Page 38 of The Duke Undone

He was proving far less willing to discuss Anthony’s duties as a landholder.

“For once, I don’t want to talk horses.” Anthony lowered his voice. This room, the smallest on the floor, was still quite large. A large sitting room offered certain affordances. For example, it accommodated concurrent conversations. Lavinia suddenly pealed with laughter at some remark of Miss Coover’s. Anthony looked over. They’d drawn closer together, a mismatched pair. Lavinia’s head, capped by carefully molded blond ringlets, inclined toward Miss Coover, who was securing a pin in a wind-blown mass of coarse curls that seemed to swallow it.

Why was she here? He forced his thoughts away from the mystery that was Miss Coover. This was his opportunity. He turned to Yardley. “I wanted to discuss the rent increases in Hampshire.”

Yardley threw a pointed look toward the women and shook his head. “It’s not the time.”

“It’s never the time.” Too loud. He lowered his voice. “Etiquette be damned. I didn’t ask you to bring your daughter. I asked you to bring Mr. Cruitshank’s reports.”

“I hardly thought the matter urgent.” Yardley’s brows drew together. “I would know, after all, if anything was seriously amiss with the estate.”

He would at that. He’d worked directly with Cruitshank, the estate manager, on the new cottages, and since Anthony’s father’s death, he’d been empowered to make all the financial decisions concerning them, and everything else.

“That’s part of what troubles me.” Anthony searched Yardley’s face, hating the worm of distrust coiling in his belly. “The letters I received from the tenants describe a situation that is, in fact, seriously amiss. Why haven’t you acted?”

“Letters from tenants.” Yardley sighed. “Tenants will always make mountains out of molehills.”

“They are bearing the costs of improvements my father foisted upon them.”

Yardley shook his head. “They’re not. The rents are the same.”

As Anthony opened his mouth to protest, Yardley made a conciliatory gesture.

“They’re feeling a pinch, I don’t doubt. It takes more fuel to heat a larger house, more candles to light one. Those tenants who wrote to complain—your father provided them with new homes, equipped their farms with modern machines. Now they expect that every stick of firewood and loaf of bread will be handed to them.”

Anthony stared at him. “The rent was their chief concern.”

“They’re confused. Or else they’re trying to take advantage of your—”

He broke off.

“What?” Anthony tried to speak lightly. “My what?”

Lavinia’s laughter pealed again.

“Miss Coover has saved me from irremediable dullness,” she called. “You must hear her latest opinion.”

Yardley put her off with a raised hand, and she flung herself back on the sofa, with a whispered remark to Miss Coover.

“Trying to take advantage,” said Yardley.

“I’ll see for myself, then.” Anthony could feel a vein in his temple throb. “I’ll go to Hampshire. Per the codicil,” he spit, “I must ask that you accompany me.”

There it was, that sad look, half apology, half disappointment.

Yardley exhaled.

“Anthony,” he said. “You know your father wanted you in London, in Parliament, taking this year to familiarize yourself with his political legacy, to make new alliances, to find your legs as a statesman. He put the properties in trust to unburden you.”

Anthony’s smile was humorless.

“You know,” he said. “You know very well, in fact, that my father wanted to control me, not to unburden me, as you say.” He shrugged, as he’d been shrugging his whole life, as if it didn’t hurt. He had shrugged when he’d first learned of the codicil. This can’t be valid.

The solicitors had assured him that his father’s myriad requirements were, in fact, perfectly valid, legally speaking. Provisions that injure the public aren’t enforceable, nor are those that require the beneficiary to take illegal or immoral action. They’d explained it slowly, with placid smiles. But a testator may otherwise condition his gifts. These particular conditions are to the public good, as well as to the benefit of your character. Moreover, they apply for short duration, only until you attain the age of thirty. Thirty-five is actually more common. It’s all properly drafted, and also reasonable. Our advice to you is, of course, compliance.

Anthony’s smile became a grimace. “He didn’t think I could control myself.”

“Then control yourself,” said Yardley. “Show the world that you can.”