Agnes ignored her. “He offered this worthless man a great deal of money if he left Dolores alone, and indeed if he left the realm. South America for a year, that was the requirement. What a quandary that must have been for the blackguard. Dolores in theory might be worth much more, eventually. This was immediate, however. Instant wealth that he could carry out the door.” Agnes patted Dolores hand. “He was gone from town by morning. Frederick then sent Dolores and me on a grand tour. We had a wonderful time.”
“I hated it.”
“You danced at balls at every court in Europe and flirted with princes.”
“He shouldn’t have done it. He shouldn’t have tempted him like that, with so much—what man would turn down all that—like a devil my brother showed him the money. Gold, all of it. He always kept gold at hand but this was a huge amount. A mountain of gold.”
“Did you and he ever speak of it?” Chase asked.
Dolores shook her head. “Other than the row when he first told me what had happened, we did not. He knew what I thought. I had said I would never forgive him, and he accepted that I never did.”
“He was generous to both of us, nevertheless,” Agnes said. “Only at the end, with this will, did he fail us.”
“It was his idea of punishment,” Dolores said. “His way of showing his disappointment in me.”
“Oh, Sister, stop talking nonsense. He did not single you out, did he? Surely we weren’t all disappointments.”
“Who told you about this?” Dolores had reclaimed her composure. “I want to know.”
“No one in the family, I assure you. It was someone I don’t think you have ever met.”A brilliant woman who overheard one sentence and guessed the rest.
Dolores sighed. “People talked, of course. I suppose some still do.”
Chase stood. “Thank you both. When doing such inquiries, it is always good to cross something off the list of duties, without it taking days of investigating.”
“Then we are crossed off the list?” Agnes asked.
He bowed and took his leave.
* * *
Gentleman Jim’s was busy in late afternoon. Among the men boxing, Chase spotted Nicholas and Kevin near the far wall. He made his way over and watched from the corner.
Nicholas had an inch and several pounds on Kevin, but Kevin’s lean strength and agility evened the contest. Both men’s shirts clung to their bodies with sweat. Since Chase was late, they probably had been at it for some time.
Nicholas saw him and signaled an end. They both walked over.
“You are looking too tidy, considering we are here by your invitation,” Nicholas said, taking a towel from an attendant and wiping his face and neck. “Off with those coats and Kevin here will go a round with you. He still has plenty of boyish excess in him even after two bouts with me.”
“I had to call on the aunts, and it took twice as long as planned because I had to learn all about their grievances against each other.”
“I’m surprised Agnes has not killed Dolores by now,” Nicholas said.
“She has come close, but has decided that throwing her out will work just as well.”
“Tell your father to lock the doors, Kevin. He is the only brother in town,” Nicholas said.
“She thought Whiteford House would suit her better,” Chase said.
Nicholas froze with the towel in the middle of a wipe of his face. He looked over its edge like a man just sentenced to the hulls. “I will go rusticate and leave the whole house to her if she invites herself to stay.”
“I may have convinced her that the house is still too uncomfortable for visitors and not up to her standards.”
“As it will remain for a very long time, if it spares me finding relatives on the doorstep.” He cast aside the towel. “Since you are still fully dressed, I assume you are too afraid of Kevin here to go at it with him. Make yourself comfortable while we wash.”
They aimed for the dressing rooms while Chase strolled around the perimeter of the room, watching fists fly and bruises rise. He regretted he had arrived too late to participate. He felt out of sorts when he did not regularly exercise. Last night with Minerva had removed the worst of that edge, but he still would have liked a round or two.
When his cousins returned both had been scrubbed and dressed and looked none the worse for their bouts. Kevin had a big smile on his face.
