“He chose it himself, essentially. He simply had the look of a Peabody.” She set Soot down, and Soot immediately moved to the center of the hallway, sat down, and began washing her face with the unhurried air of a cat who had had a very satisfactory evening. “Wait here a moment. I’ll find someone to….”
“Joseph.”
The voice came from the far end of the hallway and Temperance looked up.
The man standing there was tall and dressed impeccably. Light brown hair and dark blue eyes.
Those eyes moved from Joseph’s face and took in the mud on the jacket. The mud on the shirt.
“What,” the man said, “have you done to yourself?”
Joseph straightened to his full height.
“I was following the cat,” he said. “She went under the hedge and I was trying to catch her.”
“I see that you caught her.” The man’s gaze moved briefly to Soot, and then moved on to Temperance. “And you are?”
“Temperance Hosmer,” she said. “I live here. And you have just referred to my cat as though she were something unpleasant tracked in from the garden.”
Something moved in his expression.
“I referred to it…”
“Her,” Temperance said pleasantly.
“…as dirty,” he finished. “Which it demonstrably is.”
“She went under a hedge. So did your son, by the look of things, and I notice you have not called him dirty.”
“Who are you?” he said again.
“I told you. Temperance Hosmer. The Dowager Viscountess Wilmington is my mother.” She held his gaze without difficulty. “And you are?”
He looked at her for a moment. When he spoke, it was without flourish.
“Harper Crauford,” he said. “Duke of Sedgewick. I am Lord Wilmington's legal beneficiary, which means this house, and its estate, and its affairs…including, I am afraid, the both of you…are now under my care.”
Temperance looked at the Duke of Sedgewick and a stunned silence fell between them.
The heir had arrived.
Over the last two years, she had had tried carefully to not think about this moment, had not let herself dwell on it, had told herself with great practicality that when it came she would manage it and there was no use worrying about it until it arrived.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I don’t recall stuttering,” the duke replied, “you heard me correctly.”
“I have never seen you before in my life,” Temperance said. Though, it already felt as though she was losing the argument.
She did not know much about this man, but there was something in the manner in which he spoke that left little room for doubt. It was a subtle thing, but Temperance had always been observant.
The duke raised his eyebrows at her.
“My point is,” Temperance said, both surprised and irked by the little flush his gesture had caused, “how are you the heir?”
“Not by blood,” the duke explained. “Your father and I were long term business partners, and he left his estate to me in the eventof his death. Which, as you know, as happened. As for the title, that has been returned to the crown.”
“And how do I know that you were not telling me a lie?”
