“None of Them Will Be My Mother!” the Duke’s Son Declared — Until the Cook Brought an Apple Pie
Chapter 15
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"We are," said the Duke."Wellington stays. He will pine.""He is a hedgehog."Somerset smelled of salt and wet bracken. They reached Porlock on the evening of the fourth day, after a journey of rain and broken traces, and one memorable night in an inn where the Duke of Ashborne was mistaken for a horse dealer.Rosamund was down on the shingle at the edge of the little harbor with her skirts kilted up and her sister's youngest on her hip, watching the gray water, when she heard the crunch of boots on the stones behind her.She turned.The Duke stood on the beach with his hat in his hand and mud to the knees, looking like a man who had not slept in four days. Beside him, small and determined, and clutching a tin, was a boy with flour still under his fingernails from a pie he had baked himself that morning with Mrs. Hollis, which had come out lopsided."Miss Vale," said Theodore. "I have come to apologize, and I shall do it plainly, because I find I have no ornament left. I did not protect what I valued. I let my aunt into my house and my accounts and my son's life, and I did not look at what she was doing because I was afraid. That was a failure of courage, and it cost you a good deal. I am sorry.""You did not know," said Rosamund."I should have," said the Duke.She looked away from him at the sea, because it was easier. "I did not wish you to ride after me, Your Grace. I was not a thing that needed rescuing."Hannah, behind her in the cottage door with a wooden spoon in one hand and a flour-dusted apron, supplied the rest: yes, the notice had come from Lord Pelham's agent to quit by Lady Day; yes, it was a great blow; yes, they would manage somehow; and no, there was no need for anyone to fuss.The Duke listened with grave attention."Lord Pelham's Somerset acres," he said when she had finished, "have been mortgaged to my family since 1811. He owes me £11,000, and he has not paid a farthing of interest in four years. I have never called it in because he is my uncle by marriage, and because I thought it ungentlemanly. I have changed my mind." He turned to Rosamund. "That notice is worthless. It will be withdrawn.""I do not want you to avenge me," said Rosamund, and her voice, to her fury, shook. "I am tired, Your Grace, of being a person other people discuss. I am tired of being sent away in front of 18 servants and a vicar's wife, and of having no voice in my own removal." She drew a long breath. "I wish to go to London. I wish to say what I have to say myself to the person who needs to hear it. Lady Honoria holds her great ball at Pelham House on Saturday week. I understand that she intends to announce an understanding between yourself and the Earl of Fenwick's daughter."