Read Ducal Encounters 03 - Portrait of a Duke for Free Online

Brussels with Mr. Trafford while he finished his work. The irony is, they ought to have been in more danger, what with them being so close to the fighting, and yet it was the English contingent who perished.” Lady St. John lifted her shoulders and sighed. “It was all very sad.”
    “Perhaps that’s what made Trafford lose his senses?” Zach suggested.
    “Very possibly.” Vince nodded. “It would certainly explain why he switched from portraiture to landscape painting. Everyone who knows about it, and it is not public knowledge yet, seems to think it’s a brave change of direction by a talented man who had made a fortune from his art and can afford to indulge his whims, but—”
    “But he cannot paint portraits anymore because the people sitting for them would see he had lost his senses,” the duchess finished. “How very sad.”
    “You are right, both of you,” Lady St. John said. “Nia Trafford confided in me that her grandfather had made the switch at her suggestion for that very reason.”
    “I wonder why he doesn’t just retire, if he is so unwell,” Portia mused.
    Vince wondered the same thing. From what he had seen that day, he had a few ideas, but decided against voicing them. “On a different note,” he said. “Something occurred to me on the ride back home, Zach.”
    “Some insightful thought you have a burning desire to share with us all,” Zach suggested with a wry twitch of his lips.
    “All of my thoughts are insightful.” Vince ignored Nate’s scoffing laugh and concentrated his attention on Zach. “We are agreed that we need to find a solution to the feuding between the villages, are we not?”
    Zach nodded. “Go on.”
    “It has got more intense since Amos married Crista.”
    “I hope I haven’t made things worse,” Crista replied, looking a little alarmed by the possibility.
    “Not in the least. The problem is not of your making. It’s just that you happened to be living in Shawford when Amos found you and had the good sense to marry you.”
    “Ah, I see what you mean,” Amos said. “Since I am the first brother to marry and chose a lady Shawford claims as its own, that gives Shawford the edge in this ridiculous feud.”
    “But now that Trafford is living in Compton,” Zach added, “it could even the score.”
    “Except Trafford won’t show himself in public. Nia won’t permit it because she never knows if he will be coherent or not,” Lady St. John said.
    “He may not need to,” Vince said pensively. “Just knowledge of his being there would give Compton reason to boast.”
    “But people wouldn’t leave him in peace and it sounds as though peace is what the poor man needs,” the duchess pointed out.
    “Quite so.” Lady St. John stood. “There is merit in your suggestion, Lord Vincent, but it requires a deal of thought and Nia Trafford’s approbation.”
    “Naturally. It was mere speculation on my part.”
    “Please excuse me, Your Grace.” She bobbed a curtsey for the duchess and repeated the gesture for Zach. “Time is getting on and I have things to do.”
    “Of course.”
    It was Zach who answered her as he rang the bell for Faraday to show her out. Vince was aware that their mother lived in hope of Zach and Lady St. John forming an alliance. Frankie St. John was beautiful, intelligent and, most importantly of all, not overwhelmed by Zach’s position as a duke. She gave as good as she got in their frequent bouts of verbal sparring and showed no particular ambition to become a duchess which, in Vince’s view, was the surest way to make it happen. Either she was very artful, or really did have no desire to improve her social standing. Vince could see his brother was attracted to her but he had never once given voice to his intentions, and Vince would never ask.
    ***
    “Can we really go, Aunt Nia?”
    “Will we be able to ride any of the horses, do you suppose?”
    “Forrester is a jolly fine beast.”
    “I expect they have lots more like