Page 15 of I Never Forget a Duke (The Night Fire Club #1)

T he two men who accompanied Lark into the gold salon were strangers, although something in Hugh recognized that he’d seen both men before.

Adele was on guard. She seemed nervous. Hugh couldn’t deny that their conversation the night before had stayed with him. He supposed she’d offered him reasonable logic, but he did not want to lose her. Marriage did seem rash, but how else was he to keep her in his life?

A puzzle for another time. Lark now introduced Hugh and Adele to Fletcher Basildon, Baron Fowler, and Owen Thomas, Earl of Caernarfon. When Owen said, “’Tis good to see you, my friend,” Hugh heard an accent and asked about it.

“I’m from Wales, mate,” Owen said as if it were obvious. “But since my ancestors betrayed their fellow Welshman and sided with the English every time they tried to invade, some old king bestowed a title on us. You knew that, back before the, er, head injury.”

“I had an interest in history, didn’t I?” Hugh asked.

“You did,” said Fletcher. “You descend from a very old and prestigious family, so your parents drilled that lineage into you. There’s a pile of bricks in Kent they call Swynford House that has a great hallway lined with portraits of the past eleven dukes, and it looks like a lot of stern-faced men in funny wigs, but you always seemed proud of it. ”

Adele frowned at that, which prompted Hugh to ask the question, “Was I proud of my name?”

“Not as much as your mother,” said Lark, “but yes.”

“Your memory is really gone?” asked Owen.

“I’ve recovered bits of it, but most of it is inaccessible to me. The doctor says I will recover the rest in one sudden burst, or over time in dribbles, or perhaps not at all.”

Fletcher laughed. “Yes, those would be the options. Doctors don’t know anything, do they?”

And suddenly this all seemed familiar. The four of them often sat in this very configuration, facing each other and talking. Lark loved gossip, Owen followed politics, and Fletcher pretended to be disinterested in all of it. Hugh gasped as he realized he knew these men.

“Are you all right?” asked Lark.

Hugh shook his head. “Until yesterday afternoon, I had no idea of my own name, but now I can recall sitting with you gents in a club, sipping whisky.”

“That is how we spend most of our time,” said Owen.

“Lord Caernarfon,” said Adele, correctly pronouncing the Welsh name—it sounded like Canarvon, “are you the same man my father has mentioned who serves in the House of Lords.”

“I am,” said Owen. “That is, only recently. My father held the seat until his untimely death last year.”

“I am sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you, my lady. If your father mentioned a Caernarfon, it was probably my father. He cared far more about parliamentary procedure than I do. But I feel some obligation to maintain the seat, so I show up when Parliament is in session. I was there yesterday, in fact.”

Adele looked startled by that. “Parliament is in session?”

“It was yesterday.”

“That must mean that my father is in town. He did not tell me.”

Lark’s eyebrows shot up. Hugh made a mental note to ask about that later.

“He is indeed in town,” said Owen. “I watched him give a speech yesterday with my own eyes.”

“Curious,” she said leaning back on the sofa. “Usually he writes me to let me know he’ll be here.”

“So you have not seen the paper, then,” said Fletcher, which got him an elbow in the ribs from Lark.

“I’ve been so busy taking care of the countess and His Grace that I haven’t really looked at the papers, although I suppose there would have been an announcement of Parliament being in session there.”

“Er, yes, that’s what I meant,” said Fletcher.

Lark rolled his eyes, which Adele didn’t appear to notice.

She stood quite suddenly. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I will go ask Cook to provide us with some refreshments.”

“You don’t have to leave,” said Hugh.

She sent him a soft smile. “I shall return in short order.”

When she was gone, Hugh said, “You fellows are not subtle, although I do not understand what this was about.”

Lark glanced at his friends, who signaled for him to speak. Lark sighed. “Are you fond of Lady Adele?”

“Yes. She has been a great help to me this last week.”

“In other ways?”

Hugh bristled.

“So, yes,” said Lark. “You should probably know, and would know if you had your wits about you still, that Lady Adele’s father is the Earl of Canbury.

Canbury is a wily politician who, frankly, most MPs do not like.

He aspires to a higher position in government and has been campaigning to earn it, which has put him out of favor with just about everyone. ”

Hugh supposed this filled in some gaps and gave context to some of the things Adele had said the previous night.

She knew that her father’s reputation was less than pristine, and she knew Hugh’s friends and family would look down on her for it.

“Lady Adele is not her father,” Hugh said.

“She is a good woman who has been nothing but kind to me.”

“I’m sure that’s true,” said Lark. “I am just trying to give you a complete picture.”

Hugh sat with that for a moment. “If I were interested in a lady before, would I have cared much about her reputation?”

His friends exchanged glances, which Hugh did not find comforting. Lark said, “Well, you have seemed somewhat resistant to marriage.”

“Haven’t we all?” said Owen.

“Is there a reason?” asked Hugh.

“I imagine you have a reason you haven’t told me,” said Lark, “but what I do know is that you wanted to live life to the fullest before committing yourself to matrimony. And you are not quite ready to be a father.”

Hugh nodded. “I have the sense that I have been with women before. Do I have a mistress?”

“Not at the moment as far as we know,” said Fletcher. “There was that actress, though. What was her name?”

“Marlena,” said Owen. “She’s Spanish.”

“Yes,” said Fletcher. “But you ended that a year ago.”

“There was the Countess of Lefcourt,” said Lark.

Owen waved his hand. “That was only a night or two. Lady Lefcourt does not bed a man more than twice.”

“Do you say this from experience?” asked Fletcher.

Owen shrugged, which Hugh interpreted to mean he had.

“I suppose what I’m asking,” said Hugh, “is that were I to marry, imaginatively speaking, would I worry much over the future duchess’s reputation.”

“You might,” said Lark. “Your mother would care more.”

“Do I worry over my mother’s opinions?”

“Yes,” all three of Hugh’s friends said in unison.

“It’s curious that this should be the case when I can scarcely remember what she looks like.”

“Your mother dominates British society these days,” said Lark.

“Her influence can destroy and rehabilitate reputations, and she exercises that power with skill and precision. But she is very particular about who she helps and who she puts out of favor, and her orders are generally followed, even by you, despite the fact you are twice her weight and a powerful man in your own right.”

“She scares me,” said Owen.

Lark laughed. “She can be intimidating, that is true. She tried to come with us this morning, but I wanted to be able to candidly answer your questions without her here. There are some things a mother does not need to know.”

“I should like to see her soon,” Hugh said.

In the distance he heard someone wrap on the front door and the creak of Wilton opening it.

He wondered where Adele had gone off to.

The men continued to speak, mostly about their families, and then all at once, Adele returned with Cook and several trays of refreshments and Wilton escorted in Dr. Willis.

“I am glad to see you, doctor,” said Adele. “Thank you for coming. I hope you can help us come up with a plan for reintroducing His Grace to society.”

“Yes, I got your letter. The Duke of Swynford. I never would have guessed.”

Lark stood and introduced himself to the doctor. “I was concerned about taking him home because it is now publicly known that he is missing, and I worried the horde would descend once it became known he was back home. That would be overwhelming.”

“It would, yes,” said Dr. Willis. “But I also read about a case like Swynford’s in which a woman was reintroduced to her bedroom and her memory returned quite swiftly. So I think it behooves us to get His Grace home.”

“Perhaps we can sneak him into the house,” said Adele.

“Or,” said Fletcher, “we could let it be known that Hugh was ill and recovering at his country home and had merely been a careless aristocrat and failed to inform his family and friends.”

“That’s good,” said Lark. “I like it.”

Hugh glanced at Adele, who looked troubled.

He understood why. Perhaps in his former life he would not have grown so attached to a woman, but he hated to leave this one now.

He said, “That is a clever idea, but there is still one other issue. We still do not know who hit me on the head to begin with. He may still be lurking about in Mayfair.”

Lark frowned. “Perhaps you can hire a body man.”

Hugh groaned. “Just what I need is a guard to interfere with my privacy all day long.”

“You can’t hide here forever,” said Fletcher.

“I think it advisable for you to return home,” said Dr. Willis.

“We can help,” said Lark.

Hugh turned to Adele and was about to ask her thoughts when she said, “If it will help you recover your memories, I think it is the best course of action.” She turned to Lark.

“He does not have much in the way of possessions. Really just the clothing he came here with. If he had anything else on his person when you last saw him, whoever abducted him has stolen it.”

Lark nodded. “His signet ring, of course. Hugh sometimes carries a silver money clip his father gave him. I do not know if he had it on him the night of the Rutherford ball.”

Hugh didn’t either. He would have to check his home. He turned to Adele. “Please do allow me to repay the countess for the clothes she bought me as well.”

“That is not necessary,” said Adele.

Hugh turned to his friends. “Am I wealthy?”