"You think he...?" George shook his head so vigorously I worried it would roll off his neck. "Even from my limited knowledge of him I can tell you Beaufort wasn't the sort. I've never met anyone so full of life, so content with his lot. Not to mention he had so much to live for."
Relief made me feel momentarily light-headed so I picked up my fork and began to eat again to give myself something to focus on.
"I didn't speak out of turn in the drawing room earlier," George went on. "Beaufort was good at everything. Sport, school, politics. Everyone loved him-students, teachers even the servants." He chuckled as he poked a potato with his fork. "And the girls too."
"Girls! Oh." Of course there would be girls. Jacob Beaufort was definitely the sort to attract females.
Had he ever looked at any of them the way he looked at me?
"Sorry," George said, "I forgot for a moment there was a lady present."
I pushed my plate away, my hunger gone for good. "So you know nothing about his death?"
More head shaking from George. "He simply vanished from his Oxford rooms one night apparently. His body was never found."
"Never found! Good lord, how awful." Perhaps that was why Jacob was so solid and could wander where he pleased. His earthly body had not found a final resting place where his family could honor and remember him properly. It made quite a bit of sense to me.
"Terrible," George agreed. "My mother may be a lot of things, but she is certainly a voracious collector of gossip. If she says Lady Preston is still grieving, then most likely she is.
And for Lady Preston to show her emotions in public, she must be very distressed indeed."
Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. Losing a child must be the worst thing that could happen to a mother, but to not have found his body, to be left wondering if he was alive somewhere but unable to contact his family...it was too awful to contemplate.
I forced the tears away. There was no point in getting upset for Lady Preston because I alone knew Jacob was not going to be found safe and sound. He was most definitely dead.
"Tell me about his family," I said. "His father is a lord?"
George nodded. "Viscount. Beaufort is the family name, Preston the title. I don't know them well. As I said, Jacob and I went to Eton together but our families have never mixed socially even though they only live around the corner in Belgrave Square. My father was considered a bit of an eccentric, you see, much to Mother's disappointment. Despite her attempts to further our standing in Society, we were never really accepted, particularly by a family like Jacob's."