Eternally Yours: Roxton Letters Volume 1 Read online

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Foreword

  Note

  Noble Satyr Letters

  Midnight Marriage Letters

  Autumn Duchess Letters

  Author’s Note

  Behind-The-Scenes

  Next Book Preview

  About Lucinda Brant

  Lucinda Brant Books

  Lucinda Brant Audiobooks

  Jewels Anthology

  ROXTON LETTERS VOLUME ONE

  A Companion to the Roxton Family Saga Books 1–3

  LUCINDA BRANT

  COPYRIGHT

  A Sprigleaf ebook

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  This is a work of fiction; names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Resemblance to persons, businesses, companies, events, or locales, past or present, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 Lucinda Brant

  Edited by Martha Stites & Rob Van De Laak

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  DEDICATION

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  my readers

  FOREWORD

  By Her Grace, Alice-Victoria Edwina Hesham, 10th Duchess of Roxton, upon the sesquicentennial of the marriage of Antonia Moran to Renard Julian Hesham, 5th Duke of Roxton.

  IT IS WITH immense pride and satisfaction that I offer this, the first of a two-volume companion set of letters—a selection of correspondence authored by my esteemed forebears, and persons important in their daily lives.

  This first volume is published to coincide with the commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the marriage of my French ancestress Antonia Diane Moran, granddaughter of the Jacobite General James Fitzstuart, 1st Earl of Strathsay, to Renard Hesham, the 5th Duke of Roxton, my husband the present Duke’s great-great-great-grandfather, and whose Christian name he proudly bears.

  The compilation came about in the most surprising of circumstances, and it would be remiss of me not to mention what was reported in the newspapers, not only here in England, but across the Atlantic in New York City. No doubt the New York reports are because of the American branch of the Roxton family that has resided there since the founding of that great nation. The family’s continued political influence in that democratic landscape today is represented most particularly by Senator Hubert Charles Fitzstuart, himself a direct descendant of the 1st Earl of Strathsay, of which we are immensely proud.

  A few years ago at my family’s seat in Hampshire—Treat—the vast collection of books and monographs housed in the Treat library were being re-cataloged and the library itself renovated, when workmen came across a secret door within the framework of the oak paneling. The existence of this door had been lost to family memory, and it is the opinion of experts that it had been sealed since the turn of this century, and well before Her Majesty ascended the throne. Subsequent research by Professor West-Hamilton of Trinity Hall, Oxford, the renowned expert on the Roxton genealogy, and author of the acclaimed biography of the family’s great medical philanthropist Lord Henri-Antoine Hesham, younger son of Antonia Roxton, has revealed that this door was sealed on the orders of Frederick, the 7th Duke of Roxton. This is not the place for speculation, but Professor West-Hamilton is of the belief that the answer may lie in what was discovered locked behind this door.

  Opened for the first time in a hundred years, the door revealed a staircase lined with bookshelves. The stairs lead to the apartment above the library, which had been used as the private apartments of the Dukes of Roxton for four generations, until the time of the seventh duke. It was Frederick who had these private apartments converted into bedchambers and a schoolroom for his six daughters. It is thought that during this conversion the stairwell was blocked at either entrance, and the stairwell’s existence forgotten by future generations.

  The discovery of a secret stairwell is in and of itself most satisfying, for it is known that the Dukes of Roxton were great bibliophiles, and perhaps none more so than my ancestress, the fifth duchess. Antonia, Duchess of Roxton and Kinross, not only had the distinction of being a celebrated beauty of her day, but was also a bluestocking. She was a great linguist, too, for she could read, write and converse not only in her native French but was just as fluent in English, Italian, Greek and Latin. Thus it was not surprising to the family that the 5th Duke and Duchess would seek a convenient and private method of accessing the contents of their library via a stair between their most intimate of rooms and the library.

  But what is surprising, and most revelatory, is what was discovered housed on the shelves that lined this secret stairwell. It had always been assumed by the family—indeed my husband was told the story as a small boy by his grandfather Anthony, the eighth duke—that the private correspondence of the 5th Duke and Duchess was deemed too intimate in nature, and thus the decision was made to destroy most of it on the orders of his father Frederick. This destruction was considered necessary not only to preserve the illustrious family and ducal name of Roxton, but the privacy of the various correspondents.

  I can now reveal for the first time that this correspondence was not destroyed at all, but merely locked away from prying eyes. For upon the bookshelves in the secret stairwell are hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of private correspondence, not only in letter form, but in diary entries. There are red leather boxes full of letters, notes, small tokens, and bound diaries in the 5th Duchess’s hand. All the diary entries are in French, of course, while the letters by various correspondents are in French, Italian and English. A proportion of this correspondence has indeed been deemed far too intimate in nature for publication, and it is the Duke’s and my express wish that it remain locked away, never to be accessed by family or scholar alike. Yet, this does not detract from the excitement of the family at this discovery, for the bulk of the correspondence provides a unique opportunity to add to the family history, and opens up a window to a bygone era, when ladies wore gowns which were wider than they were tall, men dressed in embroidered satins and silks which rivaled those worn by any female of the day, and sedan chairs were more numerous than hansom cabs. It was a world before the American and French Revolutions, before industrialization and big cities, when persons great and small went about their daily life at a much gentler pace; this was the world inhabited by my ancestress, and the ancestress of my husband Renard, the 10th Duke of Roxton’s great-great-great-grandmother, Antonia Moran.

  It is fitting then that this selection of correspondence be published in the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary year of Renard, the 5th Duke of Roxton’s marriage to his young bride, Antonia Moran, a direct descendant of His Majesty King Charles the Second, and who in her lifetime married not one duke, but two—one English, the other Scottish, and as a consequence is the ancestress of two premier dukedoms in the Kingdom which have unbroken male lines down to the present day.

  It must be stated that this publication and its companion volume are published in a private
capacity, and are not for public consumption. They are meant for the shelves of select persons with an academic interest in the Roxton lineage who wish to gain a deeper insight into the lives and motivations of my ancestors.

  I wish to acknowledge the tireless efforts of the Treat Librarian, Sir Elliott Fortescue Bt. and his assistant, Mr. Percival Mandrake, Professor Sir Marcus West-Hamilton, and the eminent French linguist M’sieur Auguste Martin, all of whom worked upon this volume for three years, and continue to work on the next, and without whom this correspondence would not have seen the light of day. This volume is dedicated to my loving husband, Renard.

  Alice-Victoria Hesham

  Her Grace the Most Noble Duchess of Roxton

  March, 1896

  NOTE

  From the Editors on the order and compilation of the Roxton Letters by Sir Elliot Fortescue Bt., C.B.E., and Professor Sir Marcus West-Hamilton, G.C.M.G., O.B.E.

  THE LETTERS and diary entries in this first of two planned volumes follows a chronological order. The first chapter begins with correspondence from the early 1700s, before Antonia Moran’s marriage, up until she becomes the 5th Duchess of Roxton. The second chapter begins with a birth and ends with a birth, and deals with correspondence between family members and favored family retainers during the marriage of the 5th Duke and Duchess. The third chapter was the most difficult, not only in the selection of letters to be included, but the distressing nature of the contents of the correspondence and diary entries, as it deals with Antonia Roxton’s great sorrow suffered at the death of her first husband, the 5th Duke, and the subsequent distress of family members. It was not the intention of Her Grace or us as the compilers to distress the modern reader with such heartbreaking correspondence, indeed with any of the letters included here, but to shine a light on the strength and depth of feeling which made the marriage of the 5th Duke and Duchess legend, not only to members of their own family, but far beyond their wider circle of friends, and down through the ages to our present time.

  All translations from the French, as well as the Italian, were meticulously carried out by M’sieur Auguste Martin, for which the editors are most grateful.

  Sir Elliot Fortescue Bt., C.B.E.

  Professor Sir Marcus West-Hamilton, G.C.M.G., O.B.E.

  April, 1896

  NOBLE SATYR LETTERS

  NOBLE SATYR LETTERS

  1. Mlle Moran to M’sieur le Duc d’Roxton

  2. James, Earl of Strathsay, to Augusta, Countess of Strathsay

  3. Mlle Moran to M’sieur le Duc d’Roxton

  4. Estée Montbrail to Mme de Chavigny

  5. Mlle Moran to M’sieur le Duc d’Roxton

  6. Mlle Moran to Signora Maria Casparti

  7. Renard, Duke of Roxton, to Antonia, Duchess of Roxton

  8. Appendix: Chevalier Frederick Moran to The Right Honorable Countess of Strathsay

  Noble Satyr Family Tree

  ONE

  Mlle Moran, L’appartement du Prince au Château de Versailles, to M’sieur le Duc d’Roxton, Hotel Roxton, Rue St. Honoré, Paris

  [delivered at Versailles via a servant]

  August, 1745

  M’sieur le Duc de Roxton!

  I am Antonia Moran, daughter of your cousin Lady Jane Fitzstuart, and the Chevalier Frederick Moran. We have yet to be formally introduced but I am also your kinswoman through a mutual ancestor, your grandfather Henry, 4th Duke of Roxton. He is my great-great grandfather. I am soon to lose the protection of my grandfather, General Lord Strathsay, because he is dying. Both my parents are dead. I am an orphan, and being underage I require the protection of a family member.

  All this you already know, either because you do have an interest in the members and genealogy of your illustrious family, or because I made this known to you. This is the fourth such letter I have written and had delivered to your hand. Also, I think my father he wrote to you some time before his death, outlining his plans for me, and asking that you, as head of the family, watch over me.

  M’sieur le Duc you have yet to give me the courtesy of a reply.

  I am not purposely rude, but my situation grows dire with the passing of each day. Nor is it my place to tell you your duty to your relatives, particularly one who to you must seem to have sprung up like a mushroom, as if from nowhere. But as head of my family it falls to you to offer me sanctuary. If I had anywhere and anyone else to turn to, I would do so. I have many times observed you at Court, and it is by common report you do not suffer fools, nor do you seem particularly concerned about the immorality of some of your actions. None of that is of concern to me. What you do is your own affair, as you would rightly tell me to my face, were I given the opportunity to speak with you.

  What I am trying to say is that I am not in the least worried that others may think you an unfit and improper person to be my guardian, as my grandfather has counseled, and some at Court believe. They tell me they know you better and warn me against you. But I do not believe you to be inherently malevolent, nor did my father think so. Though you are, pardon me for stating the obvious but I would ever be truthful with you, sadly indifferent to the familial responsibilities that come with your rank and wealth.

  All I require of you is sanctuary until it can be arranged for me to travel to London and the grandmother I have yet to meet. I have an uncle there, too, my mother’s brother, who may also wish to own me. So your duty and responsibilities would start and finish with transporting me safely to England. Is that so much to ask of one to whom I am connected by blood? I think not.

  So you see, M’sieur le Duc, I would only be a small inconvenience and take up very little of your time and effort.

  Please do me the courtesy of replying by hand, or seeking me out at Court, at your earliest convenience.

  Your humble and obedient servant,

  Antonia Moran

  TWO

  The Right Honorable Earl of Strathsay, L’appartement du Prince au Château de Versailles, France, to the Right Honorable Countess of Strathsay, Hanover Square, Westminster, London, England.

  L’appartement du Prince au Château de Versailles

  September, 1745

  Madam,

  Soon your greatest desire will be granted. I am dying, and my passing will not be long in coming. You will be made a widow, and be free of me at long last. I have the [censored]. I wish to God you were the [censored] who had given it to me so I could hate you all the more. But to hate you more than I already do is an impossibility. My priest tells me I must forgive you. That for me to enter the gates of Heaven I must forgive all those who have sinned against me. In that way, not only will my conscience be clear, but so too will my soul.

  Ah, but you and I know I can never forgive you, in this life or the next, to the eternal damnation of my everlasting soul. I have prayed to God and sought forgiveness for this, and that He in His wisdom will show compassion and understand why I cannot.

  You tricked me in to believing you would join me in France when there was no hope the rebellion would be a success, and yet you did not flee. Instead, you betrayed me to the English. And you have been an unfaithful wife almost from the very beginning of our infamous union. And how I loved you! I can forgive your infidelity because I had never been faithful to any woman, except you. And then, when you left my bed for another’s—for the bed of your sister’s husband no less—I saw no reason to continue my devotion. I asked at the time, and I have continued to ask that question: How could you lie with your brother-in-law and betray your sister’s love? And from the reports of you I have received over the years, you continue to have carnal relations with your brother-in-law, in defiance of the Commandments and God’s law.

  But who am I to judge? I, the great sinner General, who has his royal sire’s weakness for women. Did I not cavort with you upon your visit to Paris, and yet I hated you at the same time? I wished I could have resisted you, and yet, glad that I did not because that coupling has provided me with a son and heir, and, God willing, a future for my earldom.


  I have never openly acknowledged our son (with the hellish name, all to spite me and irritate me, witch!) but privately he was always in my will, and in my heart. He is, when all is said and done, my flesh and blood, and my son. I just wish to God he was not yours!

  Your behavior is abhorrent and unnatural and because you continue to share your brother-in-law’s bed (and is he not your brother, according to Scripture?) I will never allow our granddaughter within your corruptive orbit. Not that I believe Antonia to be capable of being corrupted. She knows her own mind and has already formed strong opinions. To listen to her without looking at her one would think it is a youth who argues with you, and not a rare beauty, who is in your image, though more beautiful than you’ll ever be because she has an untainted heart. If only she had been born male!

  Oh how I wish I could be a flea in your butler’s wig when you do finally clap eyes on our granddaughter! You will be mortified to see reflected in her unblemished face what was once your face, though the prettier. But if I have my way, she will only ever meet you cold and eaten up by maggots, to lay flowers on her grandmother’s grave, though she never knew you, because that is the sort of girl she is.

  She is a joy, and I am fortunate to have known her before my death. She does her father’s intelligence and her mother’s blood credit, which I claim as all mine (not a drop is yours, as far as I am concerned).

  I am to sign a marriage contract for her to become one day the Comtesse de Salvan, and with that ancient name and my wealth, she will be a shining light at the French Court, and God willing, revert to the true faith, if my will is carried out to the letter.

  I tell you this in the hopes you will have a shred of maternal decency and keep your distance from her. I hope and pray you never meet.

  While I have dominion over my granddaughter’s future, I can have little over my own. In good conscience, and because my confessor judges that I do right by my legitimate offspring, I cannot deny our son Theophilus (God’s breath, but that is a frightful name!) who will inherit the title once I am gone, and be Earl of Strathsay. All I can hope for is that he has many sons to wipe away the stigma of having you for an ancestress and me for a sire. For who will want to commemorate the memory of a disease-ridden papist General, who failed to restore his monarch to his throne, and his heartless adulteress wife, the [censored] of Ely?