Page 109 of Earl on the Run (The Duke's Estates 2)

“The duke thought… Why would you go there? It is a dreary place.”

“Did you find it so?”

“Yes, I was so glad to leave for school. I only regretted abandoning Mama there.”

“She’s quite fond of the place, actually. She told me so.”

“What? You must have misunderstood her. Mama often says things to be polite.”

“She had no need to do so with me. I’d never heard of the town until she told me the happiest time of her life was at a house in Tunbridge Wells.”

Harriet tried to take in this incredible assertion.

“It was after you had gone off to school,” he added apologetically. “She had a room at the front of the house to show off her fancywork, which was very much admired.”

Harriet remembered that chamber. She hadn’t thought much about it, being wrapped up in her own youthful concerns.

“And, indeed, I found many ladies there remembered her fondly,” said the rogue earl. “They all wanted to know how she was getting on. You, too, of course.”

Harriet doubted that last statement.

“So I purchased the house for her.”

“You…you what?” She couldn’t have heard him properly.

“I shall settle an income on her. I asked my new man of business about it. That sounds grand, doesn’t it? I recently acquired an advisor on Tereford’s recommendation. Someone up to every rig and row of English practice, as he put it. He’ll set things up.”

“You can’t,” she declared.

“It’s quite possible. And will be legal and permanent. So there can be no threatening to take it away later as your devilish grandfather does. That will put a spoke in his wheel,” he finished with evident satisfaction.

“Wheel?” echoed Harriet, still astonished.

“If your mother has an income and a household of her own, your grandfather can’t threaten to throw her out.” He shrugged. “Well, he could, but she can ignore him.”

“I can’t allow you to do that,” Harriet said.

“Why not?”

“It’s not right.”

“I don’t see that.”

“You are not… We are not… People make such arrangements for family members or old retainers.”

“You mustn’t call your mother that. She’d be livid.”

“Will you be serious?”

“I’m perfectly serious.” He certainly looked it.

“What would people think?”

“The matter won’t be published in the newspapers,” he said. “It will be a private transaction. No one will know unless we tell them.”

“No. I forbid it.”

“Well, you know, you can’t really stop me.”

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