will Jessica’s name become Thorne or Rochford when she marries?”
“Thorne,” Gabriel said. “My name was legally changed in Boston when my cousin adopted me as his son.”
“Your mother’s cousin, I presume,” the duke said. “It was her maiden name too. Edwin Goddard is very good at many things, you see, though admittedly that was something I might have ferreted out even without his aid if I had chosen to exert myself. Edwin is bad for me. He enables me to be lazy.”
Gabriel very much doubted His Grace allowed anyone or anything to make him lazy.
“You see,” Netherby continued, “I would quite possibly have approved of your suit, Lyndale—I may call you that?—even if Jessica had needed my permission. An earl is a good match for her. I would, of course, have required detailed information about your American business and your personal fortune. Poor Edwin would have been very busy indeed. I would also have required—no, I would have demanded—a full explanation of certain events that happened just prior to your leaving for America. I trust you have been able to satisfy Jessica on those points?”
“I have,” Gabriel told him. “I am innocent of both rape and murder. I can offer proof on the first and a witness, or rather an alibi, on the second.”
“Quite so,” the duke said with a dismissive gesture of one hand. “Miss Beck, I assume. You need not proceed to bore me with all the sordid details.”
Gabriel did not doubt that he knew them already. But good God, his man had spoken to Mary, had he? Norton had spotted him in the environs of Brierley. And from the description he had given in his report, Gabriel had concluded that he and the majordomo who had been guarding Lady Jessica Archer at the inn on the road to London a few weeks ago were one and the same.
“Perhaps,” he said, getting to his feet, “I may have a word with my betrothed now?”
“I do not doubt she awaits you with bated breath,” Netherby said, also rising from his chair. “You may discover, however, that her mother will want more than a single word with you. You may expect to find her severely disappointed, since she and her sisters and their mother appear to have pinned their hopes upon another man who expects to be Earl of Lyndale one day.”
“Jessica informed me that you withheld your blessing from him when he asked for it,” Gabriel said, “because he has too many teeth.”
And he was suddenly treated to the rare sight of the Duke of Netherby smiling.
Jessica was sitting in the drawing room with Anna and her mother. Her mother had not given either her or Ruth any special instructions this morning. As a result, Jessica was wearing her favorite—but not new—blue morning dress and had her hair dressed simply, without any artfully wayward curls to trail her neck or temples. She sat with a book open on her lap, a ridiculous affectation, since she could not have read a single sentence if she tried. Indeed, she had to check to make sure it was the right way up.
Her mother was not pleased. The fact that she had not uttered a word since Jessica joined her and Anna in the drawing room proved the point. She had not said anything or looked up from her embroidery frame even when the door knocker sounded downstairs and the heavy doors could be heard opening a short time later.
Anna was holding her peace too, though she regarded them both with kindly smiles from time to time when she looked up from the bonnet she was knitting for Beatrice.
“Mr. Thorne?” Mama had said when Avery had mentioned at breakfast that Gabriel had requested an audience. “But whatever for?”
“If he had included that information in his note,” Avery had said, “he would hardly need to come here too, Mother.”
“It cannot be,” Mama had said, frowning. “He surely cannot be coming here to make an offer for Jessica, Avery?”
“I seriously doubt it,” Avery had said. “He must know he does not need my permission.”
“Avery!” she had cried. “You will surely say a resounding no, whether Jessica needs your permission or not. It is Mr. Rochford whose suit we must encourage. He has prospects. Viola is hoping Mr. Thorne will persuade Estelle to choose a husband at last, though she is perfectly well aware that Marcel may object to her choosing an untitled man about whom so little is known. She is bound to be upset