“I do not understand how this ended in you being declared dead,” Penelope said with some anger.
“You will in a moment. Richard and I continued to see one another when we could. However, as you know, the villagers like to gossip. Soon enough, there wereon-ditsthat he and I were more than neighborly. We decided we had to get away. It was simple. I would leave and wait for him in Devon where my family owned a modest cottage. My husband was a well-respected man and his reputation would have survived his wife leaving him. Richard, on the other hand, had a family to provide for. Our plan was for him to wait some days after my departure. He was to leave behind a letter, stating he had taken his own life. In that way, his title and wealth would pass to his son immediately. Under the stewardship of Mr. Scott both his wife and son would be provided for without a stain on their reputation.”
Daniel did not know what to say. His father was going to leave him behind for this woman, as she was willing to leave her daughter. Had neither of them a sense of duty? At least to their children? Had they no love for them? And what did she mean, he was meant to leave a letter only declaring he had killed himself? He had killed himself. Had he not? Beside him, Penelope was outraged.
“So, you were going to leave me? All of these years I suffered and cried for you, not understanding why you had to be taken from me, and how wonderful it would have been to have you in my life still. And now I come to find out you left me because you wanted to leave me?”
Tears streamed down Penelope’s face and her father rose out of his chair, attempting to comfort her. However, she turned and buried her head in Daniel’s shoulder instead. He placed a hand around her waist, holding her as she cried. Inside of him, anger bubbled at his new revelation.
“Neither of you worried about us? Your children?” he asked.
“Neither of them worried about anything but themselves,” the Duke thundered.
“That is not true. We cared. But we knew we would not be good parents given how miserable we were. Richard’s drinking and moods were growing worse and worse and my melancholy kept me confined to the bed most days. We knew our spouses would be good parents, without us. We knew you would be cared for and loved. We hoped that one day, as time passed, we might be able to tell you the truth. By the time Richard arrived in Devon, the plan had gone wrong and my own husband had me declared dead.”
“I do not understand, what do you mean my father arrived in Devon? He killed himself the night he killed my mother.” Daniel was growing exasperated.
“He did not kill himself, nor your mother. Your mother’s death was a terrible accident. I’m afraid the night he set out to leave, he left his suicide note in your mother’s drawing room so she would find it in the morning. However, she surprised him there and grew upset at his intention to leave. They fought. Lorelei would not allow him to simply abandon her. Perhaps I would have reacted the same way, had it been me. Anyhow, they fought and there was a scuffle. Your mother slipped and fell in her attempt to hold Richard back. She fell into a glass table and cut herself so badly that she bled to death. There was nothing Richard could do for her. So, he left.”
“He left her to die alone,” Daniel said quietly. In his mind, he recalled the images of that night, seeing the both of them in that room, shouting. Her falling. He’d seen these images again and again but framed them with the understanding his father had killed her. But yes, hearing the truth from the Duchess, he could see it now. Her falling, the glass, the blood. And him standing there. “I was there. I saw her.”
The Duchess gasped. “Faith! He did not know you were there. He never saw you. That you must believe. He was broken up over it all. The truth is, we thought once we got away, we would be happy together at last. But we were miserable. I missed my daughter more than I could have imagined and Richard struggled knowing the man who had made our life so difficult was the one raising his son. It was not a happy life, I am afraid.”
“Well, that is just terrible news, is it not,” the Duke said, sarcasm dripping with every word.
“You are the cause for all of this, Edmund. You are the reason everyone believes Richard murdered Lorelei in cold blood. And you are the reason everyone thinks of him as the Mad Earl.”
“What?” Daniel gasped at this and the Duchess nodded.
“Upon realizing that Lorelei was beyond help, Mr. Scott helped your father get away. Not knowing what to do, he left to seek out Mr. Percival, but came upon the Duke instead. Panicked, he told him what had happened. A foolish mistake that I am sure he regretted. Anyhow, it was Edmund who helped write another suicide note, stating Richard had drowned himself in the lake. It was Edmund who paid a witness to claim they saw Richard wading into the lake.” She glared at him.
“This is preposterous. Lies upon lies,” the Duke cried.
“You are the liar. This is all your fault—had you not insisted upon my marrying you, none of this would have ever happened. Richard and I might yet have been happy.”
“You deserved everything you got. You abandoned your child, and…”
“Enough!” A scream tore through the room and Daniel turned, staring at Penelope who was no longer seated beside him. She was standing up, hands curled into fists. “Enough. I have heard enough.”
She shook her head, burning anger racing through her. This back and forth had to stop. She closed her eyes for a moment to settle her thoughts and when she opened them again, she looked from one to the other, knowing one thing for certain. Their childish argument would end. And now. For they needed answers and they would get them.
Chapter 39
“You are both terrible people. Mother, although I ought not call you that, for you do not deserve the title. You were selfish and left me when I was but eight years old. You left me to believe you had died. You could have returned to me still, even after my father declared you dead. Nothing was stopping you but selfishness. I grew up wishing I had a mother, desperate for one. There was a hole in my heart that you put there. For what? To be with a man you were miserable with? I am sorry you were made to marry a man you did not love, but that didn’t give you the right to abandon your child.”
The Duchess was about to reply when Penelope turned to the Duke.
“And you are worse, still. I believe everything she says because you’ve shown me today what you are capable of. You told me she was dead. You told Daniel his father was mad and killed his mother. Then you attempted to convince him to marry Bridget. Then, just this morning you acted as though such a conversation never took place. Besides, I see you have recovered your health as well. Another lie. Why, Papa? Why?”
Daniel stood up and place a hand on her back to soothe her when, to all of their surprise, the Duke’s face fell. For a moment, Daniel suspected the upset was fake, as his illness had been. But there was something different about him. It was almost as if a wave containing all of the past’s events came crashing down upon him and he crumbled beneath it.
“I lost so much, Penelope. I could not lose you, too.” He looked up at her and genuine tears rolled down his wrinkled face. “I lost your mother, although in reality I never really had her. I was in love, a fool in love with a woman who already gave her heart to another. I thought over time she might love me if I treated her well, and if I gave her everything she wanted. But she only ever loved him.” He looked at her mother and there was a glimmer of what he’d once felt for her in his eyes, almost like an echo.
“When she left, I knew it was for him. And I was consumed with anger. I knew if I declared her dead, she could never come back for you, so I did. And then, upon a stroke of luck, I ran into Mr. Scott. He was so out of his wits with panic at the events at Carlton that I realized I could keep them both from ever coming back for either of you. I could have my revenge. So, I helped Mr. Scott. I helped the man who wanted to steal my wife start a new life with her, while in the process ruining his legacy by painting him a madman.”
“And cursing Daniel to the same fate!” Penelope’s face was turning red.
Who is this man? I do not even recognize him as my father. He seems miserable and yet, proud of his actions.
