The Unscrupulous Uncle Read Online Free Page A

is not alone in either village unrest or in losing cattle. You should discuss the situation with other landowners, starting with Lord Braxton. He lost his entire dairy herd.”
    “I had not planned to call,” protested Damon, wanting to never set foot there again. If the ghosts at Devlin had nearly broken him, those at Ridgway House were guaranteed to do so. “There is no one there I know.”
    “Not even Miss Catherine?” asked the steward in amazement, before recalling his place and snapping his mouth closed. “Forgive me, my lord. I understood that the previous baron’s family was close to your own, but she is considerably younger than you.”
    “I thought she married seven years ago.” Shock nearly paralyzed Damon’s voice.
    “Married? I heard of no such plans, but then I was new to this position when you left, and met the previous baron only once before his own death. We did not discuss his family.”
    “You are sure that she is still there?”
    “Yes, though she does not go about in society.”
    Damon returned to the business at hand, but his mind raced. What could have happened? He could not imagine her crying off. Had her beau died before her mourning period ended? Yet surely she would have looked about for another suitor. She would never wear the willow.
    He fought past the haze that had engulfed his brain after Peter’s death, forcing himself to remember. The pain had not even begun to dull when word reached him that his parents and Peter’s had been lost in a sailing accident. It had been the last straw for his reason. He had no memory of the days that had followed and had never asked Tucker for the details, but a fortnight later he was on a ship headed for England, with a broken arm and the sort of bruises one acquired in a fight. Also aboard were the army’s top officers.
    Sir Arthur Wellesley had trounced the French at Vimeiro, capturing their entire force. It should have freed Portugal and driven the invaders from much of Spain, but the arrival of his superiors – Sir Harry Burrand and Sir Hew Dalrymple – guaranteed a protracted struggle. In a move of utter stupidity, the two had negotiated the Convention of Cintra, allowing the French Army to return intact to France, where it was immediately reposted to the Peninsula. Burrand, Dalrymple, and Wellesley were recalled to face courts-martial, but the damage had been done.
    Aboard ship, Damon was only peripherally aware of their presence. Still in a fog of grief and despair, his thoughts had focused on the substantial legal business engendered by his accession and on Catherine, whose situation was uncertain after the loss of her family. But he never traveled beyond London, getting caught up in the courts-martial proceedings. Though only a low-ranking officer, he had fought under Wellesley, receiving a field promotion for his efforts. His convenient presence in London demanded that he be called as a witness. By the time Wellesley was exonerated, there was no reason to go home, for Damon had encountered the new Lord Braxton at Brooks’s.
    They’d exchanged condolences on family tragedy and congratulations on their respective accessions.
    “What will Miss Catherine do now?” Damon asked. “Peter was worried about her future.”
    “And with good reason,” agreed Lord Braxton. “But you need not concern yourself, my lord. She will be wed next summer. The betrothal was arranged a sennight before my brother died.”
    This was news to Damon, though Peter could not have heard before Vimeiro, and Damon would have seen none of his friend’s letters afterward. “Who is the gentleman?”
    “I doubt you know Roderick, my lord. He is a younger son of Sir Arthur Graham, who visited Somerset on business after you had left for Portugal. I met him at the funeral. He seems to be all that is proper, and my brother had already agreed to the connection. He is at home in Yorkshire now, for Catherine is still devastated by the loss of her family.”
    “Of