‘Because he does not like me,’ Ben agreed.
Stay away from the boy. Now that Cassandra is dead, you have no business with the family, you worthless cicisbeo.
Ben’s lips thinned in a bitter smile. Dislike was too mild a word to describe what old Cottsmoor’s brother felt for him. But it did not matter. They were only words, after all. He’d heard worse than that from Cassandra, towards the end.
He stared down at the board. It was clear that what had seemed a hesitant beginning had been a ruse to draw his knight. He countered and took a pawn.
‘Then I will not tell Uncle when I visit with you. And I insist, as Cottsmoor, that when we are alone, I will be John and you will be Ben, just like it used to be.’ The boyish laughter had disappeared and the Duke stared coldly into his eyes, demanding obedience.
‘Very well, John,’ said Ben with an impressed nod. ‘You are becoming quite intimidating.’ Though still a cub, he was definitely a lion in the making. And the cub had just taken his bishop.
‘In a few years, I will care for nothing and no one,’ John answered in a surprisingly adult tone. ‘I will think no further than my own pleasure, just like the last Cottsmoor.’
‘You will not,’ Ben said, in a tone just as imperious as the boy’s had been. ‘You will think of your King, your country and the needs of its people. The Dukedom is a reward for the honourable service of the first Cottsmoor. His successors should prove themselves worthy by their actions.’
‘That is not what the last Cottsmoor would have said,’ John said. ‘Not to me, at least. He was too busy doting on the heir.’ Anger made John reckless. He had exposed his queen.
Unfortunately, what the boy said was true. The Duke had doted on his first son to the exclusion of everyone else. Though John had been born into the most privileged of lives, the loneliness of his years was still sharp in both their memories. ‘Cottsmoor had his reasons.’
John responded with a grim smile, ‘And if he can see me now, he regrets them.’
‘As do I,’ Ben said softly. ‘I know how difficult it can be to have no father.’ And yet he did not know at all what it must have been like for John. When Ben’s own father had died, the loss had nearly crushed him. But it was very different to share a house with one man who refused to acknowledge you existed and another who knew but was forced by circumstances to deny it.
‘There was nothing you could have done,’ John reminded him.
‘I should have found a way,’ Ben said. The regret lingered like a bitter aftertaste.
‘It was not as if you were allowed in the nursery.’
‘It would not have been appropriate,’ Ben agreed. Even Cottsmoor’s extreme generosity had its limits. They stopped well short of his wife’s paramour dandling infants and playing at peekaboo.
‘And you did not leave me,’ John reminded him.
He had been young and stupid. But he had known in less than a year that his love for Cassandra was a poisonous thing. As more years passed, even his lust had died. And yet he had stayed with her, serviced her, taken her money and hated himself for it. ‘I did not leave you,’ he said.
John sensed the moment of sentimental weakness and took advantage, moving his bishop to attack. ‘Check.’
Ben laughed and gave him a nod of approval before moving a knight to protect his king. ‘But you will be a better duke than he was, because of it. Hardship makes you stronger.’
John sighed. ‘Sometimes, I wish I did not have to be quite so strong.’ Then he moved his queen and smiled again. ‘Check.’
Ben moved a rook. ‘You might have to be stronger yet. There is something we must discuss.’
‘You mean there is something you wish to say that has not been said,’ John corrected, taking the rook. ‘Check.’
This time, Ben moved his king. ‘Sometimes, you are too smart for your own good. In the near future, you will hear unpleasant rumours about me.’
‘And I am not to believe them?’ the boy said, contemplating the next move.
‘On the contrary, they will all be true,’ Ben said.
John’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘What have you done?’
‘Nothing recently,’ Ben assured him. ‘But Summoner knows I am not your brother. He has threatened to reveal it. Miss Amelia Summoner is on her way to Cottsmoor to talk to my mother.’
‘I will make them stop,’ John said, falling easily into the role of autocrat again. ‘Check.’
‘Do not bother yourself.’ Ben rescued his king yet again. ‘I have decided it is better for all concerned if I call his bluff. One cannot blackmail a man who has no secrets.’