There were things that she recalled about that day that were now causing doubt to flicker through her mind. She had changed her and Chauncey’s entire lives from the word of a woman she did not know. “My uncle and your father sent for me six months after you left for the Continent?—”
“What do you mean they sent for you?” he interrupted, his head tilted.
“My uncle requested I come to Bennett House with him where your father told me I meant nothing to you. ThatI was one girl among many who you made promises to.” The words cut like a knife to her fragile heart, still after all this time.
There was a small part of Pippa that had always believed the old duke.
How could someone as handsome and charming as St. Clara really want her? He only offered to marry her because they were friends.
He took her by the shoulders so that she would look at him. “You knew that wasn’t true.” Pippa tried not to melt as he cupped her cheek. “We made a promise to each other. I had every intention of marrying you then.”
Ignoring the confession, Pippa pressed forward, needing to be done with their past in order to go forward with their future. “Maggie was there …” Pippa took a deep breath, trying to shield herself for what came next. “… and she was heavy with child.”
He released her, his entire face now wrinkled in confusion. “What does that have to do with us?” He ran his hand through his hair that was in desperate need of a cut. “In all the years Randall was looking for Maggie, he never mentioned she was carrying his child.”
She swallowed the cauldron-sized lump in her throat, her gaze locking in on him. Finally, one way or another, she would know the truth. “Maggie was carrying your child.”
Pippa watched him closely, hands balled into fists at her side. Chauncey opened and closed his mouth several times, his index finger raised as if he was trying to say something.
Finally he shook his head. “D-d-did you say my child?” He pointed to himself, stumbling over his words. “Why would you even think that was a possibility?”
He waited for her to answer, the color draining from his face. Pippa’s heart raced, panic creeping through her slow and steady.
She had never revealed to him the events of that day. Her sixteen-year-old self had been so wounded at being dubbed a fool that she did not feel the need to explain anything to him once he returned.
Chauncey sat on the edge of the large four-poster bed in the lavish duke’s rooms at Archer Castle. It was the largest bed she had ever seen in her life, dark wood carved to perfection.
As she stood in front of her husband, a sickening feeling pooled in her stomach from the look on his face. “Because she told me, Chauncey. Maggie informed me she was carrying your child nine years ago.”
Hot tears slid down Pippa’s face, and she hastily wiped them away, feeling like the little girl standing in front of a tree all those years ago.
She had wanted the truth from her husband, but nothing prepared her for this crushing blow. The pain of the pastthreatened to unravel her as her body shook with grief for the girl she once was.
For nine years, she had steeled herself against all feelings, or so she had thought. Believing that she could be his wife for a year and still walk away from him was foolish.
She couldn’t imagine ever leaving his side, and that was one of the reasons she needed to know the truth about Maggie and her child.
Chauncey stood in front of Pippa, his tall body rigid. “And you believed her over me? Your friend who cared for you more than anything in the world?”
“What was I supposed to believe? I was sixteen and alone, and this woman tells me that you were the father of her child, crushing my every hope …” Her voice broke as the tears fell freely. “… confirming what deep down I knew all along: that you only offered me out of pity because you were my friend, and we both were lonely children.”
He released her, falling back on the bed, his head in his hands. “I’ve never been intimate with Maggie, and at that time in my life, I had never been intimate with anyone.” He looked up at her with red-rimmed eyes. “Yes, I offered for you because you were my friend but also because you were the only person I could ever imagine binding myself to for eternity. You’re all I’ve ever wanted.”
Pippa turned away from him, unable to bear the look he was giving her. She didn’t want to see blame in the brown eyes she had always loved so much. She couldn’t fault him if he did because at that moment, she blamed herself. “What was I supposed to think?” she screamed in despair, turning around to face him again.
“You were supposed to believe in me!” he yelled, punching himself in the chest repeatedly, never leaving his perch on the bed. “In us! Are you telling me that you ended everything at theword of a servant? Someone you never even met bound both you and me in a purgatory of your own creation.” He waved his hand at her, as if the entire ordeal was her fault.
Enraged by his anger, Pippa stood taller.How dare he blame her?“My creation?” She pointed to herself, leaning into him. “This is not my doing. Your father confirmed that she was caring your child, and I meant nothing to you. Was I to know that your own father was a liar?”
Chauncey sat up, his mouth agape, his eyes wide in shock. “My father? Are you certain?”
“Yes. He made it perfectly clear that I was nothing but another conquest of yours?—”
He stood, shaking his head as he walked over to her, taking her hands in his. “Never. I had gone to him when I returned from Yorkshire and informed him that we would marry upon my return from the Continent. I asked for an income and permission to stay here at Archer Castle.” Chauncey looked around the room, releasing her hands. “He knew I was serious about you?—”
“Then why would Maggie tell me such a thing if it wasn’t true, and why did Randall mention her yesterday?” Pippa rattled off her questions as he crossed the room, taking the pile of folders that he had been going through their entire trip.
“Randall was engaged to Maggie before father sent him off to the Continent with me.” He sat down at the elaborately carved wooden desk, flipping through papers. “I don’t know why Maggie said I was the father. I rarely spoke to her. After we returned, she was gone. There was no sign of her, and none of the servants could tell Randall anything. It was like she’d vanished.”
