“It’s more than possible, it is the truth!” she exclaimed. “There is no male heir from the main Sidney line. From William Henry on, there is a scarcity of sons, yielding fewer branches of the family to investigate. You are next in line.”
For a moment he sat in silence. “Miss Sidney,” he said abruptly, “might I have a moment alone with Miss Greene?”
Lucy’s eyes grew anxious, and she looked at Emilia. “Go on, dear,” she said, trying to be as comforting as possible. “I’m sure it’s some very tedious question that would put you to sleep.”
“It absolutely is,” put in Mr. Dashwood. “Horridly tedious.”
A hesitant smile flickered across the girl’s face. “Yes, Miss Greene. May I come back later?”
Emilia had no idea what he was about to say. “If I send for you. For now, you have your sampler to stitch.”
The girl’s sour expression almost made her smile. Lucy left, dragging her feet, and closed the door behind her. “I’m sorry,” she said before she could stop herself. “I know I ought not to allow her such impertinence—”
“I don’t mind.” He gave an absent flick of one hand, staring moodily at the paperwork.
“Are you persuaded?” she asked tentatively.
He turned his brooding gaze on her. He still wore his elegant evening clothes. Now she could see fine copper embroidery on his saffron waistcoat, which suited his tanned skin. His face was all sculpted angles, his brows thick black slashes above his eyes. “Why did you come to me?”
She flushed, realizing she’d been staring. “Birth, marriage, and death records led me,” she replied. “As you see.”
He made a doubting sound in his throat. “Why was it left to you to scour birth, marriage, and death records in the first place?”
“I told you. Lord Sydenham died without an heir, which left Lucinda with nothing.”
“No provision in her father’s will?”
Oh no. The will. Emilia took a deep breath. “When we located his will, it stated she would have seven thousand pounds from her mother’s dowry, but the funds were missing. Somehow Lord Sydenham found a way to get at them, and he spent it—with, I suspect, the help of his corrupt attorney, who skimmed off a piece for himself.”
“Her own father stole her inheritance?” His brows drew together.
Emilia nodded. “He was that sort of man.”
“Fitzhugh Bennet died very soon after Sydenham,” remarked Mr. Dashwood.
She looked at him in surprise. How did he know about the attorney? “He did. I—I believe he took his own life. There was a large sum missing from the estate accounts, which were in a shambles. Lord Sydenham was... not a careful steward. I suspect he either didn’t know or didn’t care that Mr. Bennet was stealing from him, so long as Mr. Bennet helped him get at Lucy’s money.”
“Thieves don’t usually like to be stolen from.”
Emilia gave a bitter sigh. “I don’t know what went on. Mr. Bennet was the one who related the terms of the will to us. He smiled so kindly at Lucy, when he’d been stealing her inheritance—” She stopped, choking with anger again.Everyonehad failed Lucy. Emilia was determined not to do the same.
“Why do you believe he killed himself?”
Emilia flushed. “Henry, our manservant, heard he’d died of a bullet to his brain, alone in his office.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Well. That is persuasive.”
She moved to the edge of her seat, ready to plead. “The estate has been mismanaged, but it’s large, and could be made productive again. The title is old and respectable, despite the late Lord Sydenham’s... eccentricities. Without an heir, everything will revert to the Crown. But it is rightfully yours.”
He rested his elbows on his knees, hanging his head. His long fingers dug into the back of his neck. “How did you find me? I know I’m not in any Sidney records,” he said without looking up, as Emilia drew breath. “There must be a dozen other twigs off the family tree who would make more acceptable heirs.”
“No,” she said firmly. “There are not. No other male cousins. I looked. All I found was your father.”
“My father,” he muttered. “He wasn’t the sort anyone would leave an estate to.”
“That doesn’t matter!” she burst out. “The rules don’t demand an heir be respectable or sensible or even sane. It only matters that he’s legitimate.”
“And how did you leap from the Sidney family Bible to me?”
