“We have come to a right understanding about that, so he has not been too rude.”
“Are you going to give him your half? I can’t think of any other understanding that he would find acceptable.”
“I am not planning to do that, and he knows it.” Rosamund noticed how they kept falling back from Kevin and Lady Agnes.
“I suppose you could turn it back to the estate. One is not forced to accept bequests.”
“Why would I do that?”
“To rid yourself of it, of course. My husband explained to me that although it isn’t worth anything, it could cost a person dearly. A partner is accountable for debts and additional investments. It would be such a shame if that happened to you.”
Felicity was showing herself to be a sly woman. Rosamund wondered why she offered all this advice. “If I do turn it back, who would receive it instead?”
“I suppose it would be split among the cousins, although most likely the others would sell and take the pennies offered. Kevin, of course, would keep his portion.”
Having her half broken up like that was the one thing Kevin did not want. And if it was so worthless, she could not imagine why Felicity cared what happened to it.
“Well, I think I’ll keep it for a while, to see what’s what with it first. That will spare all those cousins from having to bother with it.”
Felicity appeared dismayed. “Miss Jameson, when I said you might want to rid yourself of it, I did so only for your benefit.” She looked around, as if to make sure no one walked close by. “You really do not want to be Kevin’s partner. He will probably ruin you. And . . .” She lowered her voice. “You may not have been told this, but his last partner died under suspicious circumstances.”
Rosamund was so startled by the revelation that she almost tripped over a fallen branch on the path. Felicity took satisfaction in that reaction. Up ahead it appeared Kevin and his aunt’s conversation had turned contentious.
“What do you mean?”
“It was called an accident, but no one in the family thinks the duke had a mishap and fell off that parapet. Nor do we think he jumped. That only leaves one way he ended up on the ground below.”
Rosamund decided she did not care much for this woman. “You have implied that Kevin Radnor is the reason the duke fell. Please speak plainly now. Do you have any reason to believe that, or do you merely dislike him?”
Felicity’s lids lowered. Her head rose so she could look down her nose. Rosamund knew that expression very well. A lady was about to put an inferior in her place.
“He is most dislikable, but I do not suspect without cause. It happened at the duke’s estate, Melton Park. None of the others were there. Kevin claimed he was in France, but he was really in England. I saw him myself in Town the next day. If he learned about the will, and the disposition of the duke’s half of his company, he had a reason to be angry enough to act rashly. Is that plain enough for you?” She began walking with sulking determination. “It was my hope to spare you. I can see that was a mistake.”
Rosamund matched Felicity’s strides until they drew up behind Kevin and Lady Agnes again. They got there just in time to hear Lady Agnes say, “I’m only advising that the sensible solution is for both of you to sell whatever exists for whatever someone will pay. It is unlikely to be worth more in the future, and this would spare you this unseemly partnership.”
Her arrival caught Lady Agnes up short. Unaware she had been overheard, she retreated into pleasantries. “Look at how nicely the ivy has revived here in the park, Felicity. I was just telling Kevin that my new gardener has started some vines on my back wall.”
Chapter Five
Rosamund never thought she would find herself asking Kevin Radnor to call on her, but the next morning she sat at the writing table in the library to pen a letter doing just that. A long night of grappling with her thoughts had led her to conclude that she would turn to Kevin this time for advice rather than Minerva, since Minerva had already helped her so much.
This meeting might also give her a chance to find out if there could be any truth to Felicity’s suspicions. The woman was the sort who took pleasure in making trouble.
She labored over the letter, leaving too many cross outs and splotches of ink on the paper. The whole thing was a disaster before she finished. Minerva entered the library just as Rosamund was pulling out a new sheet of paper.
Seeing her writing a letter, Minerva sat with a book and did not interfere. Rosamund tried again, muttering with annoyance when things began to go badly again. She set down the pen and covered her eyes with her hands.
“Are you weeping?”
She uncovered her eyes to see Minerva standing right next to her.
“No. I be trying not to scream.” She gestured to the paper. “My hand be bad, my spelling be bad, and I can’t seem to use a pen without dribbling ink all over everything.”
Minerva examined the letter. “If you want, I will write what you tell me to write. Or we can just send one of the servants with a message.”
Rosamund picked up the pen again. “You wrote the one to the school. I can’t have you doing them all. I need to learn.”
Minerva’s hand covered the one that held the pen. “I will help you to practice. You cannot learn it in one hour, however. Let us send that messenger for now.”
So it was that at eleven o’clock, Kevin Radnor arrived in a fine coach, complete with a footman standing in back, to escort her to the solicitor’s office. “It is my father’s,” he explained. “He never uses it.”
She settled on her cushion, while he sat facing her. Dark clouds darkened the sky. She hoped it didn’t rain.
“I am flattered you sent for me,” he said. “It has been my hope that we may be friends, and that you will ask for my help in any way that I can be of service.”
“I thought it be best to have someone with me, what with it being legal doings.” She also wanted to broach something with her business partner. She would wait for the right moment, and hope that she had the courage.
She took the opportunity while they rode through Mayfair to examine the women strolling in the streets. Through one open window she spied an attractive hat with a broader brim than was customary. She removed a little piece of paper and a pencil from her reticule and quickly jotted down a rough drawing of it.
Kevin leaned forward and peered at her paper. “Were you taught how to draw?”
“Taught? No, I just try and get it close enough to remind meself of what I seen.”
“It appears you have a natural talent for it, then.”
She looked at her little drawing. It did capture the hat’s shape and angled brim fairly well.
They arrived at Mr. Sanders’s chambers in the City before the rain fell. She liked the solicitor. He reminded her of a kind uncle in his manner and appearance. When she first met him and he explained her inheritance, he had taken pains to do so slowly, perhaps knowing that in her shock it would be difficult for her to take it all in.
Now he greeted Mr. Radnor, then turned all his attention to her. “I have the lease for the house right here. The owner was amenable to most of the changes I requested.” He gave her a wink. “What he first gave me was less than favorable, on the assumption presumably that a woman would not have the experience to recognize its deficiencies.”