When a Duchess Says I Do - Grace Burrowes Page 0,50
and not know Duncan is a widower? How like a Wentworth, to be so needlessly stoic about such terrible loss.”
And how like Duncan, especially. Myriad moments flashed in Jane’s memory: Duncan patiently showing Bitty how to tie her boots, his tolerance with Althea and Constance’s bickering, his loyalty to Stephen. A man bereft of immediate family valued the relations remaining to him.
“I didn’t know Duncan had lost a wife when I first sent for him,” Quinn said, giving Jane’s calf an oddly pleasurable squeeze. “Stephen was in serious difficulties, and the tutors and governors I’d hired were making his situation worse. Duncan came south straightaway, but before he took a shilling of my money he acquainted me with some of his past, lest I hear it from anybody else. Are you undressing me, Your Grace?”
“Loosening your cravat. We’ll need to change before we go out. Tell me the rest of Duncan’s story.”
Jane would also need to stop by the nursery. Artemis was old enough to take warmed gruel several times a day, but she also still needed her mama.
“I don’t know the rest of his story,” Quinn said. “He told me he’d left the church over theological differences with his pastor and bishop, and had taken a wife who did not survive long after giving birth. The child perished as well, and—”
“Duncan lost a child? Oh, Quinn, that poor man. That poor, dear man. Such a tragedy explains much.”
Jane hugged Quinn, who rolled to his back the better to be hugged. This escalated to kissing, though Jane wasn’t about to be distracted from their conversation—not yet.
“I gather these losses occurred when Duncan wasn’t even as old as Stephen is now,” Quinn said. “The past does not seem to trouble him.”
Jane shoved at Quinn’s shoulder. “Not trouble him? Not trouble him? Quinn, you snapped your fingers over a younger brother in distress and Duncan traveled two hundred miles without a qualm. He’s barely left Stephen’s side since, and no matter where Stephen sought to wander, Duncan wandered with him. That’s biblical devotion to a very difficult young man, and you say Duncan isn’t troubled. To lose a child, a wife and a child, and a livelihood all in such a short time. Our poor Duncan. Stop distracting me.”
Quinn left off running his finger along Jane’s décolletage and affected an innocent look that earned him another shove.
“I might be misreading my cousin, Jane. Duncan was necessarily concerned with his own situation when we were younger. I gather his uncle wasn’t the compassionate sort, though the aunt left everything to Duncan upon her death.”
“When I first met Duncan,” Jane said, “I thought him cold, an academic longing for his secluded tower. Then I thought him merely reserved. Now you tell me he’s known great loss, and I’m not sure what to think. What happened between Duncan and his pastor that would cause him to give up his vocation?”
“Maybe he hadn’t a vocation. Tell me again why we’re going out this evening.”
“A pianist is performing at a musicale—a duke’s son is debuting a new sonata. We must lend our cachet. Why would a young man who had no other professional training leave the church, Quinn? Why wouldn’t he go back to the church, hat in hand, when he had a wife and child to support? Or did he leave because of the wife and child? Maybe she was a Dissenter?”
Quinn sat up. “You won’t let this go, will you? Duncan is a surpassingly private man, and I’ve hesitated to probe old wounds.”
Jane smoothed Quinn’s hair and drew off the cravat she’d untied. “Until those old wounds are healed, we can obligate Duncan to any number of properties, but he’ll still find a way to wander. Might you unlace me?”
She scooted around, giving Quinn her back, and he started on her hooks. “Duncan likes wandering, just as Joshua likes running the bank.”
Joshua Penrose, Quinn’s financial partner, loved running the bank, thanks be to heaven. “We must pay a visit at Brightwell, Quinn. If Stephen needs a substantial sum delivered, then the money will be more safely sent with the ducal coach, outriders, grooms, and footmen.”
Quinn kissed Jane’s nape, which gave her a delicious, shivery feeling every time he did it—still.
“Tell me this, madam duchess: How is Duncan to accommodate and feed the army that you insist I take with me when I leave Town?”
Jane’s dress fell open and Quinn switched to loosening her stays. “That’s simple. Provisions can be sent as well. You say Brightwell