Page 59 of The Icy Duke Claims a Bride

“Do you hear that, Jasper? You’re no gentleman.” Hugh smiled at the bird. “Do go on, Mr. Bennett.”

“So, in my view, Jasper repeated something he shouldn’t have in front of one of Lord Edwin’s associates. Your uncle then used Jasper’s swearing at your aunt as an excuse to get rid of him. Some things should never be written down or repeated, shouldthey? I don’t expect he would have acted much differently if Jasper had been human.”

“I trusted Edwin Vaughan!” Jasper protested.

The voice the bird mimicked was familiar, and hearing it repeatedly finally made something click in Hugh’s head.

“Is that William Fitzroy’s voice, Mr. Bennet? Did Jasper overhear a conversation between my uncle and Mr. Fitzroy?”

“I believe you might be right,” Mr. Bennett answered after a few moments’ thought. “How strange to hear him again after all these years.”

“Would there have been records of Uncle Edwin’s meetings in your offices—hire of the rooms, arrival of guests, and so forth?”

“Certainly, there would have been records of the office reservation, the monthly billing and settlement of payment, and perhaps some other details. Working on estates, I would have kept all client records at least twenty years, but I can’t say whether the young Messrs. Haworth did the same with their corporate clients.”

“I’ll engineer a reason to visit their offices and find out. With Boyd & Bennett representing Redbridge these last ten years, I’ve had no cause to maintain links with Haworths.”

“It was generous of you to give the account to Leo when he set up with Boyd, Your Grace. Was that your own decision?”

“I certainly approved the change, Mr. Bennett, for the sake of my father’s affection and respect for you, as well as my confidence that your son would meet the same high standards of work as his father. It was one of the first decisions I approved after reaching one-and-twenty.”

Mr. Bennett bowed his head in thanks but continued his questioning. “You approved shifting the account to Boyd & Bennett, but you didn’t suggest it yourself?”

“No, that was Uncle Edwin. Do you think he had a reason for it?”

“For wanting to completely separate the agents who worked for his business from the agents managing the Redbridge estate, just at the point where the Duke of Redbridge reached his majority? Yes, I do. Your uncle is not a man to act without a reason, is he?”

“Could you send a discreet message to your son, Mr. Bennett? I should very much like to inspect all the estate records that he holds, without alerting my uncle, and without delay. I’m going to go through everything from the last twenty years with a fine toothcomb.”

“I would be happy to do whatever I can to help you, Your Grace. It occurs to me that there is one other consistent record of work that might aid your efforts. I kept my own work diary for the forty years I was with Bennett, Haworth & Sons. On its own, itcontains no revelations, but you could check other documents against its contents.”

“That would be extremely useful, Mr. Bennett. There is a family luncheon I must attend at the home of my wife’s father on Wednesday, but I can otherwise call on Boyd & Bennett at their earliest convenience.”

“I will write today. Now, I will fetch the diary volumes from my study for you. Unless you would like to accompany me?”

Hugh shook his head, looking thoughtfully at the parrot once more. “If it’s all the same to you, Mr. Bennett, I’ll wait here and see if I can get coax more information out of Jasper…”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“Ishouldn’t laugh,” Catherine remarked, wiping an amused tear from her eye as Hugh finished recounting the story of Mr. Reginald Bennett and Jasper. “But the fact that one of your key witnesses is likely a parrot is difficult to countenance with a straight face.”

While both of them had been bursting to share the previous day’s discoveries, Hugh’s very late return from London meant that they had only exchanged a few words in bed and then had a coded conversation over breakfast the next morning as servants bustled in and out of the dining room. Now, in the library, it was time for fuller accounts.

Hugh shrugged with a smile of his own. He sat at one of the desks, drumming his fingers lightly on the pile of red leather-bound volumes making up Mr. Bennett’s diaries. On other desks and tables around them lay less formally bound files and paperwork, several large packets that arrived by messenger that morning from Boyd & Haworth.

“I laughed, too. But it was so strange when I realized that Jasper was speaking in William Fitzroy’s voice, and with such emotion,” Hugh commented. “It sent shivers down my spine to hear him saying ‘I trusted Edwin Vaughan’ like that, over and over again.”

“You all trusted him,” Catherine pointed out. “Except your father.” Then, she opened the dark green box into which she had yesterday gathered the papers she wished to show him. “I did as you suggested and went through your father’s files. I was looking for anything related to his will and especially his thinking on the guardianship and care of his children. He left a surprising amount of paperwork, didn’t he?”

“His personal papers were sealed and stored in a bank vault until I was one-and-twenty. I never had the heart to sift through them when I was younger,” Hugh admitted. “So, everything you saw is as Father left it the day he died.”

“I guessed that,” Catherine said compassionately, but not wanting to dwell on this point for his sake. “Your father left copies of letters with very clear instructions to the executors of his will, as well as copies of earlier wills.”

“Does he say why he prevented me from falling under my uncle’s guardianship?”

“No, but he makes it very clear that his instructions are intentional and absolute, and that the three men were chosen for a reason. He even specifies that family interests are to be represented by your grandmother during the minority of his heirrather than your uncle. We also have an actual date for when he changed his will to add this clause.”

Catherine handed Hugh the heavily amended manuscript, where his father had crossed out earlier text and added in the names of Reginald Bennett and two others in the margin, along with the date and his initials.

---