News
Storytelling

The Duke Disguised Himself as a Footman to Meet His Bride — What He Overheard Left Him Speechless

The Duke Disguised Himself as a Footman to Meet His Bride — What He Overheard Left Him Speechless

Chapter 8

Theme:
Font Size:
24px
Lucien slowly took Dr. Thorne's signed letter from inside his coat and handed it to her. He watched her read it. He watched the moment she understood.Her hand went to her mouth. The candle shook."Seven years," she whispered. "She's been sick for seven years. I sat by her bed every night. I thought God was taking her a little at a time. And it was her. It was Mrs. Gaunt, spoon by spoon."She didn't cry. She went very quiet and very cold, and Lucien thought that he had never seen anyone look so dangerous in a faded gray dress."What do we do?" she asked. Not what do you do—what do we do."First," Lucien said, "we keep her alive. Then we find out why."Neither of them heard the old woman on the stairs until she spoke: "I know why."It was Nan Bellow, the children's old nurse—seventy years old, bent and wrinkled, who had raised Amelia and Kit from the cradle and was now kept on in the laundry for a few pennies because Silas couldn't be bothered to throw her out. She was trembling."I've been afraid to say it for seven years, Miss Amy. But if that man down here is who I think he is, I'll say it now. They don't want Miss Kit sick because she's a nuisance." She came down one more step. "They want her dead because everything in this house belongs to her."Amelia turned to her nurse slowly. "Nan, what are you talking about? Papa left us nothing but debts. Uncle Silas showed me the papers.""Your uncle showed you what he wanted you to see."Nan reached into her apron and pulled out a yellowed letter, folded small and soft from years of hiding."Your father wrote this to me the week before he died. He knew he was dying. He told me to keep it safe until Kit was old enough, and never to show it to Sir Silas."Lucien took the letter and read it by the candle. His face changed.Lord Hartwell's handwriting was shaky but clear: Ashgrove Court, the farms, the Bath house, and £14,000 in government funds were left in trust to Catherine Hartwell, the little sister everyone called Kit, because Amelia's dowry was to come from their mother's fortune. Every acre and every penny belonged to Kit. Silas was only the guardian until she turned twenty-one. And if Kit died before that day, everything went to the man Lord Hartwell had trusted like a brother when he wrote his will: Sir Silas Crowther.
PREV NEXT

News in the same category

The Duke Disguised Himself as a Footman to Meet His Bride — What He Overheard Left Him Speechless

15 Part