Page 69 of The Odyssean Duke

“I never knew my mother,” Stephan said, “but she was said to be an extraordinary woman. I wish I had known her.”

Evelina looked as if she was deliberating something. “I know that your father loved her,” she said at last. “Mrs. Newbury said that your father was devastated by grief when she passed. I am very sorry to hear that.”

Stephan sighed deeply. “I am surprised she knew that, being new to the household.”

Evelina smiled slyly. “You must realize that servants gossip with one another. I am told it is their favorite pastime. It is not so surprising to learn that one of them would be interested in the arrival of a new duke.”

Stephan supposed that was true, but the thought that the servants might be watching and listening to him, talking about him, filled him with a dark dread. What else were they saying? Worse, was his staff gossiping about him, spreading rumors to his grandmother?

“I suppose you are right,” Stephan begrudgingly admitted. “What else have they told you?”

“That your father loved you very much,” Evelina said, her face softening. “But he was broken by grief, which made him seem cold at times. I am so very sorry about that.”

Stephan took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. He should have realized that Evelina would say something like that. Of course, someone would have given her the charitable interpretation of his father’s behavior. “He was,” Stephan admitted. “I feel like I never really knew who he was because his grief was so great, and I—I wanted to know him. I wanted to be close.”

Evelina’s face was soft with sympathy, and Stephan’s resolve cracked. He had always tried to keep all the pain of the years buried deep inside himself, but Evelina inspired an openness which he seldom acknowledged within himself.

“It is clear how he really felt, though,” Stephan said. “If he truly loved me, he would not have found me so lacking. He would not have felt the need to add that ridiculous stipulation to my inheritance.”

Evelina furrowed her brow. She set her plate aside and seemed suddenly as if she was uncertain what to do with her hands. “Have you considered the possibility that your father did not agree with the stipulation?” she asked. “Or that it was not his decision to have it?”

Stephan snorted. “Of course, it was not his decision. Doubtlessly, my grandmother wished to add that stipulation tothe contract, and my father readily agreed. I doubt he even argued.”

“But how do youknow?” Evelina asked. “It just sounds—a man who was so consumed by grief?—”

Stephan crossed his arms. “Evelina,” he interrupted. “I do not know why you—why does it matter? Regardless of how or why he agreed to that stipulation, the result is the same. I am bound by it.”

“Not if the signatures were forged,” Evelina argued. “Have you considered that?”

Stephan shook his head. “Why would I consider that? There is no evidence that the contract is illegitimate.”

“It occurred to me,” Evelina said. “You have every reason not to trust the Dowager Duchess of Rothbury. Is it so unbelievable that she might have manipulated the contract in her favor?”

“No,” Stephan said. “But forgery? That is an absurd claim, Evelina. Besides, you did not know my father. He could be a cruel and petty man, and I find it entirely believable that he would add such a stipulation. Even at his best, he barely wanted to talk to me.”

“You became an admiral in the navy,” Evelina said. “If he loved you as much as Mrs. Newbury said, he would have been proud?—”

“Mrs. Newbury did not know my father either!” Stephan exclaimed. “Evelina, I do not understand where you are drawing these conclusions from, but you are making something out of nothing.”

Evelina’s face reddened. “I am raising a possibility. There is something strange about this entire situation, and my instincts are telling me that it is something you should be fighting.”

“Your instincts about a man you nevermet!” Stephan exclaimed, raising his voice just a little.

Evelina tipped her chin up, gazing imperiously at him. “And a man who you had not seen for ten years. Given your long absence, I think you know only a little more about him than I do.”

Stephan pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to rein in his temper. Hearing her speak so candidly about the man—worse, hearing her insist that his father was not as bad as he assumed—awakened a boiling anger inside him. It threatened to overflow. A small part of Stephan suspected that being so furious over his wife’s remarks was irrational, but Evelina simply did not understand what his father was like, what hisfamilywas like.

Even if she had witnessed her own mother’s dreadful marriage, Evelina was not alone in the way that Stephan was. She had her sister and friends who supported her and who had cared about her always. At best, Stephan had Murrayton, but they had not even known one another until after Stephan had spent a few years in the navy, struggling to belong.

“Evelina, I do not want to talk about my father with you,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Maybe not,” she said, “but I think you need to. We have little time left, and if the contract is not valid?—”

“It is!” he snapped. “It is valid, and I wish you would stop arguing with me about it!”

Stephan took a bold step forward, and Evelina’s breath audibly hitched. “I am trying to help you,” she said.

“Help me? If you want to help me, you can give me an heir, rather than wasting my time with this baseless speculation about forged signatures and your theories on my father’s character. He was a monster; that is all you need to know about him.”