“Oh, I don’t even know where to begin. The heir arrived, as I mentioned and he’s already taken to make our lives very difficult.”
She told them about the breakfast room, and the ridiculous rules he had set out for them.
“And the worst of it all, is that he expects me to marry. And notes that it is not my choice.”
“He said that?” Charity asked.
“In those exact words, as though it were the most reasonable thing in the world.”
Charity looked at Alethea, pressing her lips together.
“He sounds,” Charity began carefully, “very sure of himself.”
“He is extraordinarily sure of himself. He is so sure of himself that I suspect the concept of doubt is simply not something he has ever needed to develop. He arrived yesterday evening and by this morning he had already decided what everything was going to be and how everyone was going to behave and set about informing us of it as though we ought to be grateful for the clarity.”
“And your mother?” Alethea asked. “I suspect that she would not take kindly to him ordering you both around like this.”
“My mother watched the whole thing, and I think that she is either completely unbothered or she is planning something. With her it is occasionally difficult to tell the difference.”
“What do you know about him?” Charity asked. “Before yesterday, I mean. The Duke of Sedgewick… had you heard anything?”
“Very little. I knew the name from the solicitors’ letters, but I had never expected him to show. Beyond that…” Temperance shook her head. “He was an abstraction, and I assumed he was older.”
“He is not that much older,” Charity said, “Duncan knows of him. Not well…they have mutual acquaintances rather than a direct friendship… but enough.” She settled forward slightly.
“And what can you tell me of him?” At this point, Temperance felt that she needed all the information that she could gather.
“His reputation is apparently immaculate, quite genuinely. Duncan says he has never once heard a word against him, which he considers almost suspicious in itself.”
“Impeccable manners,” Alethea added, and Temperance turned to look at her. “Oliver mentioned him once, some time ago and said similar things. Very proper in his conduct.”
“That does not surprise me,” Temperance rolled her eyes.
“Very well regarded. Conscientious landlord, by all accounts. His estate at Sedgewick is apparently run to a standard that other men hold up as an example, which,” Alethea said, “does not make him easier to argue with, I imagine.”
“It does not,” Temperance agreed.
“And the late duchess,” Charity said, in a slightly different tone.
Temperance looked at her, suddenly even more curious, though she could explain why.
“What about her?”
“That is rather the thing.” Charity turned her teacup in her hands. “Nobody seems to know anything about her. Duncan asked around a little, after I told him, and what he found was essentially… nothing. She married Sedgewick perhaps twelve or thirteen years ago. There was a child and then at some point she simply disappeared. No death notice in the papers. Duncan says that when people have tried to raise the subject in Sedgewick’s presence he becomes… very still.”
The room was quiet for a moment, and Temperance felt her mind being pulled into a myriad different directions.
“That could mean a great many things,” Alethea said gently.
“It could,” Charity agreed. “Though the particular way Duncan described the stillness suggests it is not a subject the duke has any intention of discussing. He was, for many years after her disappearance, considered the most sought-after bachelor in three counties.”
“And?” Temperance said.
“And nothing. He never showed the slightest interest in any of them.” Charity spread her hands. “Pursued by everyone but interested in no one.” She paused. “Until he apparently decided to arrive in your house and tell you that you are going to marry someone.”
“The irony,” Temperance said, “is not lost on me.”
“He is very handsome,” she said. “By all accounts.”
