Page 88 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

“It had been in the library all along?”

His friend nodded. “I took the liberty of searching out this Jacob Grantham fellow, at your dear sister’s behest. She was insistent that I find the man—or his gravestone—and I did.”

It was difficult to picture Daniel doing anything Evie would tell him, but a challenge like this might prove intriguing to his friend. Daniel might say that Evie had forced him to do it, but Colin had the suspicion that he could not resist the temptation to test his skills—and his connections.

Colin absently folded the letters and tied them up with the string. “And what did you find?”

“That he came from a good family that had fallen on hard times.” Daniel shrugged casually. “He had an education—as much as can be managed with a meager income anyway—but poverty required him to seek employment, and he found it in the stables of the Earl of Wellington.”

My grandfather. This man worked for Grandfather?

“The information was a little difficult to come by, granted that most who knew the story have already died,” Daniel explained. “But there is nothing that cannot be hidden forever.” A satisfied smile flashed across his features. “As you might have noticed, the last letter was shortly before your parents were wed.”

Colin nodded.

“Do you know what happened around that time?”

“Not really. All Mother ever told us was that Father proposed at a difficult time for their family, and Grandfather accepted his suit to save the family.”

Daniel smirked. “I suppose that is one way of putting it. I dug a little deeper and guess what I found?”

Colin was getting tired of his friend milking the information and baiting him with it. “What?” he snapped.

“There was a scandal at that time,” Daniel told him. “One that involved your mother being caught with an unknown man.”

Colin sucked in a harsh breath. A scandal of that magnitude would not only have ruined his mother, but it could have pulled the entire family down with her. At the time of her wedding to the Duke of Blackthorn, she had a younger sister who was to make her bow in the next Season. If the scandal had been allowed to spiral out of control, it would have ruined his aunt as well as the rest of the family.

“Your father did not propose simply to force your mother into wedlock,” Daniel told him somberly. “He did it to save her—and she accepted it.”

That particular revelation nearly caused Colin to drop the stack of letters in his hand. Even after Daniel had left him, shortly after divulging the circumstances surrounding his parents’ marriage, the tremors did not ease.

He was still in his study when his grandmother and Evie arrived after attending the opera. He could vaguely hear his younger sister declare that she was tired and would head off to her bedchamber posthaste. His grandmother said something, but he could hardly hear it.

Moments later, he heard a light knock on his door, and it opened to reveal the Dowager Countess of Wellington.

“You are still awake,” she sighed. “Go get some sleep, Colin. It would do you much better than to work yourself to an early grave.”

He laughed harshly and covered his face with his hands. “How can I, Grandmother?”

Her normally regal features softened. “I know that the failure of your betrothal has affected you more than you would care to acknowledge?—”

“No, no, no. I am not talking about that.” Colin shook his head. “I am talking about this—” he gestured to the stack of letters on his desk. “Tell me, Grandmother, why did Mother marry Father when she did not care for him much?”

Shock flashed across the older woman’s face, but his grandmother had weathered so many shocking things in her life that it did not remain there for much longer. Slowly, she walked to the sofa close to his desk, and with a gentle look in her eyes, she sat down.

“What do you want to know?” she asked him softly.

“Everything,” he said harshly. “About this Jacob Grantham. About Mother. And please, start from the beginning.”

“All right.” His grandmother smiled sadly. She took a deep breath and looked him squarely in the eye. “You might want to sit down for this. It is quite a long tale.”

Colin stood up and then sat beside his grandmother, his heart pounding.

“All right, Grandmother. I am ready.”

CHAPTER 37

The fire crackled cheerily in the fireplace, casting shadows on his grandmother’s face and making her seem older and more worn out than she usually was. Colin could tell from the look in her eyes alone that this was going to be quite a hard story to tell. That it was going to dig up past hurts that had long been buried.

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