The Devil You Know Read Online Free PDF

touches and over-bright laughter, Diana
    thought he seemed far more interested in his other companions.
    The meal was a lengthy event with more covers and dishes
    than Diana could ever have counted accompanied by the best
    wines she’d ever tasted. The hours were highlighted with bright
    conversation punctuated by bursts of laughter, interposed with
    brief silences only upon the removal of each cover.
    “This is quite a remarkable house, my lord,” Annalee said.
    “You implied earlier that it has an interesting history. Perhaps
    you might share it with us now?”
    DeVere leaned back in his chair and signaled for more wine
    all around. “The story of the house itself is quite innocuous. It is
    the iniquity of the past owner who has brought it to infamy.”
    “Iniquitous?” The duchess’s eyes gleamed. “But surely you
    tease us.”
    His mouth kicked up in one corner. “My dear, I assure you
    the wolf can identify the beast.”
    “Go on then,” Ned prompted with unrestrained eagerness.
    “You have us all ears now.”
    “Let none accuse me of refusing anything to my guests,” said
    DeVere. After emptying his glass, he slumped back in lazy repose,
    dangling the stem between his fingers. “This house and park were
    built one hundred years ago by the Evelyn family but passed on
    to the Calvert family—the Barons Baltimore, the Proprietary Gov-
    ernors of Maryland. The third Baron pulled down most of the old
    house and made extensive improvements to include the pres-
    ent Palladian façade, but there is little of interest until the estate
    passed to the Sixth Baron, Frederick Calvert, a man whose life was
    rife with scandal, from the cradle to the grave.”
    “How so?” asked Ned.
    “You shall see for yourself if you merely incline your heads to
    the long wall to the left. Call it an absurd vagary, but I have taken
    it upon myself to remove the two portraits from the gilt monstros-
    ity that serves as a library to hang them here, side by side.”
    All eyes turned to study the portraits.
    “What do you see?” asked DeVere.
    Annalee responded first. “Each is a young nobleman of simi-
    lar age, and they bear a striking resemblance one to another.
    Brothers, mayhap?”
    24
    Victoria Vane
    “I have seen one of these portraits!” exclaimed the duchess.
    “The one to the right is clearly Frederick, Prince of Wales, the fa-
    ther of our own King George. Yet the other does not resemble any
    of his living brothers, the royal dukes. Who is it, darling?”
    DeVere inclined his head toward Caroline. “You have cor-
    rectly identified the Prince, Your Grace, but the portrait to the left
    is another Frederick altogether—Frederick Calvert, Sixth Baron
    Baltimore and the late owner of this house. The Prince of Wales
    was his godfather.”
    “Merely his godfather?” She arched her delicately penciled
    brow.
    “Officially, yes. Though I surmise his true parentage is sus-
    pect. Calvert’s father was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the
    prince, who we all know was a great philanderer. In looking at
    these portraits, one wonders if Lady Baltimore might have also
    have taken some less official role in the prince’s bedchamber? Yet
    his questionable birth is only the beginning of this wastrel’s tale.”
    “Whatever did he do?” asked the duchess.
    DeVere laughed. “One might better ask what he didn’t do!”
    DeVere continued his narrative, “Frederick came into a vast for-
    tune upon his father’s death, but had little interest in the adminis-
    tration of his holdings. Instead, he appointed a sub-governor for
    Maryland and took himself off for extensive continental travels.
    The influence of his grand tour is seen in the tawdry appoint-
    ments of this house.” DeVere rolled his eyes at the frescoed ceil-
    ing above them. “With all of these Italian frescos and friezes, Co-
    rinthian columns, plaster work, and gilt furnishings, it is as if he
    endeavored to create his own little Versailles. In addition to