Papa nodded and slipped out of the room, closing the door behind him.
For a moment, silence landed heavily between them. Madeline stared at Tristan, and he stared bluntly back.
“How did you know where to find me?” she said at last. “I did not tell Dorothea where I was going.”
“It was a guess, I suppose,” he answered, shrugging. “I did not want to believe that you’d fled so far away from me, so I thought I would come here first. The attitude of the butler at the door convinced me that youwereat home and that they had been instructed to keep me out. I was right, as it turned out.”
Madeline lowered herself onto the sofa. She suddenly felt exhausted. Tristan made an abortive movement as if he meant tocome and sit beside her, but checked himself at the last moment and sat on an armchair opposite.
“Juliana requested that I meet her because she intended to blackmail me,” he said at last. “I suspected that something like this would come, so I accepted her invitation. I do not know whether she would have carried through on the blackmail, but I was not cowed. She will leave the country; I know that. She has finally tired of me.”
“What did she want from you?”
He shrugged. “She wanted to remain my mistress. In name only, of course. It was my name and status she cared for, not me exactly. We were friends, I suppose, but there was no real love. She played a part, and so did I. We parted on decent terms, actually.”
“I’m sure I don’t wishherany ill will,” Madeline muttered. “But what is this blackmail business? What could she possibly have to hold over your head?”
He breathed in, momentarily closing his eyes.
“She learned it from my cousin, James,” he said at last. “James is now the only one who knows the truth. Except, of course, my mother and I.”
“Truth? What truth?”
“Firstly, Madeline, I should tell you that I have made my cousin leave London. He disapproves of our marriage, and everything he has done has been with the intention of forcing you and me apart. He is not your friend, my love.”
Madeline bit her lip, glancing away. “I see. Why does he not approve of our marriage? Does he not approve of me?”
“It is nothing personal. He didn’t want me to marry at all, because marriage means heirs. He is already horrified at Adam’s existence. My cousin, you see, has always believed that he was entitled to be the Duke of Tolford, not I.”
She snorted. “And why would he think that?”
Tristan winced. “Well, I suppose that in a way, he is right.”
“What?”
Tristan shifted, glancing around.
“Would you object if I locked the door? I would not like to be overheard.”
“As you like.”
He jumped up, crossed to the door, and turned the key in the lock with a decisive click. He hurried back to her, and this time he sat beside her on the sofa, reaching out to take her hand.
“Blood will out,” he quoted. “That was what James said. You have heard about my father’s infidelities, have you not? And of my mother’s struggle to produce an heir?”
“I have heard it, but of course Dorothea had you and Anthony in the end.”
Tristan swallowed hard, catching her gaze and holding it.
“No, my dear,” he whispered. “She did not.”
Madeline’s eyes widened. “What?”
“I shall start the story from the beginning. As I said, only James, Mother, and I know of this. James told Juliana as a bargaining chip, but I think she is clever enough to know that she should forget all about it. One of my father’s mistresses was a woman named Sarah Hamilton. An actress. She had two children with my father. Those two children were Anthony and me. I do not remember a thing about my mother, not really. I do not think we were wanted. When my father grew tired of her and cut off his patronage, she left us at an orphanage and went on with her life. At this point, she passes out of the story, and I believe she died some years later.”
Madeline was sure she must have misheard. Was Tristan admitting to being born out of wedlock?
“But Dorothea adores you,” she whispered. “I don’t understand.”
