Her chin came up. “I do not like your tone. Especially toward my late husband.” She even added a dramatic quiver to her voice. “You don’t understand the workings of an estate like Mayfield. You are a scholar and a poet—”
“Grandmother, what I amnot, is a fool.”
That snapped her mouth shut.
Matt leaned forward. “You know what happened to the money. You and Grandfather were as one. You even finished each other’s sentences. Someone either robbed the money from the accounts or deliberately removed it, and what I want to know is why. To what purpose?”
“A good one,” she answered, her voice faint.
“And that is?”
Instead of answering, her gaze hardened. She stared at some point in the far corner of the room, her black gloved hands clutched tightly in her lap.
Matt rose from the chair and came from behind his desk to her. He was a tall man, a good six foot five. “On the morrow, I’m marrying a woman I barely know to save Mayfield. One of my expectations in life was to marry for love.”
“Like your father?” Minerva’s tone was bitter.
“Yes, like him.” Matthew’s father had been Stephen, the second son, the one who had never followed the family’s dictates.
“Wasting himself on an actress,” she said with disgust.
“He married the woman he loved,” Matt corrected. He had years of experience in deftly fending off his grandparents’ barbs toward his mother. “And Father had no regrets, even when you and Grandfather disowned him for marrying her.”
There was a beat of silence and then Minerva said, “She wasn’t even that good of an actress.”
“No, but she was a brilliant mother.”
Minerva’s pale eyes glanced at him as if to see if he jested. He didn’t.
Matt had loved his parents very much. He’d been the youngest of five and the only son. The next oldest sibling to him was Amanda, and she was eight years his senior.
When his parents had been taken by fever, his sisters had brought ten-year-old Matt to their grandparents. His oldest sister, Alice, had told him it was the hardest thing she’d ever done, and yet, the four of them believed it was best for him.
The reception had been very cool. Alice had to set aside her pride to ask for help. In the end, her grandparents had given her what she’d wanted, an education for Matt and what she called, “his rightful place in Society.”
Those years in private school had been lonely and hard. His grandparents and his uncle William had given him very little of their interest. His sisters had been there for him. However, they had their own struggles. Several married. The unmarried one, Kate, went into the theater as their mother had. Matt learned the difficult lesson that life could consume the best of intentions.
Fortunately, he had proven to be a stellar student, especially since his grandfather, the old duke, had made it clear Matt would be receiving no support from him. And then life changed.
Matt had been working as a tutor when he’d received word that William had died. He’d broken his neck in a riding accident.
It was at that point that Matt had been summoned by his grandparents. William’s death had made him “the heir.” They demanded his company. They had expectations for him.
He’d not obeyed instantly. He’d had mixed feelings about his grandparents and his role in the succession of the title. His loyalty was to his sisters and his parents’ memories. Again, it had been Alice who had prodded him forward. Mayfield was his birthright, she’d said.
Matt often wondered if his father would have agreed with her.
And yet, Matt had been curious about this mysterious world of thehaut ton.
Now, he knew more than he wished.
Minerva frowned at the floor before muttering, “I thought you were here at Mayfield nursing your wounds and pining over Letty Bainhurst.” There were actually tears in her voice as if he had betrayed her in some way. “You’d made quite a cake of yourself over her.”
“I did.” He could admit that much. Matt and Letty Bainhurst, wife to one of the most powerful men in England, had been lovers. In fact, he’d even thought of asking her to leave her husband and run away with him. He would have given up the title for her.
Or had he just wanted a love like the one his parents had enjoyed? A love that defied all conventions?
In the end, Letty cut him off. She’d suddenly refused to speak to him. She’d ignored his calls, his letters, his entreaties...
