CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Colin’s desk was littered with paper as he and Edward finished reviewing the documents before them. It had been an arduous task, all the more unpleasant, as Colin revealed multiple areas of suspicious activity from his father.

“Do you understand the pattern here?” Colin asked, bewildered by the myriad pieces of evidence that showed how severe the late duke’s judgment had become.

“All I can say is that I am glad you have been at the helm for the last two years,” Edward said loyally. “I do not think this estate would have survived as it has done if your father had remained in place.”

Both men looked at the portrait above the mantelpiece. Once all this was over, Colin agreed with himself that he would have it removed. He thought that a woodland scene or something a little more relaxing might be preferable than his father’s angry gaze.

“It is all these withdrawals I cannot understand. Why would he put so much money into a venture and then change his mind so abruptly? It makes no sense.”

He shuffled some of the invoices and receipts aside and paused as a name caught his eye. A name he was becoming all too familiar with in his father’s correspondence.

It was a letter from his father to Richard Wentworth. Colin frowned at it as it slipped out from between two other sheets, and he pulled it free as Edward watched.

“January 1800,

Richard, I hope you understand that in politics, as in life, we must sometimes make difficult choices. The opportunity that presented itself was too crucial to ignore. I assure you; this is for the greater good. In time, you'll see the wisdom of this move. Until then, I hope we can put this unfortunate business behind us and continue our association as before. – Auric Ludlow"

He handed the letter to Edward with a frown. “What do you think this means?”

Edward read it through several times before he snapped his fingers, rising and going to another stack of papers on the other side of the room.

“I wondered why he might have kept this.”

He returned with a newspaper cutting that had been placed within another sheaf of papers. Edward handed it to Colin as he read the newspaper headline. It was an article dated a few days before the letter to Richard Wentworth.