“Of course,” she said, edging closer as caution filled her. “By your tone it sounds serious.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “And very likely inappropriate.”
She blinked and then pushed the door shut behind her. She motioned to the chairs set up before the fire. He hesitated before he took one, though he sat far to the front and ramrod straight.
She smiled to ease his anxiety. “What is it?”
“You have known His Grace for a very long time,” he began slowly.
She nodded. “Almost all my life.”
“And I know you have, like his very good friends have, seen him through some of the worst times of his life.” She tilted her head, uncertain where this conversation was going. He flushed. “I mean to say, you have been there.”
She thought of the years when she was married. She thought of how the relationship between her and Ewan had stretched a little thinner, an avoidance on both their parts, she thought now. And for the same reason. Neither wanted to violate the marriage vows she had spoken, and if they came too close…
“Yes,” she said. “I’ve tried to be.”
“I have also been there from the beginning,” Smith said with a sigh. “Do you know that I served the last duke?”
Charlotte tilted her head. “I think I did. As butler?”
“I had been a mere footman under the current duke’s grandfather. I was elevated to butler under his father. I was a servant in the home when His Grace’s parents married and when they welcomed their first child.”
His face twisted with what could only be pain, and Charlotte leaned forward. “When did the cruelty start?”
“He hardly made a sound as a baby,” Smith said. “Even as he grew older and other children began to goo and gah. The duchess used to brag about it, claim that he was the most disciplined. Some of us in the household feared there was something wrong, but what could we say?”
“Nothing,” Charlotte reassured him. “Not to those people.”
He nodded. “Soon enough it became clear there was something terrible amiss and…and things became quite awful swiftly thereafter. I remember the duke screaming, just screaming, into the face of a two-year-old, abjectly terrified child whocouldnot give him what he wanted.”
Charlotte bent her head as tears welled in her eyes. “I cannot imagine ever treating a child as such.”
“I watched them torment him and then, slowly, as they had more children and it was clear those children were not…damagedis the word they used…I watched them all but abandon him.”
“It must have been very difficult,” she whispered.
“Almost impossible,” he said. “I wanted to quit the household, I was so—”
He lifted his chin and Charlotte was taken aback. Smith was the best of butlers. He had been trained to be stoic and calm, yet here he was, face red, mouth twitching, hands clenching. And she liked him all the more.
“You must have been angry,” she suggested.
He jerked out one nod. “I spoke to my brother about it. He served in the Earl of Listonwood’s home. Frank told me that if I left, there would be no one to protect the child. That the other servants would follow the lead of whomever managed the home.”
“You stayed for…him?” Charlotte whispered.
He turned his face. “I did. And after he was cast out by his father, I stayed because his…his uncle asked me to do so. So that there would be someone in the house to report to the Duke of Tyndale about anything the Duke of Donburrow was doing to undermine his rightful heir.”
Charlotte’s mouth dropped open. “You were Ewan’s uncle’s spy?”
“I was,” he admitted. “And never sorry once about doing so. The current Duke of Donburrow is the best man to have graced that title in several generations.”
“Does Ewan know what role you played on his behalf?” she asked.
He stiffened. “He does not. I would prefer it stay that way, for you know that he would feel uncomfortable knowing I had been his protector behind the scenes.”
She nodded. That was, of course, correct. “I wonder, though, why tell me the secret?” she asked. “What is it you want me to understand?”
