Page 83 of The Duke of Kisses
“Is she in the drawing room by chance?” David asked, knowing that was where she typically spent her evenings following dinner.
“Yes sir. I’ll let Gibbs know you’re here.” Gibbs, his valet, had been a bit put out when David had left him here instead of taking him to Yorkshire.
“Thank you.” David made his way to the drawing room at the rear of the house and found his mother sitting in front of a low fire intent on her embroidery. She was working on a piece in a stand positioned before her. A bright lantern burned on the table to her right illuminating her work.
She looked up as he entered. “David, what a surprise.” Her gaze dipped over his travel-worn costume. “Did you just arrive?”
“I did.” He went to the sideboard and poured a glass of port. “Would you care for sherry?”
“A refill would not come amiss.”
He looked over and saw she had an empty glass on the table next to the lantern. He took the bottle and filled the glass, then returned the sherry to the sideboard.
Picking up his port, he sat in a chair angled beside her settee. “I have news to share.”
“Where did you go? You didn’t say, and your staff wouldn’t tell us either.”
He decided to just tell her without preamble. “I was in Yorkshire with Miss Snowden. She has agreed to become my wife.”
The countess had just taken a drink of sherry and began to sputter. David reached to take the glass from her fingers before she inadvertently splashed it on her embroidery.
When she regained her composure, she gaped at him. “After everything I told you, you’re going to marry her anyway?”
He set her glass on a table between his chair and her settee. “I love her. Shouldn’t I marry the woman I love?”
She stared at him a long moment, her lips pursing. “Why do you have to loveher?”
He started to relax, feeling as if he were finally making progress. “I don’t think we get to choose whom we fall in love with.” He sipped his port.
“Nonsense. You have a brain, and you have choice. You could have chosen Miss Stoke. Youshouldhave chosen Miss Stoke.” On second thought, his mother was being incredibly obstinate.
“Why are you so hell-bent on Miss Stoke?” David tried to keep his voice from rising and failed.
“Because your father wanted you to marry her. And you promised. Your word to him should mean something! He deserves to be respected.” Her voice had risen too, and her cheeks flushed a dark pink.
David took a deep breath. “I don’t want to fight with you about this. I am marrying Fanny, and you can either support our union or live far away from us and stay out of our lives. Which would you prefer?”
She clenched her jaw. “Your uncle will never understand or forgive you for this. Snowden kidnapped his sister and all but killed her. For all we know, hedidkill her. We have no idea what happened.”
David worked to keep his ire in check. “If Snowden had killed her, why would he bring her back here to be buried? Wouldn’t he have run far away for fear of imprisonment? The same goes for kidnapping her. If he did that, why bring her back here and face all of you?”
“He was a fool. He didn’t want to be charged with murdering her, so he brought her back and claimed they ran off together because they were in love.”
“That just doesn’t make sense, Mother.”
She glared at him. “It makes perfect sense.”
He set his port down next to her sherry and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t suppose you know what happened to Snowden? His family believes we are responsible for his disappearance.”
“Bah, that’s balderdash. Snowden ran off after he brought Catherine back. Walter says he went to America to escape the magistrate.”
“Uncle Walter talked to you about this?”
She shrugged. “A bit.”
David found that highly curious but supposed they might have discussed it at some point in the last thirty years. “I will speak with him about this.”
“He won’t be happy. You’re betraying your family. You may even find a few of the older retainers haven’t forgotten.”
