Page 17 of Valentine Nook
I gesture to James that we leave before Alex asks what we’re doing, but he’s gone back to his breakfast and whatever he was reading in the paper.
James follows me into my study and silently takes the document I pick up from my desk to hand him.
“I need you to witness me signing this.”
If he notices the silvery snail trail, he doesn’t say anything, although perhaps that’s why he’s frowning. It could also be a frown of concern because I know what’s written on the document in his hand will come as a surprise to him.
“Lando—”
“I just need you to witness me signing it. I don’t need a lecture or your approval,” I snap. James raises one of his thick brows. “And I don’t need you to try to talk me out of it.”
“Of course.”
It’s the way he elongates the vowels that has me answering the question he didn’t ask.
“It’s none of my mother’s business. I’m the duke. I get to say who inherits my title.”
James drops his head with a shake, and his eyes scan over the words again. “You know there are rules in place to prohibit this from happening.”
“Which is why I want to change them.” I flick the paper he’s still holding that says exactly that and let out a loud sigh, scratching through my beard.
As much as I love my “fuck you, Caroline” beard, I have to admit it’s become itchy. It needs a trim at the very least.
“Lando—”
“If something happens to me, Alex is next in line to inherit, but he’s only two years younger than I am. We need the next generation to be cemented in before we’re too old and decrepit to do anything about it. Max should be the rightful heir after me. He’s the first grandchild.”
There. I’ve said it out loud. This plan kills two birds with one stone.
Confirms the heir to Burlington and, by doing so, gets my mother off my back.
If an heir is in place, I don’t need to find a wife like we’re still living in the sixteenth century.
Does it seem drastic? Probably. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
“Have you spoken to Hendricks?”
“Not yet.”
This particular part has my usual nerves of steel jittering slightly. Out of all my brothers, Hendricks is the most laid-back, the least unruffled—you’d have to be with Miles as your twin—but I’m certain this will likely get his blood boiling.
Still, needs must.
“Don’t you think you ought to? Legally, you have to, seeing as Max is his son.”
“Yes, and I will. But I wanted everything in place first.”
He stares unblinking. I can tell he’s concerned, and truthfully, as the closest thing I’ve had to a father in the past twenty years, I’m amazed he’s not already yelling at me that I’m making a mistake.
“You’re writing off your future.”
Close enough.
“I’m not. I’m taking the pressure off all eventualities and buying myself some peace and quiet. If I ensure the future of Burlington and hand it to Max, then everything else is irrelevant.”
James drops the document on my desk. “This is imprudent.”
“I disagree.”
