Lord Diomedes Finchley is officially the third son of the Marquess of Pevenwood. But when he was ten, Pevenwood discovered that Dom was actually the son of the Duke of Haverford, a hated political rival. He attempted to divorce his wife over the long-ago affair. His application to the church courts was refused for lack of evidence when the Duke of Haverford denied the whole thing.
From that time, Pevenwood despised Dom. After he had referred to him a number of times as the unwanted cuckoo in his nest, Dom’s older brother and former best friend took to calling him Lord Cuckoo, and the name stuck.
When Dom turned eighteen, Pevenwood had him recalled from school and informed him that he could continue to live in one of Pevenwood’s houses and eat Pevenwood’s food until the day he turned twenty-one. Dom, who had dreamed of the army since he was a boy, asked about a commission to the army.
Pevenwood laughed in his face. “I’m legally obliged to feed and house you till your majority, because I can’t prove you’re not my get. But that’s all you are getting out of me, boy,” he said.
Dom walked out. Perhaps that is what the marquess intended all along.
After visiting every relative he could think of, he finally went cap in hand to the Duke of Haverford, and was fortunate enough to encounter his half-brother, the Marquis of Aldridge, who bought him his commission, and remained in contact with him during the decade that he served in the army.
When Dom returned to England it was to an estate left to him by his mother’s brother. It was in poor repair, but had potential. Before settling to life as a country gentleman, Dom went to York as a favour for his half-brother. There, he met Chloe Tavistock–and their story is told in Lord Cuckoo Comes Home, to be published in 2022 as a part of the Bluestocking Belles collection Desperate Daughters.
