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“Of course, my dear.”
Brandy for the ladies. More brandy. Percival dallied by pouring just so, arranging the glasses just so on a tray, and opening and closing the drawers to the sideboard until he’d found two clean serviettes. When the weeping sounded as if it was subsiding, he brought the tray over to his womenfolk.
“Drink up, young lady, and prepare to explain yourself.”
Over Je
Je
“I think I can guess some of it,” Her Grace said. She hadn’t touched her drink. The woman had fortitude beyond description. “You blame yourself for Bart’s joining up, because you had such a very great row with him before I finally relented.”
Je
Oh, this was difficult. Percival pulled up a rocking chair and sat at his wife’s elbow. “Lest you forget, missy, Windham men have a long and distinguished tradition of serving King and Country. Bart needed to work out the fidgets, so to speak. He was setting a terrible example for the younger boys, wreaking havoc with the domestics, and upsetting your mother. I’d started negotiating for a commission, but your mother could not…”
Could not put her son at risk of death. Percival met his duchess’s gaze, thanking her silently yet again for never once blaming him for Bart’s death.
“I could not let him go,” Her Grace said quietly. “He was my firstborn, the child conceived as your father and I fell in love and married, a bright, shining symbol of so much that was good, but your father had the right of it: Bart was becoming spoiled, and if he was ever to make any sort of duke, he needed to grow up.”
Grow up. Such a simple term for a complicated, fraught, difficult process that could challenge dukes well into their prime. His Grace marshaled his fortitude and said a few more simple words. “You were not responsible for Bartholomew’s death. He died in a Portuguese tavern because the damned fool boy propositioned a decent woman with protective family. I’ve blamed myself, I’ve blamed Wellington, I’ve blamed the entire Portuguese nation for being so deucedly full of pretty girls, but in my wildest imaginings I never once blamed you.”
His feeble attempt at levity went right past Je
So he soldiered on.
“You are not responsible for Victor’s death either.”
Je
Two sons buried, and this daughter nearly lost to an abundance of responsibility and a want of parental attention. It was enough to make a man plan the demolition of Paris. Percival served his wife a steadying look, because the woman would soon be blaming herself for the whole of it.
Truly, Genevieve was their daughter.
“V-Victor went with me to the worst p-places. To any poorhouse, any slum, and he stood by me while I drew and drew… And then he was sick, and I promised him I’d keep painting.”
All no doubt true, also quite beside the point. “That, young lady, is complete twaddle. Everywhere your brother escorted you, two stout footmen followed. Her Grace insisted. You did not fall ill, the footmen did not fall ill, and yet Victor did.”
Luckily for a papa’s composure, this pronouncement got Je
Her Grace pushed a lock of Je
“We knew,” Her Grace said. “Victor made sure we knew, and said we ought to find you a better drawing master, one who’d cultivate your talent, because you couldn’t stop drawing or painting if you wanted to.”
“But he became so ill… He died, and all because I dragged him around with me, just so I could draw all those children and old people. I told Victor if I drew them, then death wouldn’t entirely win. I was a selfish idiot.” She balled up her handkerchief, and His Grace stifled the urge to duck. “Death won.”
So young, and so burdened. So damned u
Her Grace picked up the argument for the defense right on cue. “My younger sister, Ruth, succumbed to consumption before she was out of the schoolroom. Consumption is a scourge, and you did not invent it. I daresay Victor was exposed to disease in a number of unsavory locations about which I will not expound upon, lest I disgrace his memory.”
Oh, excellent. A touch of maternal vinegar turned the moment for Je
His Grace winked at his wife. Well done, indeed. She took a dainty sip of her drink, lifting the glass an inch in His Grace’s direction. A certain duke was going to find some mistletoe when this dreary business was through, see if he didn’t.
“You are not responsible for your brothers’ deaths, Genevieve. That you could think it breaks my heart, and your dear mother will likely require much comforting as a result of the misperception you’ve labored under. I hope no more need be said on the topic?”
He prayed no more need be said, but any prisoner liberated from guilt needed time to relearn a world of freedom. While he leveled a glower at his daughter—a loving glower—His Grace had the thought that Genevieve would have made a good duke.
She understood responsibility and loyalty instinctively, but like her mother, she was not as comfortable with delegation of her assigned tasks. Perhaps Bernward might help her with that.
“No more need be said right now, Papa.”
If only that were true.
“I need to say something.” Her Grace glanced at Percival as she spoke, and he returned the look. Anything she wanted to say, or needed to say, could only add to the discussion and as always, cover the difficult ground her husband—any husband—would sprint across hotfoot.
“I need to say—Percival, would you hold my drink?—I need to say that I am proud of you, Genevieve. I am proud of the regard you hold for your siblings, proud of your talent, proud of your determination—you get that from your father—and so very proud of your courage.”
Oh, damn. What was a man to do when confronted with a teary duchess and a weeping daughter? Percival set the bloody drinks aside, grabbed a serviette, and enveloped both crying females in a hug.
This had the advantage of ensuring he had the privacy to take a surreptitious swipe at his own eyes, but did not relieve him of the obligation—of the need—to reinforce Her Grace’s words.
And to lay the groundwork for a bit of paternal strategy.
“Of course we’re proud of you. We have always been proud of you, but I must tell you, Genevieve, Paris will not do. Not when there’s the whole of the Continent full of art and drawing masters. Paris alone simply will not do.”
“I ca
Kesmore passed Elijah a flask as he scolded, and Elijah took a sip of smooth, fiery brew redolent of hazelnuts.