He loved his home, Farleigh Palace.
No.
He had been avoiding his father and a certain young woman: Lady Frederica Stringham.
Samuel knew that if he returned home, he would be expected to make her an offer of marriage. Wisely, he had stayed on the Continent. But with his father’s death, followed by insistent letters from his father’s many creditors, he’d returned to his encumbered estates and distraught mother. He was relieved to learn that his father was already buried six feet underneath the ground when he arrived. His corpse couldn’t be deep enough for Samuel. His sire had made his mother miserable and destroyed his childhood. Samuel only hoped that he could shield his little brother from the entire truth. It was a burden no schoolboy should have to carry.
Donning black gloves, he strolled into his mother’s private sitting room, where she sat with her embroidery work. Mama was bedecked in black from her cap, which covered her thick brown hair, to her leather boots. Her face was round and dimpled. She had large pale blue eyes, a pointy nose, and a generous mouth with thick red lips. Placing the hoop and needle on the table beside her, she patted the seat next to her. Samuel dutifully sat beside her and was overwhelmed by the smell of her lavender perfume.
‘You asked to see me, Mama?’
She gave her son a fond smile and smoothed a crease out of his coat with her gloved hand. ‘There, you look very handsome.’
He grabbed her hand and pulled off the glove. The pale skin was unmarred. ‘You are still well?’
Swallowing, his mother nodded and tugged back on her glove. ‘As well as can be expected and much better now that you are home.’
‘Thank you, Mama, but I do not have time to chatter. I am riding to London to meet with our solicitor and steward. The three of us are going to sort through the tangle of our finances before I return to Wellington’s services.’
‘Perhaps a little refreshment,’ she said, picking up a bell off the table. But before she could ring for her servants, he took the bell.
‘Mama, I have no desire for tea and commonplaces. Tell me why you sent for me.’
His mother gave him a tremulous smile as if she was trying to hold in her tears. In the past, he would have promised her anything when she cried, but his years at war had hardened him.
‘Oh, Samuel, I hope that you will not dislike it. Before you see Peterson and Fuller, I must tell you something of great importance.’
‘Do,’ he invited.
She brought a trembling black gloved hand to her mouth and sniffed. He placed a comforting arm around her round shoulders. His mother might be a duchess, but she had endured a long and unhappy marriage.
‘The Duchess of Hampford owns all the mortgages to the estate,’ she said at last. ‘Actually, it is her company, Duchess & Co., that holds them.’
He dropped his arm from her shoulders. ‘What? How could that be? Why in heaven’s name is Hampford involved in the business?’
A large tear came out of his mother’s left eye and slowly fell down her rounded cheek theatrically.
Mama could always cry upon command, he thought. Then chided himself for his callousness. He was one of the few people in the world who knew how much she had suffered and how much she would continue to suffer for his father’s choices.
Chagrined, he put his arm back around her and gave her a gentle squeeze. ‘Mama, I have been gone for seven years and when I left, I was but a lad. Please explain why Hampford is involved in the business.’
‘The Duke of Hampford is not at all involved,’ she said, biting on her lower lip as if to stop it from trembling. ‘You know about your father’s—illness.’
He gave a curt nod. The less that was said about that the better.
‘About a year after you left for the Peninsula, he took out another mortgage on the estate and lost a fortune on cards and low company. Before we were entirely ruined, I was able to have him incarcerated for his own protection and that of others. But our finances were in a very bad way. I was forced to order a new gown to placate my dressmaker and additional supplies that we could ill afford to keep them at bay, causing us to fall even deeper into debt.’
A feeling of guilt tightened his chest and Samuel gave her another side hug. He should have been there for her. ‘I do not blame you at all for our financial state, Mama.’
His mother exhaled a wobbly breath. ‘Your father could not help me and you were not here.’
Samuel’s chest felt tight and sweat was forming on his forehead. Guilt settling over him like a sash across his chest. He should have supported her better. Instead, he’d joined the army to escape his family problems.
Sighing, Mama put a hand on her chest. ‘So, I confided in my dear friend Selina, Lady Hampford. She brought her son Matthew, and they called in Peterson and Fuller. They went through all the bills and mortgages and established a plan to get rid of the debt. Selina assured me with a little economy, we could be free of encumbrances in around twenty years.’
His ears were ringing and he was seeing black spots. ‘Twenty years!’
‘Fourteen now. Indeed, Samuel, I know I ought to have consulted with you then, but I did not wish to burden you further,’ she explained, pausing to sniff into her handkerchief. ‘Selina redeemed half of the mortgages and, with my permission, instructed Mr Peterson to sell the London house and most of the unentailed property to pay off all the moneylenders, tradesmen, and the remaining mortgages. You cannot know what a relief it was to me not to have the knocker banged at all hours of the day, with tradesmen and bailiffs begging for their bills to be paid.’