He’d cleaned stinking, suffocating stacks from dusk until dawn; but studiously refused to do what the other sweeps did;leave windows cracked so they could crawl back in and snag candlesticks and silverware to pawn for half-pennies and a bob.
He’d proven himself to be fast and clever, letting his work speak for itself while standing aside as the other sweeps got hauled in by the constables.
“Father,” Dorian said, carrying the bowl back into the room. “Please, wake. I need to tell you something important.”
Weakly, Barnabas Beaumont forced his eyes open, “Who—who are you?”
Holding back a grimace, Dorian viciously hated the confusion and lunacy that plagued his father at times. He waited until the haze faded and recognition settled in his father’s eyes.
“Son,” Barnabas’s voice was weak. “I did not see you for a moment there.”
“I know, Father,” Dorian said, while coming closer to rest the bowl on the table. Reaching under the man’s back, he gently eased him up to sit on the headboard. “You need to eat something, but I need to tell you, I may have found a way out of here and for you to get the care you need.”
His father gaped at him. “What? How? What do you mean?”
“I found a patron who is going to take me under his wing,” Dorian said, knowing he could not divulge the truth that hewould be working for a crime lord in the underworld. “He is going to pay and give you the medicine and proper food you need to heal.”
Barnabas accepted the bowl and tried to feed himself, but his fingers were not steady. It was painful watching the once powerful man struggle to do something so simple. Eventually, Dorian took over, spooned him the broth, helped him to the washroom, and then dressed him in travelling clothes.
“Who is this man?” His father croaked.
“The Viscount of Carrington,” Dorian replied, looking over his shoulder as two men stepped into the room. “These men are going to take you to a house with a nursemaid, and you’ll be cared for there.”
Barnabas’s eyes misted over as he turned to Dorian. “I am so sorry I failed you, my son. You should not have to go through such lengths for me.”
“You have not failed me, nor will you ever fail me,” Dorian said, as he stepped away from the men to help his father to the carriage. “Believe me, Papa, I will retrieve everything we have lost, and then some.”
I will survive. One day, I’ll be strong. Then I’ll make all who stole from us pay.
CHAPTER 1
TEN YEARS LATER
“Yesterday, I saw my cousin marry, and I thought to myself, well done, old girl, you are officially on the shelf,” Lady Victoria Rothwell, the daughter of Marquess Templeton, added a dash of milk to her tea and laughed.
“You’re only four-and-twenty!” Evelina gawked at her friend.
“In the ton, that makes me a spinster.” Victoria lifted a slender shoulder. “It matters not, my dear. I am quite comfortable being a spinster.”
“You could have married any of the last seasons,” Ellie giggled. “I am sure every bachelor was tripping over their heels to marry the Diamond of the First Water.”
Tucking a strand of her silver-blonde hair behind an ear of classically sculpted features, Victoria’s beauty drew lords from all over the continent and even overseas. Despite the early hour—and Victoria’s propensity to read through all hours of the night— no shadows rested under her eyes; her skin glowed with the health of the well-rested.
“They were.” Victoria rolled her dark blue eyes. “But some of them were just a touch too eager. They claim to love the arts, but when I ask the simplest question on the Bard, they splutter and stutter with excuses. How difficult is it truly to know the origin of the quote, ‘love like a shadow flies when substance love pursues, pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues’?”
Picking up a blackberry tart, Evelina shook her head, “I don’t think men readTheMerry Wives of Windsor.”
“They should,” Victoria shrugged.
“Your brother doesn’t even know that, no matter how many operas you drag him to.”
“My brother is a troglodyte.”
Laughing, Ellie asked, “Where is dear Benedict this evening?”
“I have no idea,” Victoria shrugged. “My best guess is that he is at the horse track. But we are not here to talk about him. We’re here to talk about you. How are you on the husband-seeking front, Ellie?”
Dusting her finger off, Ellie sighed, “Aunt and Uncle have still banned me from courting for fear that the suitor will learn I haveno dowry to offer his family. I am still Harriet’s companion at balls, and while she is allowed to court, I am not. I suppose that is the downside of being an orphan.”
