The Duke's Last Hunt (31 page)

Eliza turned to her other parent. “Mama,” she said anxiously, “I know that you had doubts about Henry Rowland’s character—”

Lady Malcolm held up a hand. “Ollerton has informed me that she was mistaken about that maid Jenny. Apparently, her removal from Harrowhaven was to seek a better position, not to hide an indiscretion.”

“Then you are not opposed?”

Lady Malcolm sipped her tea and looked around the room at the exquisite painting and paneling that had so impressed Eliza yesterday. “No, my dear. If you are happy, then I must be too.” She sniffed. “And we will simply trust the Almighty to make up the deficiencies in all of us.”

“Eliza!” said a gleefully loud voice, disrupting the Malcolm family conference, and indeed, every one of the hotel guests who had sat down to read their newspaper in quiet in the dining room.

Adele hurried over to the table, clad in a frothy yellow confection of lace. “Henry tells me we are to be sisters…again!”

Eliza rose from her seat to embrace Adele. There was no use blushing at her forwardness or her
faux pas
. They were family now, and Eliza refused to be embarrassed by her.

“I told you he had a
tendre
for you,” said Adele, taking Eliza’s hands in hers. “And, what delightful timing, for now we shall buy our trousseaus together. Henry cannot complain about any amount I spend at the modiste’s if you are getting gowns too!”

“How fortunate!” said Eliza, trying to keep the irony out of her voice.

“I shall help you choose your wedding gown,” said Adele, eager to launch into the specifics of this new venture. “Brussels lace, and silver lamé—”

“I think Eliza is quite capable of choosing her own gown,” said a firm voice. The owner of the hotel strode over to the table to make sure all of his guests were comfortable. “She has excellent taste, I find, when other people allow her to make up her own mind.”

“Yes,” said Eliza, looking at Henry’s broad shoulders in his perfectly-tailored black jacket. “I rather think that I do.”

FINIS

Author’s Note

W
hat does “a single man in possession of a good fortune” have in common with the “triumph of barbarism and religion,” as Edward Gibbon so affectionately termed the Middle Ages?

In my studies of history, the manners of the Regency era and the characters of the medieval period are the two things which have most captured my imagination. While reading Georgette Heyer and Elizabeth Chadwick, an interesting thought occurred to me: what if I took the characters and events of the Middle Ages and transposed them into the high society of the British Regency?

In my first Regency,
To Wed an Heiress
, I imagined the characters of the Norman Conquest set during the Regency era. Harold, the Earl of Anglesford, tries at all costs to save the family fortune, coming into conflict with the rapacious William Hastings and his alluring daughter Arabella. Murder most foul occurs, bringing the insightful Jacob Pevensey, an investigator from Bow Street, on the scene to sort out the tangled web of love and lies.

This novel,
The Duke’s Last Hunt
, was inspired by the events surrounding the death of William Rufus, the second king of England after the Norman Conquest. Rufus was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest. Before the hunt, Rufus had bestowed arrows on his friend Walter Tyrel (or Thurold), saying, “To the best hunter, the best arrows.” The commonly accepted story was that his friend shot him accidentally while firing at a stag. Walter Tyrel then fled to France where he was sheltered by Abbot Suger.

Over the centuries, many theories have sprung up regarding Rufus’ death and laying the blame on others besides Walter Tyrel. Rufus’ brother Henry was the one who benefitted directly from the event. He was also hunting in the forest that day, and it is said that as soon as he heard the news, he rushed to consolidate power and take the crown. Some think that Henry orchestrated the death, perhaps commissioning Walter Tyrel or others to carry out the deed.

Abbot Suger himself seems to doubt Tyrel’s guilt. He wrote: “It was laid to the charge of a certain noble, Walter Thurold, that he had shot the king with an arrow; but I have often heard him, when he had nothing to fear nor to hope, solemnly swear that on the day in question he was not in the part of the forest where the king was hunting, nor ever saw him in the forest at all.”

Whether the death was murder or manslaughter, it is certain that William Rufus was not a beloved monarch. The historian William of Malmesbury gave this ungentle assessment: “He was a man much to be pitied by the clergy, for throwing away the soul they labored to save…not to be lamented by the people, because he suffered their substance to be plundered.”

Rufus was renowned for his opposition to the church. During his reign he attempted to keep the see of Canterbury empty in order to increase his power and revenue. He finally agreed to appoint Anselm as Archbishop, a scholarly fellow who would become famous for the
Proslogion
, which proved the existence of God, and
Cur Deus Homo
, which explained why Jesus became Man to atone for our sins. But besides being a writer, Anselm was also a fighter. He refused to let Rufus trample on the rights of the church, and during Rufus’ reign, he was forced to go into exile.

Most of the secondary characters in this book are my own creation, but a couple found inspiration from the historical record. William Rufus had a sister, Adele, who married Stephen of Blois. Stephen became one of the adventurers on the First Crusade, which retook Jerusalem from the Muslims. Somehow, however, his mild-mannered exploits never quite measured up to the doughty deeds of Adele’s father, William the Conqueror. Her letters to Stephen still survive, showing Stephen to be the quintessential henpecked husband of the medieval era.

*

Copyright © 2016 by Rosanne E. Spears

Cover and interior design by Masha Sh
ubin

DreamsTime.com: English Countryside in Suffolk © stanzi11;
Autumn Sky © Serg64. Regency Man © PeriodImages.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher and/or author.

Publisher: Madison Street Publishing

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