Theo knocked gently on her door.
She did not open.
Very well. He could not stand here, begging to be let in. He turned aside and headed for the small staircase down to the library.
There he found a chair, perplexed. Fearful. He needed a plan. A plan to learn what shook her. Today, he’d find a way to talk to her privately. Bring her here or…anywhere. Breakfast. Church. Afternoon card games. None of it seemed promising. But he’d find an opportunity.
He heard footsteps on the wooden stairs.
“Theo!” She ran toward him, her morning robe clutched at her throat. “Theo. I’m sorry. That was unkind.”
He did not rise, but met her apology with frankness. “Tell me what else it was.”
When she did not immediately respond, he asked, “Reputation? Boredom? Rejection?”
“Theo, no. None of that.”
“Well then?” He knew how to demand what he wanted. Of her, he would never require anything but her love. But right now, he needed honesty.
“There is no use for us to dance around the issue.”
Someone in the house was yelling. A most untoward sound on Christmas morning.
Theo directed his attention back to Penn.
“And what issue,” he asked with the harsh reality of the years apart from her returning to cloud his mind, “is that?”
“I will not become pregnant.”
In her words, he heard sorrow…and anger.
“Why not?” She sounded as if it were a choice. They’d made love countless times. Was she implying she would not allow herself to become pregnant? He’d seen no evidence of that. And most women, as he understood things, knew little of the methods doxies used to prevent conception. And so he was befuddled by her anger. And her sense of independence. Was itthathe’d missed? Her fury at women’s choices? “Why?”
“Because, Theo,” she raised her voice and waved her arms, “I can’t!”
“You think you are—?”
“Incapable!Yes! Don’t you see? I cannot bear children. I am barren!”
Irrelevant to his love for her! He grew as angry as she. “I don’t care!”
“Of course you do! You are bred to care. Taught to need an heir. Do not tell me you’re not!”
Shouting and people running down the halls and stairs alerted them both to rising chaos.
“Something terrible has happened,” she said, her eyes wide, her attention torn between the hall and him.
“Stay here. Don’t move. I’ll find out what’s the matter.”
She agreed and he took the hall in huge strides toward the sound of people in the main salon.
He rounded the doorway and there stood none other than his father. The Duke of Harlow.
What in hell was he doing here?Tall as Theo, his shoulders as broad, but with silver and black hair, his sire was a giant. Theo blinked at the sight of the man before him, then inclined his head to acknowledge the third most powerful duke in the kingdom. “Father.”
Harlow dipped his head in courtesy but narrowed his eyes in question at his son’s appearance.
“What’s wrong?” Tain asked, his face drawn in alarm at the sound of shouts upstairs. “Why the commotion?”
