“He says he serves as a footman in your family’s residence and needs to have a word with you.”
Cautiously, she approached, trying to remember. Ah, yes, setting plates before her during dinner, carrying packages, stirring a fire. A footman. Tall and dark, matching each one who served within the Collinsworth household. It would not do at all not to be perfect. “James, isn’t it?”
He gave her a sad smile. “Yes, m’lady.”
“How can I help you?”
“I’m the one to whom your mum gave the babe.”
Chapter 23
She staggered back two steps as though a blow had been delivered, might have crumpled to the floor if Finn hadn’t immediately reached her, taking her in his arms and steadying her. Her heart was pounding so ferociously that she feared the footman might hear it. But then what did she care what he heard, what he thought of her?
“The one who was tasked with delivering it to a baby farmer?” she asked.
He gave a quick nod and clutched his hat in his hands. “Yes, m’lady.”
She wanted to rail at him, to call him all manner of unkind names, but he was a servant who’d merely been following orders. “Do you know if it was a girl or a boy?” she heard herself ask through a roaring in her ears.
“A girl. The prettiest thing you’ll ever see.”
Only she wouldn’t see her—ever. And she wanted to scream with the reality of that.
“Do you remember exactly where you took her?” Finn asked, and for a moment she felt pity for the woman she was fairly certain he intended to confront. The baby farmer who had murdered an innocent.
“Yes, sir. That’s why I came.” He looked down at the floor, sighed, lifted his gaze to them. “My sister, you see, she tried for nearly a decade to get with child, wanted a bairn of her own so badly. When the duchess put that wee one in my arms, handed me the five quid, told me where I was to deliver her and what I was to say... I thought of my sister and all the times I saw her crying... and I said to myself, ‘Where’s the harm? Who will ever know?’”
She felt Finn’s arms close more tightly around her. “Are you telling us that you gave the babe to your sister?” she asked, striving not to let the joy take hold until she fully understood all the ramifications of his confession.
He nodded. “Aye.” He slid his gaze to Finn, back to her. “I held my silence in the kitchens because I thought no good would come from speaking, and if the duchess discovered what I’d done, I’d lose my post. Then I saw you waiting on the steps—I’ve seen women at wakes who didn’t look as sad as you, m’lady.”
She took in a shaky breath as a spark of hope flared. “She’s alive.”
“Yes. Before I came here, I went to Watford to visit my sister, talk things over with her. Let her know you’d probably be coming, once you knew the truth.”
An earl’s daughter did not show weakness or tears or any emotion at all in front of staff—ever. But a sob, hideously loud and ugly, broke free and she burrowed her face against Finn’s chest.
“I can take you to her,” James said. “I thought tomorrow. Give my sister and her husband tonight to get used to the notion of you coming for her daughter.”
Her daughter. The words crashed into Lavinia. For seven years the woman had rocked her, sung to her, held her, loved her. Possibly. Likely. Most certainly. Nodding, she was beyond words, beyond speaking as every emotion imaginable rioted through her.
“Can you give us a moment of privacy?” Finn asked.
“Yes, sir. I’ll wait in the hallway.”
“Go downstairs. Have someone bring you a whisky, on the house.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him nod, take a step back toward the door, pause, turn the hat in his hands. “I’m sorry, m’lady, that I didn’t say something to you long ago, when you were still living in residence. But I truly thought you didn’t want her. Her being born on the wrong side of the blanket and all.”
“I don’t blame you, James,” she said.
Giving her another nod, he quit the room, and she sank onto the sofa. Kneeling before her, Finn took her hands. “She’s alive, Finn. We’ll get her back. She’ll be ours.”
“She doesn’t know us, Vivi.”
“Not now, of course, but tomorrow, tomorrow she will.”
“She’s been with these people for seven years.”
