Jilting the Duke Read Free Page B

hands behind his back. “I come on behalf of Thomas Gardiner, the late Lord Wilmot. I’m to deliver a letter his lordship wrote you shortly before his death. If you agree to the proposition he outlines, I have brought papers for your signature.”
    At Tom’s name, Aidan stiffened with complicated emotions: fondness, regret, anger, betrayal. “Wilmot has been dead a year, yet the delivery of these papers is urgent?”
    â€œLord Wilmot was very specific. Your letter—and one to his widow—were to be delivered within a day of the first anniversary of his death.”
    â€œThen it is convenient I am in town.” Aidan leaned against the edge of his desk.
    Aldine held out a letter, its seal unbroken. “His lordship instructed I am to remain while you read.”
    Aidan nodded acquiescence, and Aldine began laying out papers on the desk.
    Tom’s handwriting, though still legible, had grown less controlled.

    My dear old friend,
    Knowing one is dying gives a perspective to the past. Besides time and distance, only one thing stands between us, an act I cannot regret, except that it separated us. Had I lived, we would have talked and embraced again as brothers, but that conversation and the sight of your dear face has been denied me. These lines—poor substitutes—must stand in their stead.
    Look beyond our present silence to our years of brotherhood when your father took a fatherless boy into his home and reared him as his own. His sons I cherished as brothers, but none more than you. Since I must leave my son fatherless, I ask you to serve as his guardian. Take him into your home and heart. Shelter him and guide him into manhood, for the sake of our old friendship.
    In this guardianship, I give you a partner: his devoted mother. Do not separate the mother from her child. Ian would adapt, as children must do, but Sophia would suffer immeasurably. Find some way to live near one another, forgetting the past, for my dear child’s sake.
    Love my son, protect him, rear him as your own.
    Â 
    Yours ever most affectionately and sincerely, Tom

    Had Aidan been alone, he would have cursed out loud. Tom’s letter was unwelcome, as unwelcome as Aidan’s father’s summons five years ago to return from the wars to care for the ducal estates.
    Aidan turned to the guardianship papers, noting several contradictions between them and Tom’s letter. “Let me make sure that I understand. Wilmot’s son is to live with me part of the year?”
    â€œIf you wish. My firm disperses funds for the boy’s maintenance, supported by the approval of both guardians, or one guardian and our firm.”
    Aidan raised one eyebrow. “What is the rationale there?”
    â€œIf one guardian is unavailable or if you and Lady Wilmot cannot agree, the firm adjudicates on the child’s behalf.” Aldine offered a long pause. “It is a right we prefer not to exercise.”
    â€œAh, money is tied up in this arrangement.” Aidan leaned forward toward Aldine. “Did Wilmot believe his wife would run through the funds?”
    â€œNo. His lordship valued his wife’s judgment. She’s an able manager.”
    â€œHe valued her judgment, but removed the boy’s estate from her control?” Aidan let his voice convey disbelief.
    â€œNo, the estate remains under her ladyship’s control until the boy’s majority. This guardianship administers a trust for the boy’s maintenance. Wilmot wished to provide the boy with a male mentor, but you can refuse the guardianship.” Aldine pulled another document from his portfolio. “Your signature on this makes Lady Wilmot sole guardian.”
    â€œSo it’s me or no male guardian.” Suddenly, Aidan remembered Tom as a boy, playing King Arthur and his knights with Aidan and his brothers. He cursed inwardly: Tom had known honor would not allow Aidan to refuse. “Then I will