Page 164 of The King's Man
Thamsine smiled. ‘I know all there is to know of your stepson, Mistress Lovell. Between us, I suspect he only married me for my money.’
She winked at her husband, who responded with a grin. Margaret stood to one side of the doorway and gestured for them to enter.
‘Seeing as you’re here, you may as well come in.’
Frances tucked her arm into Kit’s.
‘Take no notice of her, Kit! I, for one, am happy to see you.’
‘How’s Grandfather?’ he asked.
She stopped and looked up at him.
‘You don’t know?’
A chill of premonition settled on Kit’s shoulders. ‘Know what?’
‘He’s dead. You’re Lord Midhurst now.’
Kit took a deep, steadying breath.
‘When?’
‘Last winter,’ she said. ‘Lung fever.’
The old man was dead? So he had been Lord Midhurst for months and he’d never known. He wondered what Lucy wouldhave thought if she’d known he was already a Viscount. An empty title if ever there was one. How could another dead man inherit a title?
In the old room that served as a parlour, Margaret turned to face him.
‘I am sorry about Grandfather,’ Kit said. ‘And more sorry that I did not know. How have you managed all these months by yourselves?’
Margaret drew herself up. ‘We’ve managed because we’ve had to. Frances and I have been abandoned. First, they send Daniel to some Godforsaken corner of the world and then your grandfather … and then the news you were dead.’ She drew her daughter to her side. ‘We knew nobody would be coming to our aid.’
Kit laid his hat down on the table. ‘I’m sorry, Margaret.’
‘Sorry?’ Margaret glared at him. ‘Don’t think we weren’t grateful for the money you sent, but we needed you, Kit.’
Her words lashed him and he flinched at the pain that they caused. He had deluded himself into believing that the few coins he sent were enough. But there was nothing he could have done, even if he had known of their situation.
‘So why are you here now?’ Margaret’s steely gaze moved from Kit to Thamsine.
‘First and foremost, to make my peace with you.’
Margaret gave a hollow laugh. ‘You’re a little late for that, Kit Lovell.’
Frances broke away from her mother’s side and went to stand beside Kit, clutching his arm. ‘No, he’s not! Mother, I don’t blame Kit for what happened to Daniel. Daniel went of his own free will and nothing you could have said or done would have stopped him. The good Lord knows how much I miss Daniel but,’ she glanced up at her brother, ‘I have missed Kit too.’
Margaret shot her daughter a quelling glance and looked back at Kit. ‘And?’
‘And?’ Kit looked at Thamsine and she nodded. ‘Thamsine and I have come to offer you a home.’
Margaret straightened, her chin coming up in a familiar gesture of defiance. ‘This is my home.’
Kit ran a hand through his hair. Margaret had always been a stubborn, infuriating woman, but he loved her as much as he had his own mother.
‘Fine,’ he said. ‘You can stay here, Margaret, living in four rooms in a broken ruin, if that’s what you want. Frances?’
Frances looked up at him.
