The maid bobbed a curtsey and left the room. Griffin returned to his seat. He looked at Caleb and then at their mother. “Perhaps we should add some brandy to that teapot. You both look as though you could do with the fortification.”
It tooka week before the duchess was ready to listen to reason. For the first three days, she refused to discuss Mary entirely, changing the subject each time Caleb raised it. On the fourth day, when Caleb insisted that only Mary would do when it came to marriage, the duchess enumerated all the ways in which he was wrong.
“Her father is in trade, Caleb,” his mother began. “As a duke, you ought to be marrying within your own ranks. And let’s not forget that your brother courted her first. When word gets out, people will talk and scandal will follow.”
“My mind is made up,” he’d countered. “I love her, and that is all that matters.”
She’d sighed in response and walked away, but he’d seen her resolve begin to waver.
By mid-December, after listening to Caleb’s added explanations and his assurance that if she failed to support him in this, he’d never forgive her, she finally agreed to offer her assistance. Caleb reckoned she only wished for him to stop waxing poetic over Miss Clemens at every available opportunity, which was fine by him. Just as long as the end result was to his satisfaction.
“The carriage is ready,” he told his mother one Monday afternoon at half past two. “Shall we depart?”
She nodded and went to collect her reticule. “Are you absolutely certain about this?” she asked while he assisted her with her cloak a short while later. Murdoch handed her her gloves.
“Absolutely,” Caleb told her.
She proceeded to put on her gloves and accepted the arm he offered. It had started to snow that morning, so the steps were slippery even though the footmen had just brushed them clean.
“You do realize you’re setting all kinds of wheels in motion by doing this,” the duchess added as they proceeded toward the awaiting carriage with the Camberly crest adorning each side. “If you change your mind—”
“I won’t,” he told her firmly.
“Well, then,” she said as he handed her up. “I hope it turns out as you hope, for if it does not, your life will not be the only one ruined by all the tumultuousness you’re going to cause.”
“Thank you, Mother,” he told her bluntly, “I am aware.”
“Did it ever occur to you that going back to Clearview and simply asking Miss Clemens to marry the man you are might be the best option?” she asked when he was comfortably seated on the opposite bench. The carriage rocked as it took off, and she reached for the leather strap by the window to steady herself. Her chin was slightly raised in the same defiant tilt she’d affected since he’d first suggested marrying Mary. It reminded him that she still wasn’t completely convinced the union would be a success, even though she’d agreed to help him.
“Of course I’ve thought of that. Endlessly, in fact, but I fear she might refuse if I take that course.”
“And she won’t if you force her to face everything she once fled?” His mother shook her head. “Honestly, Camberly, I fail to understand you sometimes.”
“I know.” He smiled at her, and she, he was happy to see, smiled back in return. “She must accept the title I hold before she can have the man she wants, Mama. The only place I can prove that to her is here, in London, where all her heartache began.”
“Very well, Camberly. Let us ensure her swift arrival then, shall we?”
He settled against the plush velvet squabs. “I would not go to all of this trouble unless I was absolutely certain this is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with,” he said after a while. The carriage tilted as it rounded a corner and slowed to allow for an increase in traffic. “It is important to me you know that.”
“I do,” she told him gently. A soft smile followed. “Your father wronged Miss Clemens most grievously when he put out those rumors about her. It was badly done, and I…I did not approve of his actions though I understood his reasoning.”
Caleb’s chest contracted at the thought of Miss Clemens at the center of ill-intended gossip, of her sudden rejection, not just by the man she thought she’d formed an attachment with, but by Society as a whole. “Do you think George cared for her?”
His mother nodded. “I know he did, for he told me so right after giving your father the set-down he deserved. But it was too late by then. Word was out that Miss Clemens was a scheming fortune huntress, and by the time he reached her house to check on her, she’d already left town and…well, I suppose Aldridge must have been under strict orders from his sister not to disclose a thing, because George never did find out where Miss Clemens had gone, and as you know, he never considered anyone else, or he would have married.”
“So he loved her?”
“In his own way, I suppose he did.” Caleb’s mother gave a sentimental chuckle. “He was always more emotionally restrained than you, Griffin, and Devlin. George was the quiet and serious one, while you three ran roughshod through the house. Drove your father and me mad for the most part.”
“Is that why George was the favorite?” Caleb asked. He’d made peace with this notion years ago, but he was still curious to know the truth of it.
His mother gaped at him. “There was never a favorite, Caleb,” she said, using his given name instead of the title due to surprise, no doubt.
“He received all the attention and all the praise.”
His mother grimaced. “I think your memory is slightly skewed. Your brother was the heir, Camberly. Your father put tremendous pressure on him, and all that attention you’re talking about…those were extra lessons he received in agriculture, book keeping, and lord knows what else. As for the praise, George worked hard because he was a perfectionist and because he wanted to make your father proud.”
“I think he succeeded,” Caleb said.
