Since Nicholas was now a duke, Chase had to suffer the formalities of having his card taken away, then being escorted up to the duke’s apartment. A mere month ago, in Nicholas’s last home, there would have been no footman to do the duties, or even many chambers to traverse. The eldest son of the last duke’s eldest brother, Nicholas’s fortunes had existed only in expectations until recently. As it happened, those expectations had not been realized quite like Nicholas had anticipated.
Chase found his cousin in the dressing room, lounging on a fine chair set near a window that overlooked the park. A ledger laid open on his lap and he frowned down at the page he perused. Whatever he read occupied him enough that he did not hear Chase enter.
Sons ran in the Radnor family, in the last generation as well as this one. The result was the last duke had five brothers, and those brothers in turn had six sons. Of all the cousins, Chase and Nicholas had formed the strongest friendship, one devoid of the bickering and arguments that marked so many of the other relationships.
The only Radnor not to sire a son had been the last duke. Uncle Frederick had never been one to conform.
“Bad news?” Chase asked.
Nicholas’s dark eyes peered up. He smiled ruefully while he closed the ledger and set it on the floor. “Terrible news.” He looked around the expansive dressing room, with its mahogany wardrobes and raw silk drapes and Chinese carpet. “Hell of a thing. By year’s end, I’ll be selling furniture to pay the bills. The rents barely bring in enough to keep up the country houses.”
“Perhaps a good land steward can change that.”
“Not fast enough.” Nicholas gestured to the ledger. “He didn’t enclose, of course. Nor did his father. A good-hearted decision, but inefficient. Now I have to decide if I will do it, and the displacement of families—” He shrugged.
“His interests were not with the lands.” Chase spoke the obvious, but it was the root of the problem.
“The other investments are doing well. Fabulously. The money pours in. Of course, he did not bequeath any of that to me, did he?” He laughed. “Or you. Or any of us. He was always a little strange, but his will was his most eccentric act yet. What a joke on all of us.”
No one had laughed at the joke when the will was read. Rather the opposite. An explosion of emotions greeted the bulk of it. Nicholas received the entailed lands, of course, and even one or two properties that were not entailed. But the duke’s real wealth had been in all those investments he made. Land development, canals, shipping, factories—he had a Midas touch and had increased his personal wealth twentyfold before he died.
None of that, not one shilling, had been left to a relative.
Chase had expected nothing, so his disappointment had been muted. But other of the cousins had assumed a fat inheritance was coming. And the wives . . .
“Have you learned anything?” Nicholas asked. “I know it has been just over a week since the funeral, but what little will be left when the bequests are disbursed will be divided among us and I am not the only one who is anxious to know what amount will come to me.”
“Some small progress has been made.” Chase chose not to tell Nicholas about Peel recruiting him to make an unofficial inquiry into Uncle Frederick’s death. Being in such an awkward situation was one thing. If the family knew, his position would be impossible.
“I have found one of them. Minerva Hepplewhite.” He offered Nicholas less than half a loaf with the announcement. There were two other mystery legacies, and he had not begun to unravel them. He had hoped to make a quick report of success on all counts. He had predicted that Minerva would know about the other two bequests, and lead him to those people. He no longer believed she could do that.
“Was she his mistress?”
“I don’t know. She says not.”
“She’s probably lying,” Nicholas said. “To avoid gossip and such. Is she beautiful?”
Chase did not think Minerva Hepplewhite worried overmuch about gossip. “She is attractive.”
“What a worthless word. That tells me nothing.”
He pictured her sitting on the divan, that soft undressing gown billowing over her curves, while she captured his attention with her compelling gaze. “Very attractive. Is that better? Handsome more than pretty. Strikingly so. Whether she was his lover or not . . . Does it matter? The legacy is hers in any case. I can now move on to the next one.”
Only not right away. That was the devil of it. In agreeing to look into the duke’s death, he would be left with little time to track down these other legatees. He would need to go down to Melton Park in Sussex in order to examine closely where that fall had happened, and talk to the servants there. If he concluded the fall was not accidental, he would need to look into the people with whom Uncle had formed those business partnerships, and discover if anything was amiss.
It would take weeks, maybe months, to do a thorough inquiry.
Nicholas rose and walked to the window. He looked down at the park across the street. The recent replacement of the park’s wall with an iron fence had improved the prospect. “I thought I would have heard from someone by now about how he died. The high chancellor, or the Home Office. Do you think they are being delicate, or ignorant? I can’t be the only one who thinks that fall is suspicious.”
“I expect that if there is an inquiry it will be very discreet. You may not ever be told it is taking place.”
“I don’t care for remaining in the dark. If an inquiry is taking place, I want to be kept informed. If no inquiry is taking place, I want to know why. Once matters are settled with the will, perhaps you will go down to Melton Park to see what if anything can be learned there. If no one else thinks it a serious matter, I will do it myself. With your help, that is.”
Chase said nothing to discourage his cousin’s thinking. Nicholas’s decision to act would be useful. He would not have to hide his inquiry from at least one member of the family. “I’ll do that. I’ll see what else I can find, if you want.”
Nicholas emerged from his distraction. “How fortunate that my cousin is talented in such things. I would never trust a hired man for matters this delicate.” He stretched his arms up, like a big cat expanding his spine. “I will go riding, and pretend my life is still carefree. Will you join me?”
“I have a client who grows impatient, and must finish the day as I began it.”
“I hope this client is not going to divert you from my problem.”
“You are the client.”
They walked down together. “Aunt Agnes is insisting on a family meeting,” Nicholas said. “She wants it held here. She said it is because I am head of the family, but I suspect it is so the costs of the meals are on me.”
“I hope she doesn’t expect dinners with eighteen courses.”
“I’d like you here when they all descend. You can back me up when I explain it will probably be months before anyone sees anything. I don’t think most of them comprehend how little is likely to be split up, and how small their portions will be.”
“It is a simple matter of sums and subtractions. Have the solicitor attend, to explain it.”
Nicholas sent word to the stables to prepare his horse and to bring Chase’s, then they walked out together. “You will attend?”