Game of Dukes Read online

  ‘Alas, the old duke was uncommonly stubborn and refused all my offers of help in that regard.’

  ‘I see.’ Phin pretended surprise. ‘Then how else did you make yourself useful to him? What did your duties involve exactly?’

  ‘I helped wherever I was needed,’ Toby replied vaguely, unable to meet Phin’s gaze.

  ‘Then I shall have to leave John to make the initial appointments, but we will find something for you to do, Darwin, never doubt it. That ought to please you, given that my uncle declined your offers of help. I, you can rest assured, will need all the help I can get if we are to restore the Abbey in a timely manner and there is no room here for passengers.’

  ‘Glad to be of service,’ Toby replied, sounding anything but.

  Phin watched young Alvin in the periphery of his vision. The boy seemed determined to stake a claim to Miss Stirling’s affections, despite the fact that his regard was clearly not returned. When not casting covetous eyes upon her or bestowing scowls upon Phin, he watched Toby with puppy dog devotion.

  Interesting.

  ‘The gatehouse will be repaired and manned before we tackle anything else,’ Phin said briskly. ‘I suspect that poaching is rife, since there is nothing to stop anyone who wishes to do so from entering the estate. Once that work is completed, we will attend to the courtyard.’

  ‘The house itself is surely more urgent,’ Alice said.

  Phin ignored the interruption. ‘But now, if there are no more questions, I believe Mrs Gibson has laid out a light repast for us in the dining parlour.’

  *

  Celeste rose with everyone else, feeling giddy with relief. The duke had made it abundantly clear that he would tolerate no challenges to his authority, starting the way he meant to go on. It was obvious that Alice resented him, Alvin hated him and Toby…well, Toby’s reaction was more difficult to gauge since he had never been one to openly display his feelings. Celeste barely spared Emma’s response to her cousin’s appearance a passing thought, since Emma simply followed wherever her husband led, thinking whatever he told her to think. She was pathetic really, and always had been, but what could one do?

  ‘Where are you going, Miss Stirling?’

  The duke’s arresting voice stopped Celeste on her way to the kitchens. ‘I have duties to attend to,’ she replied.

  ‘Not anymore you do not. You must eat, like the rest of us.’

  He took her elbow and steered her into the dining parlour. As always, the food had been laid out on the buffet since they had insufficient servants to wait upon them at table. He ushered her towards the spread and followed her as she inspected the dishes, choosing cold cuts, cheese, a little game pie and crusty bread for himself. Once she had made her own selections, he guided her towards the table, put his plate down and then pulled a chair out for her beside his at the head of the table. Everyone stopped to watch them with varying degrees of interest and annoyance.

  ‘You do not always eat with the family?’ he asked.

  ‘Not if I can avoid it. Besides, I usually have more pressing demands upon my time.’

  ‘I am trying to set a tone here, and I need your help. Don’t let me down.’

  Celeste shook her head. ‘I cannot persuade myself that you need anyone’s help when you set your mind to a particular course. I have never encountered a more forceful gentleman.’

  The duke found her comment amusing, as evidenced by the deep throaty chuckle that rumbled through his chest. ‘You have absolutely no idea just how forceful I can be,’ he replied.

  ‘Nor do I have any pressing desire to find out.’

  ‘A pity,’ he said with a heartfelt sigh.

  ‘People are watching us,’ she hissed, unsure why he chose to toy with her in such a distracting manner.

  ‘Let them. I have nothing to be ashamed of.’ He sent her a challenging look. ‘Do you?’

  ‘Behave yourself!’

  He picked up his fork and took a bite of game pie. ‘If I must.’

  Celeste nibbled at her own food, conscious of Alvin seated on her other side, still scowling at the duke at every opportunity. Foolish boy!

  ‘He holds your fate in his hands,’ she told him quietly when the duke’s attention was briefly diverted by something Alice said to him. ‘You would be better advised to court his good opinion.’

  ‘I don’t like him,’ Alvin said stubbornly. ‘And you should keep clear of him too, Cel. He is not to be trusted.’

  Celeste shook her head but made no effort to respond. She smiled as she watched the hard-hearted, decisive and dominant Duke of Suffolk surreptitiously feed pieces of ham to the salivating dog camped out at his feet. He already fascinated her to a far greater degree than was advisable. This evidence of his compassionate side further endeared him to her. It would be a grave error to become too attached, too dependent upon him, she reminded herself. He had asked her to remain for a further three months, which she was willing to do. She would enjoy seeing the Abbey come to life again. But after that, she would move on and forget all about him. It was the right, the sensible, the only course of action available to her.

  ‘I saw two half decent horses in the stables,’ the duke remarked. ‘To whom do they belong?’

  ‘Myself and Alvin,’ Toby replied, placing a brimming glass of wine aside as he spoke. ‘But they are at your disposal.’

  ‘Thank you, but I prefer a horse of my own.’ He turned towards Alvin and smiled. ‘Know anything about horseflesh?’ he asked.

  ‘A little,’ Alvin replied sullenly.

  ‘Excellent! Then you can accompany me into Newmarket this afternoon and help me to purchase a decent mount. I shall depend upon you for sound advice since you are better acquainted with the local breeders than I.’

  Alvin perked up immediately. ‘I say!’

  Celeste smiled her admiration. The duke had only been at the Abbey for a few hours, but he’d already noticed Alvin’s attachment to Toby, whom Celeste privately thought of as the only truly dangerous force to be reckoned with in the household. But the duke had already weakened Alvin’s dependency upon the wretched man with his carrot and stick approach.

  ‘Nicely done, your grace,’ she said softly. ‘How did you know?’

  ‘I have yet to meet any young man who does not enjoy looking over a decent horse and putting it through its paces.’ He paused as he fixed her with a lascivious grin. ‘Next to an attractive woman, of course.’

  ‘You are trying to shock me, but it won’t serve.’ Celeste was annoyed when she felt her cheeks warming beneath the force of his penetrating gaze, refuting her apparently calm demeanour. ‘I have heard a great deal worse spoken in this house, I do assure you, and have yet to swoon.’

  ‘I can see that you fully intend to spoil my pleasures.’

  ‘Not in the least. Far be it from me to suggest how you should behave.’

  ‘Be that as it may, I am absolutely convinced that you are going to make this change in my circumstances considerably easier to bear.’

  ‘I live to serve, your grace.’

  Phin turned a splutter into a cough. ‘Be very careful what you say to me, since I might hold you to it.’

  She met his gaze, her remarkable eyes sparkling with amusement. ‘I am not afraid of you. In fact I feel as though I know you already, since you look and behave in a very similar manner to Matthew, who was never able to cut a sham over me.’

  ‘An unwise admission to make, Miss Stirling. Matthew and I were always competitive and I owe it to his memory to maintain our rivalry. If there is a field in which he did not excel, then I always showed him how it should be done.’ His smile was infectiously wicked, and so reminiscent of Matthew at his most mischievous that Celeste was unable to take offence. ‘And vice versa.’

  She shook her head and deliberately turned away from him, aware that the others had likely overheard snippets of their conversation, despite the fact that they had been talking quietly while the rest of them had been chatting amongst themselves. It would not do to create the wrong impression. The duke had made her life considerably easier, but Celeste would still have to endure the sharp side of Alice’s tongue—am unattractive trait that she had kept under careful guard thus far in the duke’s presence—when left alone with her.

  ‘Well then, Alvin, if you are replete.’ The duke pushed his plate aside and stood. Rufus emerged from beneath the table and stood beside him, tail wagging frantically. ‘Shall we? John, will you take yourself off to the village please and seek out my uncle’s former steward. A man by the name of Goddard. Miss Sterling tells me that he resides in a cottage on the outskirts of the village and anyone you ask will give you directions. I hear he has yet to find alternative employment and I would like to speak to him now, today, if he’d oblige by returning here with you.’

  ‘Leave it to me, Phin.’

  ‘I’ll bring you back a present so that you won’t have to endure the ignominy of riding carriage horses.’

  ‘Much obliged, I’m sure,’ John replied with a grin.

  ‘Good. That’s settled then.’ He smiled at Celeste. ‘If you would have the goodness to excuse us.’

  A little taken aback by his pristine manners and determination to bestow them almost exclusively upon her, she inclined her head. ‘Good luck,’ she said.

  The door closed behind the duke and Alvin. Celeste wanted to run away but knew that she would have to weather the family’s disapproval at some point. Besides, she was curious to hear what they had to say about him.

  ‘Beware, my dear,’ Toby said, scowling at her. ‘His intentions are evident.’

  ‘Really, Toby?’ Celeste smiled angelically. ‘You approve of his determination.’ She paused. ‘To restore the Abbey, that is.’

  Toby looked as though he would like to say more, then glanced at his wife beside him who had barely uttered ten words throughout the meal and thought better of it.

  ‘He is the type who sees something he wants and takes it,’ Toby said, draining his glass in one swallow and refilling it from the decanter in the centre of the table.

  ‘I get the impression that he is here under sufferance and doesn’t really want to take on the duchy,’ Celeste replied. ‘Fortunately for those of you who live here on a permanent basis, he appears to have the wherewithal to restore the property to its former glory.’ She put her napkin aside and stood. ‘If I were you, I would strive to remain on his good side, since he holds your fates in his hands.’

  Celeste, taking immense satisfaction from finally speaking her mind to the leeches whose tune she had been obliged to dance to for too long, smiled at each of them in turn and swept from the room.

  Chapter Four

  Phin was in high spirits when he returned from Newmarket astride a handsome black stallion whose breeder had been a little too keen to sell. Alvin had warned him not to go near the beast.

  ‘It’s well known that he’s an irascible creature and has thrown everyone who tries to ride him.’

  Alvin was not to know that such advice turned the horse into an irresistible challenge in Phin’s eyes. He liked wild, unpredictable creatures, especially ones with such superb confirmation as the one in front of him, pawing the ground and tossing his head like a recalcitrant child deprived of a treat. He knew at once that he would purchase the beast and beat the breeder down to a much lower sum that the animal was worth, if only for its potential as a sire.

  Phin had already decided to continue doing at the Abbey what he had excelled at in America. He had a good eye for horseflesh, and had made a fortune as a breeder, learning at his father’s knee when they moved to the strange land where all the customs were new to him. There was nothing preventing him from doing the same thing on the doorstep of the headquarters of British racing, and his status as a duke would do him no harm in that regard. If he was lumbered with the title and lands that went with them, he might as well let them work in his favour.

  ‘You’re quite insane,’ Alvin said, as they made their way back to the Abbey with Alvin leading the slightly less contrary gelding that Phin had purchased for John. Phin himself required both hands and most of his concentration to keep the stallion, who was determined to show off, under his control.

  ‘Ah, lad, what’s life without a challenge?’ He patted Malachi’s neck beneath his thick, flowing mane as he spoke and was rewarded with an almighty buck that almost sent him flying over the animal’s ears.

  ‘And broken bones.’

  Alvin laughed as he spoke, but there was admiration in his tone, his animosity towards Phin apparently a thing of the past as they bonded over discussions about flighty horses. All well and good, but Phin knew that the battle had not yet been won. Such an easily led lad needed to be kept close at hand. His ambitious and scheming mother would not be above using him for her own purposes, he was certain. She probably intended to marry him off to a girl of her choosing. One with a substantial dowry to ease her own financial burden, and one whom she could dominate as easily as she did her son.

  Phin would give Alvin some responsibility for bringing the Abbey back to life to make him feel useful and keep him away from Toby Darwin’s corrupting influence. Phin had been left with the impression that Darwin and his aunt Alice were cut from the same cloth, and he didn’t trust either of them an inch.

  Rufus came running to meet them, his tail spiralling as they negotiated their way past the crumbling lodge. Malachi dropped his head and snorted at the dog, requiring Phin to yank his head up before he put in another of his trademark bucks.

  ‘You appear to have had a successful afternoon,’ Celeste said, appearing from the stable yard with a kitten in her arms.

  ‘The best possible fun, Cel,’ Alvin said, sliding from his saddle and leading his horse and the one purchased for John towards tethering rings.

  ‘Is that Malachi?’ Celeste laughed. ‘That breeder must have seen you coming. He’s been trying to offload him for months. No one can stay on his back.’

  ‘Phin did,’ Alvin said, looking up from unsaddling his horse, pride in his expression. ‘He didn’t take any nonsense from him, knocked old Padron down to almost half of what he wanted for him and purchased the best quality saddle you could imagine. He’s going to use him for breeding.’

  ‘You seem to have a convert,’ Celeste said, raising a brow.

  ‘Time will tell.’ Phin gently tickled the head of the kitten she held in her arms, wishing he could provide the same service for Celeste. Ye gods, he needed to do something about his growing frustration! There must be somewhere in Newmarket where he could… ‘Negotiating the purchase of horses is one thing. Let’s see how readily he takes to getting his hands dirty and bedding them down.’ He winked at Celeste, tethered Malachi and removed his tack, then turned to Alvin. ‘Come along then. Let’s get their stalls prepared.’

  Alvin blinked, looking ready to object. But when Phin stripped off his coat, flung it aside and picked up a pitchfork, Alvin shrugged and followed suit.

  ‘I can see that you gentlemen are fully occupied,’ Celeste said, amusement in her tone, ‘so I shall go and get this little fellow settled.’

  ‘Where did he come from?’ Phin asked, tossing soiled straw into a barrow.

  ‘The stable cat had another litter, but she doesn’t have enough milk to feed them all and this one is struggling. It won’t survive unless it’s hand fed.’

  ‘Admirable. But don’t you have enough to occupy your time?’

  ‘Not now that you are here to take control,’ she replied, smiling as she left them to their labours.

  With the horses bedded down and munching contentedly at bran mashes and fresh hay, Phin and Alvin returned to the house.

  ‘You like horses,’ Phin said, stating the obvious.

  ‘Rather! But Mama never lets me ride anything too spirited.’ He shrugged. ‘Women. You know how protective they can be. They just don’t understand.’

  Phin assured him that they did not. ‘You didn’t go away to school?’

  ‘No. I was frequently unwell as a child so Mama arranged for a tutor here at the Abbey.’

  Phin nodded, thinking that explained a great deal, reinforcing his impression that Alice was determined to manipulate her son’s life. The rough and tumble of a decent public school made or broke a man, and Alvin had yet to cut the apron strings. His father had died when he’d still been in short coats, Alice had not remarried and Alvin had been deprived of a strong masculine presence in his life when he’d been at his most impressionable.

  He wondered why his uncle had not done something about it, insisted that the boy went away to school, or at the very least offered him a firm guiding hand himself, much as Phil had so effortlessly done that day. He had exerted his authority by making him take responsibility for his actions by clearing up the mess in the drawing room, then rewarded him by having him tag along when he went to buy horses. It had been very easy to win his respect.

  Matthew had taken himself off to Burgundy, which explained why Alvin had latched onto Toby Darwin, the worst possible influence for an impressionable young man. But Phin knew from one afternoon’s excursion that it was not too late to stop the rot.

  ‘I’m planning to breed horses here once I knock the place back into shape.’

  ‘You are?’ Alvin’s guileless enthusiasm went some way to restoring Alvin’s jaded spirits. ‘Is that what you did in America? I think I heard something said.’

  ‘I did. My father started in a small way and as soon as I finished my education, he taught me everything he knew.’

  ‘Which is why you handled Malachi so well, I expect.’

  ‘I broke a few bones riding wild mustangs. After that, a recalcitrant thoroughbred seems like child’s play.’

  ‘I say!’

  ‘Anyway, if you’re interested in helping me, I need someone I can trust.’

  Alvin stood a little taller. ‘You can rely on me, Phin.’

  Phin slapped the lad’s shoulder. ‘I know I can.’

  They entered the scullery together, coats thrown over their shoulders and smelling of horses, Alvin still peppering Phin with questions about his time in America.