A humorless laugh escaped her as she walked to the door. “It rather is, isn’t it? Until later, Cousin.”
Crossing the entrance hall, she mounted the main staircase and went to her room. Tugging the bellpull, she waited until a chambermaid appeared and sent for a pot of tea.
She had a great deal of thinking to do.
An hour later, she tapped on her mother-in-law’s door. When Poole opened it, she asked if the dowager felt well enough to see her again.
Poole’s plain face broke into a smile. “That would be grand. The news about the boats has flattened her and you were a great comfort to her this morning.” She led the way into Lady Rossburn’s bedroom.
Her mother-in-law opened her eyes and tried to move up on the pillows. “My dear, thank you for coming to see a decrepit old woman twice in one day.”
Diantha and Poole flew to her assistance. “I beg you, let us help, dear ma’am.” The two of them carefully moved her ladyship into as comfortable a position as she could find. Although sweat broke out on the wrinkled forehead, the dowager thanked them when they had finished.
Reaching for the pitcher of lavender water that habitually sat on her bedside table, Diantha dampened a lawn handkerchief and blotted the droplets from her mother-in-law’s skin. Poole handed her a glass of water and salicin, which she held to the older woman’s lips. In the face of her mother-in-law’s pain, she decided she could not add to her discomfort.
However, after she drank her medicine, the dowager looked at her with sharp eyes. “Something has upset you.”
Diantha brushed the remark aside, but the other woman pressed her until she gave in. “Ma’am, may I ask you some questions about your son? I had a very disturbing conversation with Barclay over lunch.”
The withered lips pursed and she signaled Pooleto leave. After the maid departed, she spoke, choosing her words carefully. “My sister-in-law has always had a strong attachment to her childhood home. I often think she wishes she could have been a male so that she could have inherited instead of her younger brother.”
Diantha frowned. “Kieran’s father?” The older woman smiled grimly. “Exactly so. She often criticized his management of the estate when he was alive, and I would not be surprised if she has passed her attitude on to her son.”
Diantha played with her wedding ring, turning the golden circle around on her finger. “I’m afraid this conversation revolved around more personal subjects.”
Lady Rossburn’s misshapen hand covered hers. “Please tell me what that horrid boy said about my son. And don’t waste my time by wrapping it up in clean linen.”
She looked into the dowager’s concerned face. “He tried to tell me Kieran has had liaisons with a female in the fishing village, and fathered a child who lives there.”
“Oh no!” Tears rose to the old woman’s eyes. Diantha cursed herself for her insensitivity. She should have known this would be too much for her mother-in-law to bear. “Indeed, ma’am, I do not believe it! Kieran is attracted to—”
She stopped awkwardly, but the older woman finished her sentence. “—To a more sophisticated level of female company.”
She looked at the dowager nervously. “Precisely. But how do you know?”
The other woman raised her eyebrows and lookedpointedly at the door that Poole had closed behind her a short while ago. “I do pity the woman without servants. How else does one know what is happening under one’s roof?” Her hands moved restlessly on the satin counterpane. “But I digress.”
She sighed. “There was an illegitimate Rossburn in that village. But not my son’s.”
The woman’s candor robbed Diantha of speech for several seconds. Finally, she collected herself. “Then whose?”
The dowager stared at her bedpost. “My husband’s.”
Diantha did not know what to say. “Ma’am, I am so sorry. Forgive me for bringing up a painful episode.”
“Just listen, I pray you.” Her mother-in-law spoke sharply and she subsided. “My husband loved me. Always. But he was a man of great physical appetites, and eventually my pain became so intense that I could not bear the marital embrace.” She could not seem to meet Diantha’s eyes. “I am sorry to shock you, but I told him I would understand if he needed to seek physical comfort elsewhere.”
She took a shuddering breath. “I wanted to satisfy him as much as I had in my younger days, but he, dear man, could not bear to cause me pain.”
Diantha reached for a clawlike hand. “How terrible for both of you.”
The dowager waved her pity away. “He still spent most nights at home with me. For the rare occasions when he needed something else, he came to an arrangement with a widow in Cariford. Unfortunately, a child was born of one of his trysts with her.Kieran and I didn’t know about the boy until my husband died and left him a small inheritance.”
Grim pride filled her voice. “The young fellow is enough of his father’s son to have rejected any help from Kieran or me, save for a generous sum on his marriage last year. Or he was,” she finished sadly.
“He was a fisherman.” Diantha closed her eyes at the other woman’s nod. They sat in silence for several minutes before she stirred. “But none of this explains why Barclay wants to drive a wedge between Kieran and me.”
Her mother-in-law pondered her statement. “No, it does not. That boy always has had a sly streak.”
