“I suppose I should go greet them.”
“Go to your apartment instead. Let them settle in. See them in the drawing room before dinner. Arrive last, and greet them as the duke, not as Cousin Nicky.”
Nicholas laughed. “Sage advice.”
“Do nothing to lose the upper hand or you will never get it back. We will have pandemonium then.”
“I will inform them this evening that there will be no discussion about the estate until tomorrow afternoon. I have told the solicitor to be here at three o’clock.”
Nicholas turned to make good his escape, but just then Kevin entered the library. To Chase’s surprise, he beamed a smile and strode forward, the frown now gone.
Younger than Chase by four years, Kevin had always been a favored younger cousin mostly due to his vivid personality and unusual interests. Of their generation, he possessed the most likelihood of eventually displaying the eccentricity that marked his own father and Uncle Frederick, mostly because he had always trod his own path.
“It is good that you are back,” Nicholas said. “You can help Chase keep them from killing me.”
Kevin glanced out the window. “Having just come from the solicitor’s chambers, I expect they want to kill someone and Uncle is no longer available.”
Nicholas paused over that, but let it pass. “I did write and warn you.”
“I didn’t receive your letter before I left. I arrived two days ago, and my father informed me of the worst of it straight off. I would have seen Sanders yesterday, but my father wanted help repairing one of his automatons.” He rolled his eyes at the mention of his father’s ongoing obsession.
“An interesting one?”
“They are all interesting if you find worthless mechanical devices of no use to humanity interesting.”
“Is he coming today?” Nicholas asked. “Did you leave him back on the lane?”
“He told me that none of his brothers were coming up to town, and he would not be oppressed just because he is always in London. They expected nothing from Uncle Frederick, so they have no complaints.”
Chase gave Kevin a deeper consideration. For all the good cheer he displayed, shadows veiled his normally bright eyes on this allusion to the will. “Why don’t you settle in. We’ll talk later.”
“I suppose I should see what chamber the housekeeper has allotted me. I could return to my father’s house at night, of course, but he can be a trial and I want to keep an eye on all of them.” He sent a sharp glance out the window.
Nicholas clamped a firm grip on Kevin’s shoulder. “Let us go find Mrs. Wiggins, so I can make sure she does not put you in the attic. It is hell being a bachelor.”
Chase let them go, and returned his attention to the activity outside the window.
* * *
Minerva knelt before the fireplace. She began arranging some fuel.
“Don’t fold the dress that way, girl. It will become intolerably wrinkled. Hang it in the wardrobe.” The woman’s voice snapped out the complaint and command. Minerva kept her back to the room, doing her work.
The housekeeper, Mrs. Wiggins, had been desperate enough to hire her on Mrs. Drable’s recommendation for the lowly position of chambermaid during the visit of all these guests. She had been sent up to prepare the fires in the guests’ chambers, starting with the ladies. She had already concluded that Lady Agnes Radnor, tall, regal, buxom, and dark-haired, saw herself as the queen among the bees buzzing round the house.
A door opened. Soft steps paced until a person stood so closely behind Minerva that she felt the warmth on her back. The looming presence also hid her own body, however. She slowed her actions.
“I hope they gave you a better maid than I have,” a new feminine voice said. Lower than Agnes’s. Throaty in a pleasant way.
“Oh, dear heavens. Yours is a disaster too? I had hoped to steal her for myself.”
“The best ones are gone, Mrs. Wiggins explained to me. Abandoned ship once they had their pensions. Handsome settlements they were too, if you remember. They left us to fend for ourselves with short-time riffraff while they enjoy our money. Only Mrs. Fowler, the cook, and the butler are still here among the senior servants, out of a sense of duty to the title’s requirements.”
“I assume that once they find their own replacements, they too will go off to grow legumes in the country.”
“Once more, with our money.” The voice turned brittle. “He did this to spite me. You know he did. After what happened he owed me better—”
“Enough of that, Sister. You are speaking like a madwoman. That was long in the past and Hollinburgh probably didn’t even remember it.”
Silence stretched, thick and full of an unspoken argument. Minerva wished they would continue voicing it.
“I think we are wasting our time. We should challenge the will’s bequests.”
“Dolores, you know what will happen then. It will be in the courts for years while we become all the poorer paying the lawyers, and in the end nothing will change. Allow me to lead the way in this. We will all meet before that solicitor comes tomorrow, in order to devise a plan that will avoid the courts.”
The body behind her walked away.
“Girl, haven’t you finished with that yet?” Lady Agnes’s voice boomed across the chamber. “The damp in here will get to my bones before you are done.”
Minerva turned her head sideways, to acknowledge the complaint. “Forgive me, my lady. Some of the fuel was damp and would not light. I had to rebuild.”
“Be quick about it. We are going to live like barbarians here, Dolores. Even the chambermaids are incompetent.”
Minerva finished quickly, stood, and, face down in deference, made a fast curtsy. Then she left to find the next fireplace. While she did she caught the eye of the young woman serving as lady’s maid, and they shared a secret smile.
* * *
Chase made his way to a bedchamber in the northwest corner of the house. The door stood open and once Chase entered he saw why. A chambermaid knelt to build the fire while Kevin paced the small space, frowning.
Chase greeted him. Then he surveyed the chamber. Although comfortable enough, it lacked good light and was not much larger than those used by the servants. “Nicholas was right. It isn’t in the attic, at least, but as bachelors we always end up with the smallest and darkest one.”
Kevin looked around, as if he hadn’t noticed. “It will do. I’ve lived in worse.” The frown, then, had been about other things. Chase could imagine what they were.
“You could stay at your club. Or, if you prefer, stay with me.”
“I’ll be damned before I let the harpies out of my sight. Given half a chance Agnes would leave me penniless. Do you know how she greeted me? ‘Oh, you are here, Kevin. I thought your trade would keep you too busy to join us.’” He imitated Agnes’s shrill, imperial tone very well.
“She is old-fashioned in her thinking. Nothing new there. She is also ignorant of your achievements.”
“They all are, except you and Nicholas.”
“And Uncle Frederick, of course.”
That stopped Kevin in his tracks. He faced Chase with a furious expression and let fly the emotion he had hidden when he entered the library an hour ago. “Have you any idea why he did it? It was such a betrayal that I can’t—” He shook his head in a renewal of disbelief. “To have put forth the capital while I perfected the invention, to have become a partner in the enterprise, then this. I will confess that I am like a man who was hit too hard during a prize fight.”