‘I will say for you, you don’t make a fuss. Not but what you ought to be a deal higher in the instep,’ Lord Hugo added, in one of the instant contradictions that made himsuch a trying conversational partner. ‘That spirit of uncomplaint is a very admirable thing in any man, but you are not any man. You are Severn.’
‘So I should rant and rage for my offended dignity?’ the Duke asked with a quizzical look. ‘Dear sir, why, when you do it so ably on my behalf?’
That got a reluctant laugh from his uncle. ‘Insolent dog,’ he said, once again forgetting that his nephew outranked him. ‘Well, you will decide, I suppose, but no more of this gallivanting around on your own without your proper attendance. You must know your position better.’
He returned to the subject at dinner. It was an informal family meal: just the Duke, his two resident aunts, widowed Amelia and spinster Hilda, their brother Lord Hugo, and his sons, Cousin Matthew, who was twenty and ought to have been at Oxford but for an incident on a racecourse, and Cousin Leo, who was twenty-eight and ought to have been in London but for an incident in a gaming hell. Both aunts had fluttered, worried, and mourned what their poor mother would have said about the boys’ wildness. Lord Hugo had accepted both sons’ rustication with a deal less dismay than he did any transgression on the Duke’s part.
Inevitably, Lord Hugo went over the whole sorry business as soon as they sat down to dine. Leo and Matthew found it hilarious, which the Duke attempted to take in good part, aided by the free-flowing wines, of which he partook more than usual in an effort to numb his still-aching head. In other circumstances, he could perhaps have laughed sincerely – not at the personal betrayal, which he flinched from considering, but certainly at the spectacle of the Duke of Severn huddled in a blanket and hiding from a suspicious landlord. Hewantedto remember it as ludicrous. He would far rather be the buttof a ridiculous affair than the victim of hurt and unkindness and crushed hope.
He could have laughed, if it wasn’t for the ring. As it was, he thanked the Lord for his family’s habitual obliviousness, which meant nobody had noticed his bare finger and spared him repeating the lie, and wondered what the devil he was going to do.
He had to get it back, that was all. A discreet – exceedingly discreet – private agent to investigate, perhaps? There would surely be someone who would pursue the matter on his behalf, and who would know how to track down a thief who doubtless wasn’t called John Martin at all and of whom the Duke could say little more than the colour of his hair and coat. He wondered how he might seek out a discreet private agent without word getting back to his uncle.
‘You are not attending to me, Severn!’ Lord Hugo remarked, jolting him from his thoughts. ‘I suppose rag-manners are the fashion these days.’
‘You’ve read him the same lesson several times, sir,’ Leo observed to his parent with pardonable exasperation. ‘Yes, he was reckless to go abroad without attendance. The point is made.’
‘Well, and do you dispute it?’
‘Of course I don’t. The way you have wrapped him in lamb’s-wool all his life, it is no surprise that any effort to look after himself should end in disaster.’
‘I have done no such thing!’ Lord Hugo objected inaccurately. ‘Naturally Severn’s safety has been my paramount concern—’
‘Such that he now can’t go on a spree without losing his shirt. Literally. Even Matthew can hold his drink better, and the Lord knows he’s a featherweight.’
‘I say!’ Matthew put in, and was ignored by all.
‘You’re harsh, Leo,’ the Duke said, keeping his voice mild though he felt decidedly stung. ‘I grant you, I did not show to advantage last night, and I know I lack worldly experience—’
‘Lack experience? That is to understate the case. Could you even survive without the constant ministrations of the faithful Waters, and your groom, and your footmen? Good Lord, Sev, you’re held up by a scaffolding of service. No wonder you collapse without it.’
‘I say,’ Matthew repeated, this time in a more worried tone. There was something unusually aggressive in Leo’s voice, more than the usual family give and take, and the Duke’s bruised feelings found relief in responsive anger.
‘That is unjust,’ he said. ‘I am not a fool, or a weakling. I have been robbed once—’
‘You’ve beenoutonce!’
‘At least I have not returned to be robbed again and again at a single spot,’ the Duke retorted. ‘I’mnot that easily shorn.’
Leo had lost a great deal of money to the same men at the same hell over three evenings, a proceeding on which his father had commented in unflattering terms. He reddened. ‘Easy to say from your noble heights. You have no more knowledge of the world than a baby, and no more force of character either, and it is no surprise that you cannot manage without a retinue. If you attempted to take the public stage—’
‘I would learn to do it, just as you did. Purchasing a seat in a coach can hardly be a conundrum requiring membership of the Royal Society to solve.’
‘And carry your own bags? Command rooms and meals?Make your own way without the glory of the Duke of Severn opening all doors for you? Admit it: you’d be helpless.’
‘Of course I could do all that!’ the Duke snapped, and in that moment his great idea rushed upon him, carried on a wave of wine and anger. ‘I could,’ he repeated, ‘and since you suggest it, I shall. Do you care to make a wager of it?’
Leo sat up straight. ‘Wager?’
Aunt Amelia squeaked. Aunt Hilda barked a laugh. Lord Hugo said, ‘Eh?’
‘I would do very well by myself, and I shall prove it,’ the Duke insisted. ‘I shall fend for myself without all the advantages of Severn for, let’s say a month.’
‘You will do no such thing!’
Leo ignored his father. ‘Without servants, and without use of your title or your social connections for assistance or influence? A month without privilege?’
‘Without using any of it. Entirely anonymous.’
