly a gentleman’s sport, but then again, our family has never been fond of following norms. I won quite a few bets on your match,” she added, with a wink.
Stephen placed a hand over his face, mostly to smother a smile. “You are incorrigible, Grandmother.”
“One does one’s best.”
“I certainly hope that those bets were on me.”
“They certainly were. Didn’t I tell you that I won? In some cases, a person may need to bet against their family, but I have never had to do it. Certainly not with you, my dear.”
She smiled softly at him, and he felt his chest warm.
“I decided then that I ought to let you make your own decisions,” Letitia continued, catching his gaze and holding it. “You know that I have always believed you should reveal yourself. I wanted you to reveal yourself to the tonas soon as you returned. It was your choice to live in anonymity.”
Stephen clenched his jaw, glancing away. “Grandmother, please. I don’t wish to discuss this.”
“But itmustbe discussed. You were the victim of a crime, Stephen. I can’t say why you were kidnapped and sent to sea the way you were. Your father and I never stopped looking for you. If he had been alive when you returned?—”
