“And the regent would benefit?”
“The regent would benefit handsomely.”
Ellen shook her head. “It doesn’t seem fair that one of the oldest titles in the land goes into escheat for the regent’s convenience. Freddy has an heir, and he may be a decent enough fellow.”
“He’ll certainly be an improvement over Freddy, but the Roxbury estate is of no moment to me whatsoever. Tell me you’ll marry me.”
“You’re sure he’s gone?” Ellen asked, unable to keep her voice from breaking. “He’ll stay gone? You’re safe from him?”
“I am safe from him.” Val held her gaze. “You are safe from him. I promise you this, Ellen, with my most solemn word. My family owns two shipping companies, and we’d spot him before he disembarked at any domestic port. His ship was headed for Italy by way of Portugal, because he already has enemies in France. He can afford to run for a bit, since he took his personal jewelry with him. Recall, though, that he’s alone, he doesn’t speak the language, doesn’t know the customs, and I have friends who will keep an eye on him in Rome. Will you marry me?”
“You’re going to keep composing, aren’t you?” Ellen peered at him worriedly. “That music, Val. It was… sublime. I could almost hear the frogs croaking and feel the tears on my cheeks—well, I could feel the real tears—and the flowers, I could smell them in the sunshine during that second movement. I think the Belmont boys were there too, and so was Marmalade. You have to keep writing. You have to. Is your hand all right?”
Val sat back and braced one of his hands on each of her arms. “If I promise to keep composing, will you marry me?”
“Yes.” It was a simple word but the most radiant in her vocabulary. Radiant like the notes of his symphony. “Yes. I will marry you, Valentine Windham, and you will write music, and our lives will always have something of the divine in them.”
“Always,” he agreed, hugging her to him.
And in his head, he heard a new tune: sweet, strong, and clear, underpinned by sturdy, driving rhythms and lush, generous harmonies. It was at once merry and profound, and as he bent to kiss his prospective wife, Val knew it might turn into something worthwhile, when he had some time to work on it.
And as it turned out, Valentine Windham was right. The working title of that piece, destined to be just as popular as his debut symphony, became, “Little Weldon Summer Christening.”
Author’s Note
Careful readers will note that St. Just explains to Valentine that St. Just’s adopted daughter will hold the title on behalf of her legitimate heirs. This is in contravention of conventional wisdom telling us that adopted children would not have inherited titles. In the usual case, the conventional wisdom would prevail because an adopted child would not meet the criteria in the letters patent for most titles, which typically required the title to pass to “the oldest legitimate male natural issue surviving at the time of the titleholder’s death.”
Titled men could and did adopt children, but having letters patent reworded was a much trickier proposition. His Grace influenced the wording of St. Just’s original letters patent, which put a very different face on the heritability of St. Just’s earldom. Furthermore, in Bronwyn’s case, I can assure my readers that both the Helmsley and Rosecroft earldoms included baronies among their predecessor titles, and among the old baronies, it was not at all unusual for female heirs to be able to hold titles in abeyance, sometimes for centuries. As for whether an illegitimate female might qualify, well, this is, as the scholars say, an area for further research—or a just a touch of literary license I hope the purists will find excusable.
Then, too, we know that Prinny’s brothers and his sister, the Princess Sophia, had among them something like twenty illegitimate children, and I hope The First Gentleman might have found it in his heart to indulge a royal eccentricity on behalf of our dear Bronwyn’s offspring. His Grace, when fixed on a goal, can be very determined and persuasive after all.