‘Why should you? I cannot quite believe I did it myself now matters have fallen out so much more happily for Miss Grantham and your brother. It seemed a good idea at the time, but I have had my eyes opened to how bleak a marriage of convenience can be since then by my darling mama.’
‘And you and Miss Grantham are better people than your parents,’ she said, because now they were started on frank and free conversation.
‘Thank you. I am no saint, but I would never force a reluctant wife to endure me in her bed for the sake of the succession. Not all the acres in the world and a far more lordly title could be worth the misery he caused, then and now.’
She nearly laughed at him for thinking any sane female would have to endure him in her bed. Her inner houri would leap at the chance to have him in hers if there was even a whisper of honour in it for either of them. ‘I still cannot understand a mother loving one son and rejecting the next.’
‘I was not her next child or the one after that.’
‘She had other children besides you and your brother, then?’
‘Apparently she miscarried several times and brought a couple nearly to term before they were born dead. In the seven years between George’s birth and mine a baby girl survived long enough to be christened before she died as well. Then two years before me she had a boy who lived for a month before he followed his big sister to the family mausoleum. Then nothing until she was enceinte again at last and my father was wary enough by then to leave her be until I was safely born.’
‘You would think she must have been so delighted when you were delivered safely she would love you all the more. I doubt you were weak or puny since you have grown into such a tall and powerful man.’
‘Why, thank you, Mrs Turner. I am flattered you have noted my rude health and sterling character.’
‘You mean you are too stubborn to give in over anything without a fight, I suppose? I would have to be a fool not to have noticed that.’
‘Apparently my father was as well.’
‘Oh, dear, he reneged on their agreement?’ she said with a sad shake of her head for the stupidity and selfishness of both his parents.
‘Yes, he refused to believe I would survive after so many of his hopes were dashed before I was born. I felt sorry for the Dowager for the first time in my life when she told me that by the time I was born she hated being with child so much she just wanted me out of her body and for the pain and intrusion and indignity to cease. Imagine how she must have felt when she was expected to go through all that again and again and he never stopped wanting more children from her. I never felt more guilty about a woman’s lot in life and less eager for a viscountess of my own than I was when she told me how delighted she was when my father died on the hunting field and she was free at last.’
‘None of it was your fault.’
‘Maybe not, but the ridiculous laws of entail and primogeniture made it the fault of Viscount Stratford with all those inherited acres and estates and more houses than one man could ever live in to pass on only to a son.’
‘You sound like a Jacobin.’
‘I could not support bloody revolution after the Terror in France, but hearing the true reason for the Dowager’s hatred of me and through me of Juno as well made me think I must be very sure the lady I marry is happy to be a mother and I have the sense never to be obsessed with the Defford inheritance.’
The idea of him wed to a woman who would tolerate him for the sake of a family made her want to cry for some odd reason, but she fought it back and hatred for the Dowager Lady Stratford was a good antidote for tears. She would like to tell the woman exactly what she thought of her for neglecting the fine boy this fine man grew out of.
‘Being the victim of her husband’s obsession with male heirs did not give her any right to treat you or your niece so badly. She was the adult and you were an innocent when she decided to hate you. The wonder is that both you and Juno are good people despite her worst efforts.’
‘I am flattered you think so, but I owe whatever I am to my brother. George was a good man who refused to be spoilt by her devotion to him alone. He did his best to be my stand-in father when ours died soon after I was breeched. I owe him far more than he ever got back from me as his daughter’s uncle and guardian.’
‘I cannot understand such limits on a mother’s affections, so why do you keep on trying to, Alaric?’ she said, so disgusted with the woman she forgot to call him something formal.
‘Well, I hope we are done with one another for good this time. I paid her debts on the understanding I will publicly disclaim any more and she intends to live abroad now Emperor Napoleon has been ousted from his throne. Apparently she is sick of me and England and I suppose you think me harsh and bad-tempered now and will refuse my offer of employment on principle.’
‘No, I have no sympathy for your mother since she obviously has far too much for herself. She meant to sell her grandchild to an
