Candace Camp - The Bridal Quest

Rochford pressed his lips tightly together to suppress a smile and carefully avoided looking at Francesca’s expression.

“Francesca knows that,” Lady Odelia went on, giving her a nod. “Thing is, I do need your help. I’ve come to beg a favor of you.”

“Of course,” Francesca murmured, her mind skittering anxiously over what no-doubt unpleasant task the woman could have in mind for her.

“The reason I am here…well, I’ll just be plain about it. I am here to find a wife for my great-nephew.”

THERE WAS A MOMENT of stunned silence in the room after the formidable old woman’s announcement. Francesca gaped at the woman, and her eyes slid involuntarily toward Rochford.

“I…um…” she stammered, feeling a blush rising in her cheeks.

“No, not him!” Lady Odelia exclaimed, and let out a crow of laughter. “Been trying for the best part of fifteen years with this one. Even I have given up hope. No, the Lilles line will have to go down through that foolish Bertrand, if it is to continue at all.” She heaved a sigh at this prospect.

“I’m sorry.” Francesca’s cheeks were thoroughly aflame now. “I didn’t—I am not sure I understand.”

“I’m talking about my sister’s grandson.”

“Oh! I see. I’m not—um, I don’t believe I know your sister, my lady.”

“Pansy,” Lady Odelia said, and sighed. It was clear from her expression that Lady Odelia found her sister lacking. “There were four of us—besides the three children that died in childhood, of course. I was the eldest, and then there was my brother, who, of course, grew up to be the duke. He was Rochford’s grandfather. After him was our sister Mary, and finally, the youngest, Pansy. Pansy married Lord Radbourne. Gladius, his name was. Damned silly name. His mother chose it, and a more foolish woman never lived. But that’s neither here nor there. The problem is Pansy’s grandson, Gideon. Lord Cecil’s son.”

“Oh.” Francesca recognized the name. “Lord Radbourne.”

Lady Odelia nodded. “Aye, you understand me now, I warrant. You’ll have heard the gossip.”

“Well…” Francesca demurred.

“No point trying to deny it. It was all over the ton the last few months.”

Francesca nodded. “Of course.”

Lady Odelia was right. Francesca—along with all the ton and, indeed, much of the rest of London—had heard the gossip. Many years ago, when he was only a lad of four, Gideon Bankes, the heir to the Radbourne title and estate, had been kidnapped, along with his mother. Neither the boy nor his mother was ever seen again. Then, years after he had been long-presumed dead, Gideon Bankes had reappeared.

His reappearance, and his inheritance of the title and estate of the Earl of Radbourne, had been the talk of the town for several weeks. Everyone Francesca knew had had an opinion on the matter—what the suddenly reclaimed heir was like, where he had been all these years and whether he was, in actuality, an imposter. There had been more questions than there were facts, for few people had actually met the new earl, and very few of those had offered any gossip.

Francesca looked again at the duke. She had seen him here and there, at various parties, over the past few months, but never had he said a word about the recovery of the lost heir. Indeed, she had not even realized that Rochford was in any way connected to the Bankes family. This fact only served to confirm her opinion that the Duke of Rochford was the most tight-lipped gentleman she knew. It was, she thought with a little flash of irritation, quite typical of the man.

“I am sure that what you have heard is mostly wrong,” Lady Odelia remarked. “I might as well tell you the whole of it.”

“Oh, no, I am sure that is not necessary,” Francesca began, torn between curiosity and the strong desire to get Lady Odelia out of her house.

“Nonsense. You need to hear the truth of it.”

“You may as well let her tell it,” Rochford advised Francesca. “You know it will be easier.”

“Don’t be impertinent, Sinclair,” his great-aunt admonished him.

Francesca noted somewhat sourly that Rochford, of course, did not seem at all in awe of the intimidating woman.

“Now,” Lady Odelia went on, “I am sure you don’t remember it, as you were just a child then yourself, but my nephew Cecil’s wife and son were abducted twenty-seven years ago. Frightful business. They received a letter demanding a ransom—a necklace of rubies and diamonds, dreadfully ugly thing, but worth a fortune, of course. It had been in the family for generations. Legend said it was given to them by a grateful Queen Elizabeth when she came to the throne. Cecil gave them what they asked for, but they did not give him back his wife and child. We all assumed both had been killed. Cecil was grief-stricken, but he held out hope that they would somehow, someday, return. Years went by before he remarried. Of course, when he did, he had to go through legal proceedings to have Selene—that was the first countess—declared dead. She had been missing for almost twenty years by then. But still, he did nothing about the boy. I presume he could not bring himself to admit that his child was dead.”

She shrugged and went on. “But then, a year ago, when Cecil himself died, something had to be done. If Gideon was still alive somewhere, then he would be the heir. However, Cecil’s second wife, Teresa, had given him a son, so if Gideon was dead, then Timothy would be the heir. Before we started legal proceedings, I set Rochford to see if he could turn up anything about Gideon.”

Francesca looked over at the duke. “Then…you are the one who found him?”

Rochford shrugged. “I can scarcely claim credit for it. All I did was hire a Runner to investigate the matter. He found Gideon in London. He was going by the name Gideon Cooper, and he had made something of a fortune for himself. Had no idea who he really was.”

“He didn’t remember anything?” Francesca asked in surprise.

“Apparently not—other than his given name, of course. He was only four when he was taken. He can remember nothing before the time when he was a street urchin in London.”

“But someone must have taken him in, cared for him,” Francesca protested. “Did they know nothing about how they came to have him? Where he came from?”

“Nothing,” Lady Odelia declared with disgust. “He says he never had any parents, that he grew up with a bunch of disreputable children in the stews of the East End. Imagine, the son of an earl, a boy with Lilles and Bankes blood flowing through his veins, living hand to mouth in some hovel, consorting with God-knows-what sort of riffraff!” She shook her head, the purple plumes that curled over her unfashionably high hairstyle bobbing wildly with her movements.

“But how did you know that it was Gideon?” Francesca asked curiously. “If he could not even remember, and there is no one around who raised him…”

“Oh, it was he, all right,” Lady Odelia’s tone suggested that she was less than pleased about the fact. “He had the birthmark—a little raspberry-colored blotch beside his left shoulder blade. Gideon had exactly the same mark from the time he was born. Pansy and I both remembered it. Of course, it looks smaller on an adult, but there is no mistaking it. A bit like a lopsided diamond. And, of course, he has the look of the Bankses. The Lilles jaw and hair, as well.”

“I see,” Francesca said somewhat untruthfully. The truth was that while Lady Odelia’s story was certainly interesting, she did not really understand why the woman had told it to her. She hesitated, then said, “I am sure you are quite happy to have him back after all this time.” She looked from Lady Odelia to the duke, but there was nothing in his carefully schooled face that offered any enlightenment to her. She turned back to the older woman. “I’m not sure…that is…well, why do you need my help—or anyone else’s, for that matter—to find a suitable wife for Lord Radbourne? You know everyone. Indeed, you know them better than I.”