Lord Cavendish Returns by Rebecca King

here I joined the army
and was sent abroad. When I did come back to English shores, I was
given the choice that I could either to be sent back to the
battlefields or could work with the War Office.” His lips twisted
wryly. “I elected for the War Office. Unfortunately, my work
requires me to adopt disguises and work undercover. I have to keep
moving around and be very careful about what I do. Just a simple
letter home could mean fatal consequences for you and Robert and
Joseph. I couldn’t risk it.”
    Angus
nodded his understanding. “The thing is, Harper, when father passed
away he revealed a few things to us that have a significant impact
on all of us.”
    Harper
froze and lifted his steady gaze to his brother. He knew now that
if it was proven that his mother was Lady Cavendish, or whatever
the hell her name was, he was not related to the man seated
opposite, and that saddened him greatly. “Go on.”
    “ Father said that this house wasn’t his.”
    “ Not his?” Harper knew what was coming. The fruit cake he had
consumed suddenly felt like a piece of led in his stomach and he
carefully placed the remains back on the plate at his
elbow.
    “ He was an ex-soldier, as you know, and struggled to make a
living because of his injuries. He couldn’t afford to purchase this
place. Apparently, someone else owns the house. Father and mother
just lived here.”
    “ Who owns it then?”
    “ Well, now? You do.”
    “ What?”
    “ I said that you do.” Angus rubbed a weary hand down his face
and studied the changes the years away had brought upon Harper. The
enthusiastic adolescent he had grown up with had been replaced with
a weary soldier who had become a rather forbidding man. In his
youth, Harper had been a chatterbox; in his maturity, he had
clearly learnt to choose his words wisely.
    “ Who owned it when we lived here then?”
    “ It was somebody down in London. Some sort of trust of some
kind. Father made it clear that the house had been placed in trust
for you, and was yours as soon as you came of age. It was supposed
to have become yours when you were five and twenty, but you went
into the army and nobody knew how to find you.”
    Harper
always regretted not being at home when his father passed away, and
looked sadly at his brother.
    Angus
seemed to read his brother’s thoughts and smiled in commiseration.
“He understood, you know. He was worried sick, but damned proud of
what you were doing.”
    “ So the family lived here, rent free, because I owned the
house and would receive it when I was old enough.”
    Angus
nodded.
    “ Do you have the name of the trust, or the solicitor, who gave
you the information?” Harper knew what the paper Angus fetched out
of a box on the mantle would say. The small card that was handed to
him held the words; Harry Johnson, Solicitors of Law, London,
emblazoned across it. Harper dropped it onto the table as though it
had just burned his fingers and studied it with a deep sense of
foreboding.
    “ The fact is, Harper, I have only stayed at the house to look
after it. We didn’t know how to get hold of you or if you would
ever be back. When father passed, we all received a sizeable
portion of his wealth. Because he hadn’t had to pay any rent or
purchase a house, he had amassed a small fortune from his pension,
and the money he received after his parent’s deaths. This money was
divided between all of us when he passed. Robert used his to
purchase the blacksmith business. Joseph purchased his farm, and I
set up my practice here. Unfortunately, most of my patients live in
Moldton, and they have to travel to come and see me. During the
winter, some of them cannot make it and I have to go to them. It is
extremely difficult to get to everybody I need to see and it is
becoming more and more evident that I need to live in Moldton. I
just didn’t want to see this place fall into wrack and ruin. Joseph
has to be at his farm because of the livestock, and Robert’s
customers call