Chapter Seven
“Rubbish!” roared LordBradford. “My son? Dead? That cannot be! He is as healthy as a horse! Why, I just saw him a few hours ago, hale and hearty as always. He wouldn’t just… He can’t have…”
“I’m afraid they were unnatural circumstances, my lord,” said the hapless constable. “A robbery gone bad. He appears to have visited a gaming hell of—shall we say—lesserrepute, where he won a rich sum. It would seem he was followed and attacked for his winnings. He must have resisted. He was… er… well, I’m so terribly sorry… The wound to the head suggests he was hit with a hard, blunt object. No help could render him repair. Death was swift.”
“Oh! My son!” wailed Lady Bradford. “My precious boy!”
Miss Bradford slipped from her chair and threw her arms about her mother, who began to sob into her serviette.
“There must be some mistake.” Lord Bradford looked about him as if someone could explain the cause of such an error. “Philip would never enter a place like that. He could lay a wager at the gentleman’s club if he wanted. There was no need to defile himself in this way.”
“There are all sorts of entertainment at these holes, such as a young man might enjoy,” the constable said grimly.
“Are you saying my son would seek suchentertainments?” blustered the baron. “He is…” He swallowed. “Was…agentleman. He had money enough and was soon to be engaged. What could he want with such dross?”
The constable looked at his hands, which still clutched his cap tightly. “I cannot say, my lord.”
“Where is he?” Lady Bradford’s voice quavered. “I want to see him.”
“He was transported to the undertaker’s, milady.”
“We must bring him home, Walter. I want my boy here, with me, where I can watch over him.”
Lord Bradford said nothing, only staring ahead of him. Then, as if on a well-oiled axis, his head turned to Jillian and Lewis. As he spoke, bitterness dripped like acid from every word.
“How fortunate for you, Miss Kinsey, that I can no longer cut off my second-born. Lewis is now my heir.” His eyes locked on to those of his remaining son. “You have new privileges. You have new responsibilities. Choose your actions wisely.” His gaze flicked to Jillian and back. “More wisely than you have done thus far.”
Lord Bradford rose from his chair with a struggle, the footman stepping forward hurriedly to bring him his cane. His lordship leaned heavily upon it, breathing slowly. He seemed to have aged twenty years in a matter of minutes.
“Make arrangements for the body to be prepared and brought home,” he said as blandly as if he were tallying an invoice. “Spare no expense. We shall have the funeral on Sunday, our last family day together.” He rubbed his brow with the back of his thumb. “Now, you must excuse me. I am tired.”
A sob from his wife punctuated his departure. Her daughter stroked her hair and made soothing noises, but Penelope’s own eyes remained dry.
Lewis stood unmoving. He had not reacted at all to the terrible news. He neither mourned his brother noracknowledged his new position. Jillian knew it to be the shock of it all.
“Lewis,” she said quietly into his ear, “let me arrange some tea. You could all use the comfort of something warm and sweet. And then, I think, I should go. Your family must process the loss together. If you need me, you know where to find me. But, for now, your attention should be here.”
Lewis nodded. “I will see you out.”
They walked, hands still intertwined, to where the butler stood. Jillian made the request for a tray of fresh tea to be brought at once, and the butler repeated the instruction to the footman, who disappeared to tell the kitchen staff.
Releasing Lewis for a moment, Jilly stepped across to his mother and hunched down before her so that she looked up into the sorrowful face. “I am so very sorry for the loss of your eldest,” she said, her voice tender. “Please let me know if there is anything I can do.”
A flash of fury burned in Lady Bradford’s face. “You can leave my family alone for a start. Coming in here and ordering my staff about as if you are already lady of the house! That is never going to happen.” Her voice pitched sharply. “Do you hear me? Never! I have already lost one son. I won’t lose the other to the likes of you!”
“Mother,” Miss Bradford said urgently. “You are upset. But none of this is Miss Kinsey’s fault. Do not be unkind to her. Lewis will need her support.”
Lady Bradford only hardened her stance. “Lewis needs the support of a woman of quality. It will be hard for him to assume the role Philip alone was raised for. He should not have to teach his wife the intricacies of a life of privilege. She will be more burden than help.” She stopped and dabbed her eyes once more. “Philip had chosen well.” She sniffed woefully. “Miss Sangford understands the duties of a lady. And she stands on her ownmerit. She doesn’t have to rely on the reputation of herfriendto be accepted in good society.”
Lewis rushed forward and pulled Jillian up to her feet. “Do not make yourself small before such narrowminded hostility. You are worth ten Miss Sangfords, but my parents will not see what is right before their eyes. As for you, Mother, I hold my tongue for now, for you have experienced a loss no parent should have to bear, and I will not add to your misery. But I will say this. Youwillrefrain from insulting Miss Kinsey. Carry whatever skewed views you have toward her in silence. Or you will have lost not one son, but two.”
He grabbed Jillian’s arm and ushered her from the room, while she looked over her shoulder at the broken scene they left behind.
“I’m so sorry, Lewis,” she said. “My presence seems to have made a frightful situation so much worse.”
“What are you apologizing for?” he snapped. “Have you done something wrong? Did you murder Philip? Did you teach my parents to be so outrageously arrogant? Of course not! They should be apologizing to you!”
“They are broken-hearted, Lewis. They say what they would otherwise have left unsaid.”
