Page 104 of Never a Duke
George chose then to stride into the room, looking quite well put together if a trifle wary. “We have exalted visitors, I’m told. George Kinwood, at your service. Roz, if you’d see to the introductions?”
“That’s Lady Rosalind to you,” Ned said. “Your Graces of Walden, may I make known to you Mr. George Kinwood, brother to Lady Rosalind. Mr. Kinwood, the Duke and Duchess of Walden. They are here as witnesses to a discussion of criminal wrongdoing.”
George smiled coolly. “Has somebody been naughty? Not dear Roz, I hope?”
“In company, you will address your sister as Lady Rosalind.” The duchess’s tone was arctic. “If you presume to address her at all.”
Lindhurst strolled into the room next, his cravat off-center, his curls looking more disheveled than stylish, and his pink boutonniere at an odd angle.
“Are we entertaining callers at the crack of doom now?” he asked, making a leg at Her Grace. “Lindhurst, at your service. I believe we were introduced last Season. Walden, good morning. Wentworth, didn’t expect you to show your face hereever again. What on earth could be of such moment that I must be seen barely dressed and without having broken my fast?”
“Be patient,” Ned said. “His Grace will explain the nature of our errand, and you lot will listen. Your ladyship, should we be seated?”
Rosalind took a wing chair at the end of the sofa. Their Graces appropriated a love seat, and Rosalind’s brothers settled onto the sofa. Ivor was in position by the door, while Woodruff remained on his feet.
As did Ned.
“I’ve a mind to absent myself from this display of disrespect,” Woodruff snapped. “Rosalind, have you taken leave of your senses?”
“I have not,” she replied. “His Grace will offer a brief recitation of the facts.”
Walden lounged on the little love seat, duke of all he surveyed. “Mr. George Kinwood has been implicated by witnesses in a scheme that begins with young ladies offered false overtures of gentlemanly interest. When the women, all of good character but of humble standing and without family in the metropolis, have placed their trust in Mr. Kinwood, he lures them into situations from which they can be spirited away. They are then held against their will for weeks.”
“This is preposterous,” Woodruff said. “George is the son of a peer. He has no need to coerce young women to do anything.”
“He has no coin and less honor,” Ned said, taking the place beside Rosalind’s chair. “Walden, if you’d continue.”
“When a transport ship is ready to depart for the Antipodes,” Walden went on, “the captives are substituted for married women, or women more aged or infirm. The female convicts are set free, which is one perversion of justice, while the innocent women are consigned to transportation, with a premium paid to Mr. George Kinwood for providing the younger, healthier, unmarried women, and effecting the switch. That, I believe, constitutes several more perversions of justice.”
“I say.” Lindhurst peered at his brother. “Not the done thing, George. Is this true?”
“Lindhurst, shut your mouth,” Woodruff bellowed. “This is slander, nothing more than Rosalind’s unbalanced imaginings. If I hear that a word of this fantasy has been repeated in polite circles—inanycircles—I will bring suit in a court of law.”
Rosalind stared at the carpet, and in the ensuing silence, Ned feared that she’d lost her resolve. He wanted to plead with her—the women were owed justice, the public paying to support transportation was owed justice. Some part of Ned himself felt a yearning to see Woodruff held accountable, but not at the expense of Rosalind’s well-being.
“What do these so-called witnesses want?” George drawled. “A few pounds? Passage to Italy? I’m not saying a word of Walden’s fairy tale is true, but to avoid unpleasantness, sometimes a little generosity goes a long way. Wouldn’t you agree, Woodruff?”
A tacit negotiation ensued between father and son. George’s tone was that of a casually interested bystander, but his gaze was worried, and Woodruff’s complexion had turned the same shade as the carnation on Lord Lindhurst’s lapel.
“To avoid the shame of a daughter bringing scandal down on her own family,” Woodruff said, “I am willing to entertain terms here. What are your demands, Wentworth? For despite the august company you keep, I sense the tantrum of a spurned suitor in these lies.”
Rosalind looked up. “I beg your pardon?”
Woodruff stalked halfway across the room, as if he’d make a grand exit, then seemed to recall that Ivor would prevent such histrionics.
“I said”—Woodruff positively glowered at Rosalind—“that just as I did when dealing with your wayward mother, I will school myself to discretion in the face of these fabrications and insults that you and Wentworth have concocted. You are a disgrace to the Kinwood name, Rosalind, and I wash my—”
Rosalind rose slowly, an eruption of feminine dignity that had Woodruff stepping back.
“Fabrications and insults, my lord? Shall we descend to the sort of cruelty you showed me when I was a mere child, innocent of adult machinations, grieving the loss of my mother and clinging desperately to familiar surrounds? Shall I inflict on you the hurt caused when a stammer is made into a source of ridicule? When my brothers were encouraged to condescend to me by your sneering example? A man who would treat a helpless child thus would not flinch at exploiting honest women for his own ends. George might well have executed your orders, but now I see that the greed and arrogance behind this scheme have your stamp all over them.
“The scandal here,” she said, more quietly, “is that men of enormous privilege stooped to criminal exploitation of defenseless women, and for so paltry a consideration as coin. You had me kidnapped as well, the better to frighten me into docility yet again. You disgust me, sir, andI am glad you are no blood of mine.” She aimed her next words at Walden. “See him tried in the Lords, Your Grace, and I will testify against him gladly.”
Ned stopped himself from applauding, but only just. He held out a hand to Rosalind, thinking to assist her back into her chair, but she bundled in close and treated him to a fierce hug.
Woodruff, Lindhurst, and George all started babbling at once, with Woodruff prevailing by dint of excessive volume.
“Tried in the Lords? Don’t be preposterous. If George got up to some misguided bit of mischief, that is no concern of mine.”
