Her father was quiet for several long moments.Then he sighed.“You are right.You deserve to know.The truth is, your brother is not mine.He is the product of an affair your mother had.”
Violet gasped.David was a bastard?Her mother had an affair?The earlier conversation with her mother rose in her mind.Is this what she had meant when she said she had made mistakes her father had forgiven her for?Good Lord.“Who did she have an affair with?”
“The Duke of Hartwick.”Her father’s lips twisted into a snarl.“He was so magnanimous when I confronted him.Said I could keep the boy and raise him as my heir.He already had two fine sons.”
A secret like this could indeed ruin her family.After five girls, David had been a miracle.Finally, an heir.“But how does the Duke of Lavensham know about David’s parentage?”
Her father ran a hand down his face with a weary sigh.“We all know each other’s secrets.We are all inexorably woven together by our pasts.”
“All?Who?What is Lavensham’s secret?Surely, he must have some as well.”
Her father did finally look at her.“You have to understand that our bonds go all the way back to our school days.I would never betray him.”
She did understand.Even after being threatened with his own secret, her father would still choose his loyalty to his friend over his daughter’s well-being.The sense of betrayal was an overwhelming pain that spread through her chest.The pain must have shown on her face because her father’s gaze slid away from her, and he turned to stare out the window.
Violet focused on her breathing, taking in air through her nose and blowing it slowly out of her mouth.The pain in her chest loosened.In its place flared a sense of purpose.She laid a hand on her belly.No one was going to save her.She would have to save herself.
Chapter Five
Violet smoothed downthe long velvet sleeves of her gown.She smiled at Lady Davenport as the woman exited the retiring room, which was filled with people and chatter.The ball was in full swing, but good Lord, she was so tired.Her father-in-law had asked her to be his hostess for his annual midwinter ball, so there was no going home early.All of good society was here to drink from his famously well-stocked cellars and enjoy the frivolity of the elaborate decorations and food.Lord Lavensham loved to throw a party.Violet pinched her cheeks to bring a little color to her pale face.Remember your mission tonight.
She had thought long and hard about what could be a good bargaining chip to make her husband stay away from her.The truth was none of Stuart’s many vices were anything that society would care about.Drinking and gambling were all fine and dandy for men to participate in.Even him hurting her was—as her father-in-law had put so bluntly—nobody else’s business.No, the key to controlling Stuart was his father.What she needed to do was find out what Lord Lavensham’s sins were and then use them as leverage to have him agree to her having her own house away from her husband.
Thus far, she’d had no luck ferreting out any good dirt on the duke.Oh, there were rumors whispered that he had a hand in his wife’s death.Stuart’s mother had drowned in a lake some fifteen years ago, a horrible accident after falling from a rowboat.But it was old news, and the rumors were hardly something that the duke even paid attention to anymore.No, she needed to find out something that he was currently involved in.Something that would be embarrassing or perhaps, dare she hope, illegal.Tonight’s distractions gave her the perfect opportunity to search through his private study.
The door to the retiring room opened again, and Ginny hurried inside.Her maid crossed to her.“My lady,” she said low in Violet’s ear.“He is in the card room in the midst of a game of loo.He just called for a bottle of Cognac.”
Violet nodded.“And my husband?”
“Smoking on the veranda with a group of people.”
“Thank you, Ginny.I will make haste.”
She exited the room and, turning left, headed down the corridor.At the stairs, she glanced down the sweeping marble steps to find the main hall buzzing with guests still arriving, despite the late hour.Music spilled from the open doors to the main ballroom.The card rooms were in the back of the house.Even if the duke left his game, he would be waylaid a half dozen times before he could make it upstairs to his study.And Stuart wouldn’t look for her until it was time for the supper waltz.She had maybe an hour to search the duke’s study.
Turning away from the party below, she swiftly made her way down the corridor to the family wing.The duke’s study was the last door leading to the back corner of the house.Violet had never set foot in the room; it may be decorated entirely in leopard print for all she knew, or more likely, the walls were covered in animal heads from the duke’s many hunting trips to his estate in Kent.Glancing to the left and right for servants, Violet turned the knob and entered her father-in-law’s domain.
She shut the door with the barest click of the latch and then crossed to the desk.Moonlight poured in through one of the windows, illuminating the multitude of papers stacked all over the desk.Goodness, she would have never guessed that the duke would work in such disorder.Piles of correspondence and newspapers lay everywhere.But in the center of the desk, on top of the blotter, lay a thick leather-bound ledger, and neatly on top were several sealed envelopes.
Her lips twitched; those must have been left by his secretary, Mr.Dodson.Based on the chaos of papers on the desk, she imagined poor Mr.Dodson had his hands full trying to keep the duke’s affairs in order.Hmmm.Perhaps Mr.Dodson’s office would be a good place to search as well.That man must know all manner of secrets.She would have Ginny see if she could find out anything from the dour little man.
Violet crossed to the fireplace and lit a candle with some of the tinder banked in the grate.Bringing it back with her, she began to sift through the papers on the desk, but she soon realized that it was mostly estate business, reports from his land managers and such.Frustrated, she picked up a newspaper sheet.It looked like it had been torn away from the rest of the broadsheet.The article at the top was about a bill that was supposedly hotly contested in the House of Lords.Something about corn.Why would that be hotly contested?
She was wasting precious time.Nothing salacious would be kept on the desktop.She slid open the top drawer to her left.It was filled with writing supplies, the ink pots rattling as she pushed the drawer shut.The drawer below it was locked.Damn it.How does one pick a lock?Violet sighed.She was a terrible sleuth.She turned to the credenza that sat along the wall behind the desk.The first drawer she tried opened easily, but inside were stacks of more ledgers.A quick look showed that they were labeled with dates from past years.The ledgers, if studied, might show some interesting spending patterns, but that would take time and lots of reading.She simply didn’t have a way to abscond with armfuls of financial records.She had hoped to find something more along the lines of letters filled with details of all the duke’s misdeeds.
“I hadn’t expected to run into other spies in the duke’s study tonight,” a wry voice startled Violet.
She whirled around to find a man swathed in moonlight and shadows standing across the room.Who was he?“Spy?Don’t be ridiculous.”She forced a laugh.“I am simply taking a break from the party in a quiet room.”She squinted but could not make out the man’s features.“Are you a spy?”
“Not anymore.But my purpose tonight is to gather information.Don’t worry, I won’t tell your father-in-law you were poking around his study.”The man stepped forward, his hands casually stuffed into his pockets.“Why are you poking around?”
Drat, he knew exactly who she was.As he moved toward her, Violet held up the candle to see him better.His short, trimmed blond hair and the long, thin scar across his cheek were familiar, even if it had been a year since she had seen him.“Mr.Seaton?”
He gave her a mocking salute with one hand.
What was he doing here?“I’m not poking around.I told you I am simply taking a quiet moment to myself.”
He narrowed his eyes for a moment, but then he shrugged.“Sure.Do you mind if I poke around?”
