‘I think you will find she’s rather too straightforward for that,’ the Duke said. ‘And she doesn’t know who I am.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Hence the ‘cousin Sev’. She knows me as Mr Cassian, because of the bet, and I have not disabused her. I—’
He’d put yesterday’s confrontation to the back of his mind for a little while, relieved to be concentrating on Miss Beaumont’s woes and enjoying Louisa’s company instead. Now his betrayal and Daizell’s hurt came rushing back, with all the more force for having been briefly pent up. He swallowed. ‘I hid my name all the time. Lied to people.’
‘Sev?’
‘It’s nothing. Nothing. I – It’s been a peculiar time for me.’
She gave him a long examining look, and shook her head. ‘Bother Leo and his foolish wagers.’
‘Don’t blame Leo. I wanted this and it has been . . . I would not have missed it for the world. With everything, I would not have missed it.’ She was watching him, looking puzzled and a little concerned, and he forced a smile. ‘I have learned a great deal. Partly, I have learned that anonymity is a curse as well as a blessing, and now I shall have to tell Miss Beaumont I am a duke, which will be embarrassing.’
‘More so for her, I expect.’
‘Yes.’ The Duke winced internally on Miss Beaumont’s behalf. He was deeply glad she had spoken so frankly about her sentiments, or lack of them, towards him, but he suspected she might not feel the same. ‘Could we perhaps tell herafterdinner? I should prefer her to be comfortable.’
‘She would not be more comfortable with me if I started by colluding to deceive her,’ Louisa said. ‘For goodness’ sake.Now, that sounds like Leo coming in. You may greet him, and at least wash before we dine because you may be anonymous but there is no need to look like the scaff and raff. I shall have Miss Beaumont down here for you to speak to after that.’
Dinner was a great deal more enjoyable than the Duke could have predicted. Leo greeted him with great good humour, and was easily persuaded, under his sister’s quelling eye, to agree that this family dinner lay outside the terms of the wager. Miss Beaumont had been incredulous and horrified to learn of Mr Cassian’s true identity, but she carried on bravely despite her natural mortification, aided by Leo’s clear admiration. He was a tall, well-built man with a deal of charm, most unlike his titled cousin, and he chaffed the Duke about his deception in a way that soon had Miss Beaumont daring to giggle.
‘It does seem a quite extraordinary thing to be doing, Mr— Your Grace,’ she said.
‘Severn,’ the Duke said. That was a perfectly respectable mode of address for a family friend. ‘And perhaps it is a little odd—’
‘Absolutely absurd,’ Louisa said. ‘You and Leo are nothing but a pair of schoolboys.’
‘I don’t quite agree, my dear,’ James Kentridge remarked. He was rather older than his wife, an intelligent man with a deceptively sleepy look. ‘As I understand it, Severn set out on his adventure with a purpose.’
‘I did.’ The Duke caressed the ring with the pad of his thumb, checking it was there as he had done no more than fifty or sixty times that day. ‘I wanted experience of life which one cannot get from a castle window, or the BowWindow either. I wanted to encounter people and see how they saw me –asme, not as my position. I wanted to prove to myself that I could manage. I don’t know if I have achieved that entirely. I have failed badly at some things. But I have certainly learned.’
‘To use the stage?’ Leo asked.
‘To use the stage, to order my own meals and tend to my own belongings and to decide the course of my own days. That may not sound much to you, but then, you have not always been wrapped in lamb’s wool.’ He paused. ‘Also, I escaped from kidnappers.’
That created a suitable effect: in fact, Leo choked on a mouthful of wine. The Duke told the story, eliciting gasps and laughs in a very satisfactory manner. Possibly he had learned a little from the evenings in the Green Lion. Miss Beaumont seemed entirely unsurprised by his account of the men Sir James had sent after her, but Leo grew red with fury on both her and the Duke’s behalf.
‘The man is a dashed villain,’ he said. ‘A villain, I say. To send the sort of beasts who would manhandle Miss Beaumont—’
‘And who did manhandle Severn,’ Louisa said. ‘I trust you intend to repay that, Sev?’
‘I do, yes,’ the Duke said. ‘Mostly by removing Miss Beaumont and her wealth from his grasp. Kentridge, I hope you will be able to act for me there?’
‘I can certainly speak to your lawyers in London. And I know George Boyson, Miss Beaumont’s trustee, slightly,’ Kentridge said. ‘He is disinclined to take trouble on himself, but I expect he might be persuaded that your displeasure is potentially more troublesome than Vier’s.’
‘Do tell him that. I shall be happy to make it good.’
‘Absolutely right. Vier must not be allowed to get hold of Miss Beaumont again,’ Leo said. ‘I won’t have it.’
‘You are so very kind, Mr Crosse,’ Miss Beaumont said, cheeks pinking, apparently unaware that the Duke and Mr Kentridge would be doing all the work.
‘It sounds as though Sir James is as malevolent as Leo has said,’ Louisa remarked. ‘Why did your father put you in his hands, Miss Beaumont?’
‘My father wasn’t terribly pleasant either. They were business partners. And Sir James can be charming, and plausible.’
Leo snorted disbelief. Louisa, ever sisterly, remarked, ‘Well, he persuaded you to play with him. Repeatedly.’
