him. It is impossible.’
Angel shook her head at her aunt’s stubbornness. The Rosevale family was notorious for its short tempers and prolonged feuds, but neither her father nor her aunt had ever been prepared to explain the origins of this one. ‘Aunt,’ she said, ‘I must ask you to tell me why Papa quarrelled with Great-uncle Augustus.’
‘No, dear.’ Aunt Charlotte looked decidedly mulish, but then, seeing Angel’s set expression, she added, ‘It was a very long time ago. It is best forgotten.’
Angel sat up even straighter. ‘As head of the family,’ she said, with emphasis, ‘I need to be fully aware of such things. You must agree with that. You yourself said that—’
‘No, I—’ Aunt Charlotte was shaking her head.
‘I insist, Aunt.’ Angel looked meaningfully at her. The old lady was stubborn, but she also believed implicitly in the role of the head of the family. It was only a matter of waiting.
‘Oh, very well. But it is not an edifying tale.’ Aunt Charlotte took a lace-trimmed handkerchief from her pocket and touched it to her lips. ‘Your papa… Er…your papa was not yet twenty when he inherited. I was already of age, of course, but your grandfather had appointed his younger brother, your Great-uncle Augustus, to be your papa’s guardian and trustee. Uncle Augustus was very proud, very conscious of his rank. And grasping when it came to money.’
Angel’s face must have shown some reaction to her aunt’s outspoken description of the late Augustus Rosevale, for Lady Charlotte nodded bleakly and squeezed her niece’s hand.
‘You insisted on knowing, Angel, and so I must give you the truth with no bark on it. Augustus Rosevale was a miser…and a fortune-hunter to boot. Since he could not have the titles for himself, he did everything in his power to persuade your papa to marry his own daughter, Mary.
‘Your papa would have none of it. And I encouraged him in his resistance, I freely admit. Uncle Augustus was a tyrant…and Mary was a plain little mouse, with neither spirit nor brains to recommend her. A marriage between them would have been a disaster from the first.’
‘But I thought Papa’s first marriage was a love match?’
Aunt Charlotte smiled fondly. ‘Yes, indeed. Your papa had already met and fallen in love with Lady Jane Ellesmore. He paid no heed at all to Uncle Augustus’s attempts to separate them or to advance the claims of his own daughter. The day your papa came of age, he proposed to Lady Jane. They were married within a month.’
‘But she died.’
‘Yes, she died. Although they did have twelve happy years together. In spite of Uncle Augustus.’
Angel looked at her aunt enquiringly.
‘Your father’s first marriage was not blessed with children, Angel. And Uncle Augustus took every possible opportunity of reminding your papa of the fact, never caring how much it might hurt him. It was even worse for poor Jane. It made her feel that she had failed as a wife.’
Angel turned her head away, biting her lip.
Aunt Charlotte was concentrating on her tale. ‘She said to me once, not long before she died, that it might have been better if your father had married his cousin after all.’
Angel managed a nod. ‘How terribly sad,’ she said quietly.
Aunt Charlotte sighed. There was a faraway look in her eyes for a moment, but it was soon replaced by a martial glint. ‘Poor Jane was barely cold in her grave when Augustus was back, trying yet again to persuade your father to wed Mary. Well! You will not be surprised to learn that your father sent him to the right about. Said Mary was too old to bear him an heir, even if he’d been able to stomach the sight of her, which he could not.’
Angel gasped.
‘No, it was not well done of him, I agree. It was not Mary’s fault, after all. But, you must understand, he had just buried his wife. And he had loved her dearly. Indeed, he was so distraught that, at one stage, I thought he…’ She paused, swallowing hard. ‘However, he did recover enough to decide that he must marry again, to ensure the succession, for it was clearly unwise to rely on Julian.’
‘Julian? But…but surely he died when he was just a boy?’
‘Is that what your papa told you?’
Angel nodded. Papa had spoken only once of his younger brother and it had seemed to give him pain. Angel had never felt able to press him for more information. And, apart from a single portrait of Julian as a child, there was no trace of him here at the Abbey.
‘I can understand why he would have told you that but I…I fear it was not true, my love. Julian died, but… Oh, dear, this is very difficult.’
Angel waited.
Aunt Charlotte sighed. ‘Julian was years younger than either of us, and so wild that we despaired of him. He did not see why he should pay any heed to your papa. They quarrelled all the time, I’m afraid. Your papa wanted Julian to marry in order to ensure the succession, but Julian refused to give up his wicked bachelor ways. Drinking and gambling, and—Julian said your papa was perfectly capable of getting an heir for himself. All he had to do was to find himself a better breeder than the one he had buried. You can imagine how your papa reacted to that! Yet another family rift, of course. Julian took himself off to France and never came back. I…I heard that he did marry there, but he and his wife, and all her family, were killed in the Terror. She was the daughter of the Comte d’Eury, you see, and—’
Lady Charlotte rose and walked to the window. Angel could tell, from the set of her shoulders, that she was trying to master a sudden surge of emotion.
‘No matter how wild he was,’ Aunt Charlotte said in a low, passionate voice, ‘he did not deserve to die like that. No one did.’
Angel sat silent, wondering, waiting for her aunt to recover her composure. She had clearly loved Julian, in spite of his faults. Perhaps Papa had loved him too? Had he banished all the reminders of Julian from Rosevale Abbey because the memory was too painful? It certainly seemed to be so for Aunt Charlotte. Angel forced herself to resist the temptation to go to the old lady and put a comforting arm around her. Aunt Charlotte would have upbraided her severely for doing such a thing. A lady should never lose control of her emotions in public. Never. And if, by some mischance, she did, it was the height of bad manners for anyone present to notice.
‘And Great-uncle Augustus?’ prompted Angel, when Aunt Charlotte had turned back to face her once more.
‘He and your father never spoke again. The breach was too deep to mend. Why, your father did not even go to the funeral when Augustus’s son died. He didn’t go to Augustus’s funeral either.’
‘Oh,’ said Angel, considering. ‘But I thought Cousin Frederick was Great-uncle Augustus’s son.’
‘No. Grandson.’
‘Oh,’ said Angel again. ‘So…he is not an old man, then?’
‘No, of course not. You knew that, surely? You said he might do as a husband for you. You were not planning—’
‘Dear Aunt, I was only teasing you, I promise. I know nothing of Cousin Frederick. I supposed that he was…oh…fifty
