Free The Wyndham Legacy by Catherine Coulter Page B

He turned then to look at his assembled family. His last Christmas had been spent around a campfire with fifty of his men, shivering in the Galician hills, wondering if the new year would bring them into battle and into death.
    He realized that he hadn’t bought a gift for the Duchess, not that she deserved it. Well, he had time, still five days until Christmas. Tomorrow, his uncle’s solicitor from London would arrive. He frowned, wondering what else his uncle could have done. Legitimizing the Duchess was a fine thing, he had no argument with that, though he realized quickly that Aunt Gweneth now looked at her a good deal differently. He couldn’t imagine why she would disapprove of the newly bona fide lady and approve of the bastard. Odd, that.
    Aunt Gweneth said, “Duchess, Marcus told us that you were living in Smarden, in Pipwell Cottage, with a man. Really, my dear, such a thing is most peculiar and leaves your reputation open to slurs, given your unfortunate antecedents.”
    The Duchess smiled a very small but pleasant smile, those long narrow hands of hers quiet in her lap. “I have never believed my antecedents to be unfortunate, ma’am, merely difficult in this tender society.”
    â€œNonetheless, you have had a man living with you.”
    â€œYes, his name is Badger, and he was my butler and my chef. He’s a remarkable man. Actually he still is my, er, valet.”
    â€œStill, it is not at all what one would expect from a lady,” Aunt Gweneth said, but Marcus, horrified at how prissy and prudish she sounded, and realizing that he must have sounded exactly the same way, interrupted swiftly, saying, “It makes no more difference, Aunt. The Duchess is here now. Nothing more need be said about it.”
    â€œBut that man accompanied her here.”
    â€œYes,” the Duchess said calmly, then remained quiet, sipping at her mulled wine. “Perhaps Cook should speak to Badger, for his mulled wine is the best I have ever tasted. He has secret ingredients he won’t tell anyone about. I remember my mother used to plead with him, telling him that she could sell the recipe and make us all rich. He laughed and nodded, but refused to tell her.”
    â€œI can vouch for Badger’s culinary expertise, Aunt Gweneth.”
    â€œDear Marcus, the man lived with the mother and then with the daughter. He speaks the most beautiful English. Surely you cannot allow a man with such pretensions to influence the household. Why he apes his betters, and it isn’t the done thing, Marcus. And she says he’s still her valet? Her valet? That is utterly preposterous, unbelievable, and you, as the head of the family, surely can’t allow it to continue. I don’t want to see the Wyndham name swimming into any more disrepute than it already swims.”
    A very dark eyebrow went up a good inch. “Our name is in disrepute? Why is this? Perhaps you believe, ma’am, that I am the cause of this so-called disrepute since I am merely the son of the second son?”
    â€œDon’t be a nodcock, boy, it doesn’t suit you. No, certainly not. The disrepute we are currently experiencing is the Duchess’s being made legitimate. Add a man valeting a girl and the result is obvious to predict.”
    â€œAh, well, Aunt,” Marcus said, “I beg you to think, rather, that my uncle and the Duchess’s father, came to see what was right and did it. As for this valeting business—”
    The Duchess interrupted him in an unruffled, utterly serene voice. “It is done, dear ma’am, and I fear there is no going back now. I trust the disrepute will die down in time. But this does disturb me. Do you honestly believe Badger’s excellent English to be pernicious?”
    â€œNo, she doesn’t,” Marcus said, giving Aunt Gweneth a look that shut her mouth quickly. “Particularly when Spears rivals him in elocution and