Leonard shook his head, a bitter scoff escaping his lips. “But you do know better. You are the only one who knows why. So why are you still pushing me?”
“I am not,” Kenneth protested.
“But you want me to fall for her, you want this to be real,” he said and watched him carefully.
“I do, I wish it were. I wish you’d let it be real,” his friend admitted.
“But I can’t. I care for her, that is true. She is a good woman. She deserves all the best. And I will give her what I can financially. She will have the best gowns, the best food, the finest art and books and anything she wants – anything but love or marriage,” Leonard said, feeling the weight increase on his chest.
Kenneth’s expression softened as he regarded his friend. “You know, Leonard,” he began slowly, “I wish you would take your own advice—the advice you once gave me.”
Leonard dipped his head to the side in confusion. “What advice?”
Kenneth offered him a knowing smile. “You once told me that just because my father was a philanderer and a wicked man, it didn’t necessarily mean I would become the same,” he reminded Leonard gently. “You told me I am my own man with my own path to forge.”
Leonard felt his face turn into a smile as he recalled his own words “Those were the words of a fool,” he murmured bitterly, his voice heavy with self-condemnation.
“So, you are saying that I am destined to cheat on Joanna? To mistreat her like my father did my mother? To grow cold toward Peter and Louisa?” Kenneth challenged him.
“Of course not. You would never,” Leonard replied, vexed at this carefully crafted trap his friend had set him. Smiling, Kenneth stepped a little closer.
“Then if this is true for me, why is it not for you? Does it not stand to reason we all make our own path? Doesn’t it stand to reason we all can do what we please regardless of what those that came before us do or want?” Kenneth raised his eyebrow as he posed this challenge – and Leonard had to admit that for once he did not have a witty reply.
He blinked, driving the dryness out of his eyes and looked at Kenneth again. “You are not wrong and if it were only a matter of infidelity, I’d agree. But it is not. My father was much worse. He kept mistresses, he abused my mother horridly with his tongue and sometimes his hands. Your father never did that,” he said sternly. Kenneth’s lips parted but he raised his hand to stop his friend. “My father cheated poor vineyard workers out of their wages by convincing the vintners to take a cut of the proceeds instead of payment. Knowing that he intended to cheat them. Knowing it would ruin these poor people. Knowing that it might cause them to starve to death, to lose their homes – he was a monster.”
“But you are not,” Kenneth said, his tone stern and his eyes piercing.
“Not yet. My father wasn’t either. Outwardly, he was a prince, the pinkest of the pink. Adored by all. Women were charmed and men wanted to be his friend. He blinded everyone with his charming manipulations,” Leonard said, his voice rising. “Mother never thought he’d become the sort of man to keep a mistress in every city, who might harm her in any way. Nobody ever knew. And in business?” He scoffed and kicked a pebble across the garden. “He had everything thinking he was honorable and kind. Lord Finch never once suspected that behind closed door my father abused their workers financially. Aaron told me his father only spoke in the highest tones of my father. He … he made himself look like an angel when really, he was the devil.”
“What your father did was awful, Leonard, but you are not him. You are making amends. You travel to all these vineyards time and again to pay the people compensation. And not out of the business’ holdings. You pay them out of your personal funds, I know you have been selling valuables from your father’s storage.”
Leonard raised his arms. “It is only right. Their wages paid for my father’s riches. I should hold on to them while they suffer?”
“I didn’t say that,” Kenneth started but Leonard no longer heard him. The moment he’d seen the damage his father had done to his workers he’d vowed to repay them. Not just repay them for their losses but compensate them for their suffering. And suffered they had plenty. One worker had lost his home because he could not pay the landlord, leaving the family homeless. Another had grown ill with a cough which he’d passed on to his children -two of whom had died because they could not afford a physician. The stories went on and on.
Leonard had done all he could to make things right, compensating them all for their lost wages. In many cases, it wasn’t enough. Thus, he’d begun to help them onto their feet again. He’d helped those who lost their homes find shelter, those who could not work anymore support, and those who’d lost family – well, he’d offered his ear and accepted their wrath.
Since then, he’d returned several times a year to check on their progress. Many workers remained at the vineyards and business was booming – as it always had. Although in an effort to truly give back, he’d raised funds by selling his father’s belongings – his artwork, his precious books, his golden cufflinks – and handed those funds to his workers.
“Kenneth,” he said patiently. “I do what I can to help those my father harmed. But for my mother, I can do nothing. All the years he mistreated her – how I wish I could have taken that from her. But I can’t. I couldn’t. The only thing I can do is make sure no other woman suffers as she did.”
“You have never had a mean bone in your body, Leonard,” Kenneth replied, his tone now exasperated.
“Maybe not. But how do I know when my father became the great manipulator?
As the sounds of the wedding celebration drifted out into the garden, Leonard was left grappling with the weight of his own regrets, the echoes of Kenneth’s words resonating in the depths of his troubled soul.
CHAPTER9
Sally
Sally clutched a handkerchief in her sweaty palm as the carriage rumbled along the country road toward Leonard’s estate. The wedding ceremony had been as uncomfortable, with her and Leonard avoiding eye contact.
Even during the breakfast, they hadn’t spent much time together. Although she hadn’t minded, Joanna had brought Peter and Louisa to the celebration, and she’d much rather have spent her time with them than with a man who would eventually rather be anywhere than at her side.
Thus, she’d enjoyed her time with her family one last time. Alas, the hour of their leaving had come all too soon, and now she was, awaiting this new life of a Duchess.
“You can see the house from here,” Leonard said, pulling her from her thoughts.
