“Oh, very certain.” Mr. Longham leaned back in the chair, and a frown crossed his wrinkled brow. “But I can see that I’ve shocked you. I am sorry for it. I had assumed you knew.”
Fresh tears burned as she employed every ounce of discipline to remain calm. “Why would you think that? How would I have known?”
“I assumed Mrs. Denton would have told you at some point.” He studied her for several seconds before he retrieved a handkerchief from his pocket and extended it to her.
Cassandra eyed the handkerchief and then accepted it warily. How did he know of Mrs. Denton? She wiped her nose. “Well, she did not.”
Several moments passed in awkward silence before Mr. Longham spoke again. “I know he wanted to tell you himself. He told me he had written to you. That was a few months before he died.”
At the mention of the letter, she hastily retrieved it from her reticule. “This letter?”
He took the missive, retrieved his spectacles, balanced them on the end of his arched nose, and read it. “I don’t know if it is the exact letter. But the date is accurate. June 1809. He died in October of that year.”
She accepted the letter back, frustrated with how slowly the conversation was proceeding. “I only came into possession of this letter two weeks ago.”
“Two weeks?” He winced. “How’s that possible?”
“Mrs. Denton gave it to me on her deathbed. She said she was sorry she had kept a secret from me, but she had made a promise.”
“Yes. I’d heard she had died, but it makes no sense that she should have kept this from you.” Mr. Longham frowned. “Her promise has long since been fulfilled.”
“What promise?” Cassandra cried out. “Mr. Longham, clearly you know a great deal about my life, but it is all a complete mystery to me. I’m confused about who I am, who my parents are, how I came to even be at the school, and it seems you are the only person to have any answers to my questions. So please, I beg of you, do me a kindness and start at the beginning. Tell me everything you can.”
He nodded and crossed one leg over the other, as if settling in. “Twenty-five years ago, it was brought to Mr. Clark’s attention that one of the maids in his home was with child.Hischild. Mr. Clark was, of course, married to Mrs. Clark at the time, and it was his chief concern that his wife never find out about the child. About you.”
Illegitimate.
She found her voice. “Go on.”
“In an effort to conceal his actions, Mr. Clark secretly, but legally, assumed full custody of you and placed you with a family in the country until you were old enough to be placed in a school—Mrs. Denton’s school.”
“And my mother did not oppose this?”
“She was young and in no position to raise a child on her own. Mr. Clark could provide for you much better than she ever could. He gave her funds for a new life, and in return she agreed never to have any contact with you.”
Cassandra swallowed dryly. It felt as if her hands had grown numb. Her arms. “What is my mother’s name?”
“Mary Hale.”
“And is she still living?”
Mr. Longham nodded his white head. “After the agreements were signed, I never had contact with her again. But news does travel, and I did hear somewhere along the way that she eventually married and is living somewhere near here. Her married name is Smith, if memory serves.”
“So if I understand you correctly, all these years that I have beenat the Denton School for Young Ladies, Mrs. Denton knew of this arrangement?”
“Of course. No expense was spared for your education and care.”
Unable to be still any longer, Cassandra jumped to her feet. “So why tell me all this now? Why even look for me?”
Mr. Longham released a deep sigh. He removed his spectacles and casually returned them to his pocket. “After Mr. Clark’s wife died, he tried to contact you. He was gravely ill at the time, close to death himself. When he received no response, he sent me to the school to speak with you, but when I arrived, Mrs. Denton said you had taken a position elsewhere and she had no idea where you were.”
“What? But that’s a lie! I lived under her roof since I was a child!”
“Well, be that as it may, I was told that the two of you had quarreled, and you departed without providing a forwarding address.”
The false words swam in her mind, refusing to come into focus. Determined to make sense of what she was hearing and take full advantage to learn every detail she could, she sat back down. “But that does not answer my question. Why were you looking for me? Why did you track me down here?”
He blinked, as if shocked at her naivete. “You father’s will, of course.”
