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came to Lord Becksbridge through his mother. Hence his freedom to dispose of it in his testament.”
    “It is all of a piece?” She held out her hands for the map. Mr. Goodale brought it over and draped it on her lap. She bent over the lines and markings, very surprised.
    Becksbridge had not given her a map. He had only provided directions to the house where she now lived. The land in front and behind obviously belonged to it. That to the north, past the trees along the lane, seemed obviously not to.
    “If there is some concern with this other section, and it being attached to my tenancy, let me say that I have no need of it. It can be leased to another.”
    “That is not the only concern,” Castleford said. “Show Mrs. Joyes the rest, and be quick about it. You are taking up more of this afternoon than can be afforded you.”
    Mr. Goodale bent over her and pointed again. This time to an area some distance from her house but less so from that other section. “Mrs. Joyes, do you see these markings up here? They represent notations from surveyors.”
    “Regarding what?”
    “Minerals. Underground and untouched still, for the most part, but very recently a small mine has begun to be dug . . . here.”
    She noted the spot under his fingertip, a few miles from Cumberworth.
    Mr. Goodale sat himself in a chair to her left. He eyed the cakes but thought better of it. “Mrs. Joyes, while you have lived in that house, has the property ever, to your knowledge, been examined? Have there ever been men about with maps and such? Tools and apparatus that might be used for digging and boring?”
    “Never.”
    Mr. Goodale’s lips folded in on themselves. He pondered that.
    “You may go now, Goodale. That will be all,” Castleford said.
    Mr. Goodale jumped to his feet as if a puppeteer had jerked his strings. A bow to her, then a deeper one to the duke, and he was gone.
    Leaving her alone with Castleford.

Chapter Five
     
    D aphne and the duke sat facing each other for a good while. He appeared to be thinking about something, but she had no idea what.
    “You really can lease that other part of the property to someone else. We have no use for it,” she finally said.
    “There is no cottage on it. The income would never justify the investment of building one.”
    There was a house on the entire holding, however. Hers.
    “Did you summon me here to tell me that due to the unexpected size of the property, you do not want it wasted on a household of women who can never pay the rent a farming tenant might? Was Mr. Goodale here to set the stage for your announcing a decision that I will not like?”
    “I did not summon you.”
    “You certainly did not invite me.”
    “Was my note too brief? I do not like to write letters at all, so perhaps it was. I have never understood the habit of spending hours, days , writing letters to people of the slightest acquaintance. I’ll wager you only write letters when necessary, since you are not a fool, and even then only because you do not have a secretary like I do.”
    “Your note was brief in the extreme, and it summoned me here merely so you could—”
    “Again, it was not a summons. Should I ever command you, Mrs. Joyes, you will know it without question.”
    She closed her eyes and collected herself. The man was a trial. “You brought me here, only to learn that you are not prepared to honor Becksbridge’s intentions for that property, I think.”
    “How well you put it. Goodale was supposed to clarify why, but I think he made a muddle of it. He goes on and on in the most wearisome way, obscuring the facts with his chatter instead of illuminating them.”
    “Can you do better than he?”
    He propped his elbow on the chair’s arm and rested his chin against his fist. “I can give you the usual dull reasons. In the end, they are all there are. I have duties, Mrs. Joyes. To my station, my title, and to future Castlefords. They involve the estate I received and that I will pass on. I