Excerpt from The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse by Piu Marie Eatwell, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

After a few minutes the coach party was abruptly catapulted into daylight as the tunnel opened onto a gravelled driveway leading to the abbey. The great house itself was imposing enough: a Palladian-style building with turrets and an elaborate façade that seemed to yearn for a clear blue Italian sky, rather than the leaden English cloudscape that weighed upon it. The mansion was perched on the edge of a huge ornamental lake that stretched to the horizon. As the carriage drew closer, however, it was clear that the place was deserted and unkempt. The driveway at the entrance was covered in wild grass and builders' rubble, and temporary planks had been placed to enable the carriage to reach the front door. The hall inside had no floor, and again temporary boards had been laid to allow the new residents to walk on it. The new duke and his party were met at the door by anxious estate staff: the agent, house steward, clerk of works and some others.

Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the only habitable part of Welbeck Abbey was the suite of rooms in the west wing of the house. These were the rooms that had lately been -occupied by the bachelor 5th Duke. They were sparsely furnished: each room had double sets of brass letter boxes on the doors, one for letters in, and one for letters out. It was explained to the puzzled visitors that this was how the late duke preferred to communicate with his staff, choosing to send and receive written messages, rather than speak directly to his servants. It was this obsessive need for privacy, and a desire not to be seen about his daily movements, that had led the 5th Duke to dig the underground roadway from the lodge to the abbey; and when he travelled in his carriage, it was always with the green silk blind tightly drawn. The duke's carriage was unmarked, with no coat of arms or ducal coronet. Even when he arrived at the station to travel to and from London, he never left his own carriage, but had it lifted directly onto the goods wagon. The secrecy of the duke's presence in the carriage was so complete that one day his coachman offloaded the coach from the train at the station in London and, thinking it empty, stopped at a local inn for a drink. He was startled out of his senses to hear his Grace's impatient voice from inside the carriage, asking him if he did not think it time to drive on.

Scandalous rumours circulated about the 5th Duke of Portland. It was said, for instance, that his Grace had a dead body housed in a box on the roof of his flat at Hyde Park Gardens. The rumours were so persistent that the local health-and-safety officials actually came to inspect the flat. In the event, they found nothing but a great glass enclosure on the roof, apparently built for the purposes of enjoying the view. If he went out at all, the duke mainly travelled at night, a lantern strapped to his belt; and when he did venture forth during the daytime, he usually wore two or even three overcoats (whatever the weather), a very tall hat and high collar, and carried a vast umbrella, behind which he would attempt to hide if addressed by anyone (the duke was extremely attached to umbrellas, and never travelled without one under his arm, rain or shine). Staff at Welbeck were ordered not to greet the duke personally if they encountered him on the estate, or even acknowledge his presence unless spoken to first, on pain of immediate dismissal. They were to pay no more attention to him than as if 'he were a tree'. And yet, despite such eccentricities, the 5th Duke was known as a kindly and generous employer, always willing to assist any of the many workmen on his premises. He provided them with donkeys to carry them to and from work, and umbrellas to take shelter from the rain. He also had a large skating rink built in the pleasure garden, and encouraged the housemaids to skate. If he encountered one of them sweeping the rooms or the stairs, he would send the terrified girl out to skate – whether she wanted to or not. An elderly worker on the Welbeck estate recalled how, if the men worked overtime after 5.20 p.m., the duke would give them bread, cheese and beer, tobacco and cigars. Sometimes his Grace would bring the tobacco out himself. Sometimes he would stop a little way off, quietly listening to the men singing. It was said that he preferred the company of servants to his social equals.

Excerpted from The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse by Piu Marie Eatwell. Copyright © 2015 by Piu Marie Eatwell. Excerpted by permission of Liveright / WW Norton. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.