Page 35 of Rake in Disguise (Wicked Widows’ League #33)

Two Years Later

The Duke of Arscott stood over the bassinet of his newest granddaughter, Adeline, and shook the silver rattle. She laughed as she kicked her legs and tried to grasp it.

“Are you going to be as stubborn as your parents, Addy?”

“We are not stubborn,” Blythe objected.

Arscott snorted then pulled a document from inside his coat and placed it in the bassinet.

“This will be yours one day, or sooner if they reject it,” he whispered.

“What will be?” Blythe lifted the document from the bassinet and read it before handing it to Orlando. “You cannot deed us Seth’s home,” she argued.

“It is not Seth’s. It has never been. He only liked to believe it belonged to him,” her father explained.

“Then who owns it?” Orlando asked slowly.

“You do. Now.”

“I told you that I would not accept a home or anything else from you,” Orlando insisted.

Arscott dismissed him with a wave of his hand, not even bothering to look up from his granddaughter.

“Yes, I know. You are nothing like that blackguard my daughter first chose, all honorable and principled.”

“You say that as if it is an insult.”

“You should not take it as such. My tone was meant to infer that you are a fool.”

“Blythe,” Orlando warned so that his wife knew that his patience was running short. He had gotten past his father-in-law being a duke. He would not be intimidated by him anymore.

“We have explained why we need to support ourselves,” Blythe offered calmly.

Her father finally straightened. “On what?” he demanded. “The good doctor here treats people who cannot afford to pay him.”

“That is not true,” Orlando argued.

“Very well, half of his patients cannot afford him.”

Though he liked to argue, Arscott spoke the truth.

“And you still spend three nights a week at a salon .”

“However, if I was at a ball instead, that would be permissible?” Blythe countered.

Orlando crossed his arms over his chest and waited for a response because he knew that Arscott had no answer.

“Blythe, Orlando, this house is being given to you. The documents have been signed and you have little choice. You have been living here anyway.”

That was true, but he thought it was because Seth allowed it, not his father-in-law.

Blast, if it was Arscott’s house than the servants were his too.

Arscott grinned at him. “You are just realizing that you have been living off of my generosity from the person who makes your bed to the one who cooks your meals.”

“Bloody hell,” he murmured.

Now he would need to find the funds to pay servants. They likely did not need all of them. After Arscott was gone he would sit down with Blythe to determine exactly who was necessary for the household.

Orlando had been adamant from the beginning that he would not accept anything from His Grace and Blythe had agreed and between his medical practice and her working at Athena’s Salon, they did well enough.

Or so he thought until he just realized it had all been a lie.

As much as he wanted to move, he also wasn’t so foolish to give up a house in Mayfair. He would have before, but now that they had Adeline, he was careful in what he rejected.

“Ring for tea, Blythe, there is something that I need to tell the both of you.”

“What is it?” she asked in alarm.

“I am not going to die if that is what you are worried about.”

His wife walked to the wall and tugged on the bellpull. His Grace lifted Adeline from her bassinet and carried her to a chair where he settled then held her on his lap.

A footman entered only a few moments later and placed the tray in the center.

“Close the door as you leave,” Arscott instructed.

Orlando and Blythe shared a look of concern.

“Orlando, how much has my daughter told you about our affairs in Devon?”

Did he admit that she had told him of their smuggling enterprise?”

“He knows about your other interests outside of being a duke and what goes on beneath the cliffs.”

“Good!” he nodded. “That is why I am here.”

“Has something happened?”

“No.”

“Now that the war on the Continent is over, are there fewer boats?” Blythe asked with concern.

Arscott snorted. “If you would have bothered to come home more than once since you returned five years ago, you would know that with the end of the war that smuggling has actually increased and so have our profits.”

“Well, then, that is good to know,” she answered without commenting on her absence.

“What do you need to tell us?” Orlando asked.

“A charter was established nearly a century ago as to the division of the profits.”

“Yes, I am aware,” Blythe answered then turned to Orlando. “It does not just benefit us, but everyone in the town because at least one person from each family works to unload the boats and deliver the items.”

She had explained that to him previously.

“As you know, the residents of Laswell took their lead from the Osborns,” Arscott continued. “Our family still controlled the caves, but my grandfather was not well liked and Mr. Osborn held more power and could sway the residents of Laswell.”

“A mister had more power than a duke?” Orlando asked in disbelief.

“They are also much wealthier because they had been wiser with their funds whereas my grandfather spent as many dukes did and went into debit. In order to save the estate my father married Mr. Osborn’s daughter, Hester.”

“I had no idea it was an arranged marriage,” Blythe offered. “Or was it a love match?”

“It was a union of two individuals who got on well, but I am certain that my mother would always love Captain Jonathan Vail more.”

“Who was he?” Orlando asked.

“They were betrothed but his ship crashed upon the rocks when he was sailing to Laswell to marry her and he was killed.”

Blythe gasped and placed a hand on her heart.

“Were they smugglers too?”

“I am not at liberty to say.”

“Vail?” Blythe asked after a moment. “That was Miranda’s surname.” She turned to Orlando. “She married Wesley, my eldest brother.”

“I know the names dear. We have been married for two years. Is she not the one who sees ghosts?”

“Do not even mention such silliness,” Arscott complained. “But yes, she is the great-niece of my mother’s betrothed who was killed.”

This could not be what Arscott was here to tell them, but Orlando held his tongue.

The man was a duke and doted on his granddaughter and had been generous to them even though it wasn’t asked for.

But more importantly, he had accepted Orlando despite his family history and respected his choices to remain a doctor with little argument, other than he wished he earned more.

But that was where his interference ended.

Well, until he left a deed in his granddaughter’s bassinet today.

“Does this have something to do with the charter, whatever it is?”

“Your grandmother Hester established the charter because she did not trust that future dukes would not ruin their family financially again.”

“Have you?” Orlando asked, knowing that it would irritate his father-in-law.

“No. I have not, or I wouldn’t have handed over a deed.”

“Which we do not need.”

“It is so if there are difficulties, my granddaughter will still have a home,” he argued.

“We appreciate your concern, Father,” Blythe said after a warning glance to Orlando. “Tell me about the charter.”

“Your grandmother insisted that for each grandchild born to the Duke of Arscott that they would share in the profits from smuggling from the day they were born until death.”

“How come I was never told?” Blythe asked.

“I will get to that in a moment,” her father insisted, but Orlando assumed that it was likely kept from the children until they wed, and even then, it may have been kept a secret.

No doubt that since Arscott knew the lieutenant’s character and reason for marrying Blythe, he would have never been told. Of course, Orlando was assuming much.

“Half of the profits realized go to the duke and his family and the other half to the residents of Laswell, as you know.”

She nodded.

“Of that fifty percent, it is divided among the duke and his children. As I have ten living children, those profits are split eleven ways.”

Which meant that Blyth received approximately four and a half percent.

“However, when a child is born to one of those children, that child’s portion is divided between parent and child.

Which is approximately two and a quarter percent now going to Adeline, of which I have created an account with my solicitor and managed by my man of business, but Orlando is named as the guardian of the funds if something were to happen to me. ”

As she was only three months old there was likely very little in her account, but it was nice to know that when the time came that Adeline might have a dowry or live an independent life if her mother had any influence.

“Are you saying that I have money from smuggling?”

“Yes, a percentage has been added to an account and will continue to be until…well, we no longer smuggle.”

“But I have not worked in the caves since I was ten and eight.”

“It does not matter because the charter did not require it, but your grandmother and I agreed that each of you should until you married or settled elsewhere.”

“How much have I accumulated because if we can at all afford it, I would dearly love to replace the curtains in this room.”

Her father chuckled.

“Then not enough for curtains.” She smiled brightly. “We will make do.”

Orlando hated that she had to make do , and why he would stop arguing with his father-in-law when he wanted to gift them with homes or funds.

“Blythe, you can afford to replace the curtains in every room of the house if you so wish.”

She blinked. “Truly? Not that I would.”

“You have not even asked how much you have.” he said to his daughter and then looked at Orlando. “Are you not even curious?”

“They were put into an account for my wife.”

“Which you now control because you are her husband. As you know, a wife cannot control her own wealth, it is now your responsibility.”