“You must,” he said, unrelenting.
“After seeing your son, you would still do him grievous harm? You still intend to blackmail me into a union between us?”
If there had been any lingering warmth within Adrian, it died a hasty death. “Was that your plan? To allow me to see my son for the first time in the hopes I would change my mind? Do not make the mistake of thinking me weak, Duchess. I have survived far more than you can fathom, and I will not hesitate to destroy you.”
So many words made him weary. His mind was a confused tangle. But he was firm on this. She would become his wife. He would never again be separated from his son.
The Duchess of Longleigh would not win.
Hewould.
She stared at him, her countenance stricken. “Why?”
He could ask the same question of her. Instead, he turned his attention back to his son, giving the still-slumbering lad another gentle pat. “Because I must.”
Because he loved his son. And unlike the father who had treated him as if he were lower than dirt, Adrian had every intention of protecting Robby with everything he had. Even if it meant marrying a woman he could not trust.
Chapter 12
Five thousand additional pounds shall be held in consideration for you, should the proposed course of action prove successful.
~letter from the Duke of Longleigh to The Honorable Mr. George Shaw
“You are not truly considering this madness, are you?” Her friend Pippa’s hushed query, along with the disbelief in her voice, was not unexpected.
Tilly had just finished relaying the newest developments in the tale of woe which had become her life. The man she loved had returned from the dead an angry stranger who was demanding she marry him. Even she had to admit it sounded like the plot of a Gothic novel. However, it was no novel, as Mr. Hastings’ visit the day before had confirmed.
She and Pippa were taking their tea on the terrace overlooking the gardens at Haddon House. Two steps and a handful of feet from them, Robby’s governess and Pippa’s daughter’s governess watched over their charges. Charlotte, Pippa’s daughter, was a year older than Robby, but Robby was toddling about quite well for his age, and the two children adored each other.
“Madness is precisely what it is,” she acknowledged, watching their children’s innocent enjoyment of the warm afternoon. “He has given me a day to consider his demands, which is also mad, is it not?”
After their visit to the nursery the day before, Mr. Hastings had refused to relent. He had been clear and cold. He demanded a marriage.
In name only, he had added.
I have no desire for you to share my bed.
His words still stung, though she knew they should not. Because he was not the man she loved. He was different. So very different. She had no wish for intimacy with him.
“He has given you no more than one day?” Pippa’s outrage stole Tilly’s attention away from their children. “Who does he think he is, to appear in London and threaten and make demands of you?”
“The Duke of Longleigh’s illegitimate son,” she said wryly, thinking of how similar Mr. Hastings’ actions were to those of the duke. Both men were relentless, unsympathetic. Had prison rendered him so, or had he always been this way, merely hiding that part of himself from her? She could not be certain.
“Do you believe he will follow through with his threats?” her friend asked.
That was an excellent question indeed.
“Robin would never have done so.” She had no doubt.
“However, the man who has returned to you is not Robin,” Pippa pointed out needlessly.
And yet, he possessed the same face. Same lips and hands and broad shoulders. Same lean waist and hips, long legs. Same callused hands. A lessened glint of gold in his hair now. The leg which pained him. And his eyes—his eyes held shadows. They had changed along with his name.
“He is not, and yet…he is.” She paused, struggling to collect her thoughts, to make sense of the tumult of emotion within. “I have missed him, Pippa. I have missed him so dreadfully for so long. I thought I would never see him again.”
Her voice broke on the last admission.
Part of her could not forget the love they had shared, regardless of the lie he had told. All those months together could not have been a deception. She could not bear to believe it.
