The sun was beginning to set, and there was a marvelous display of color. Thomas had had enough of the outdoors for one day, and was scooting around on the blanket with extra vigor, a sure sign that he was hungry.
“It’s so peaceful out here at this time of day,” Eleanor said quietly. “I’m going to miss you and this little fellow.”
“You’re not thinking of leaving already, are you?” Reggie asked surprised.
“You don’t need me here anymore, my dear.” They both knew she had stayed only to help Reggie ease into her marriage. “Dicken tells me Rebecca has been nothing short of a harridan since I’ve been away. Dicken misses me, too. And, truth to tell, this long absence from Cornwall has opened my eyes.”
“Why, Eleanor, you and Dicken are…?” Reggie said, delighted.
Eleanor smiled. “He has asked me to marry him many times in the last four years. I think I am finally ready to give it some serious thought.”
“Famous! Will you let Nicholas and me do the wedding party, or will Rebecca want to?”
“I’m afraid Rebecca willinsist,” Eleanor laughed. “She has been pushing Dicken at me for ages.” Thomas squawked, demanding attention. “Want me to take him up, my dear?”
“Not unless you can manage to feed him, too.” Reggie smiled impishly.
“Do hurry back. Nicky has been keeping such a close eye on you all day, I’m sure he’ll go hunting for you if you’re gone long.”
“Not as long as I know where she is,” Nicholas said, approaching from behind them. He scooped Thomas up. “So the rascal’s hungry, is he? Good God, he’s dripping, too!” He quickly held the boy away from him, and the women laughed. Reggie wrapped a smaller blanket around Thomas’ bottom. “That’s something babies tend to do, and often. Here, let me have him.”
“No, I’ll carry him up for you.” Nicholas leaned closer, whispering for her ears alone. “Perhaps, after you’re finished with him, we might have a little time alone?”
“My, what a pretty picture this makes,” Miriam’s hard voice intruded. “A father doting on his bastard. You Eden men make wonderful fathers, Nicholas. Too bad you’re so terribly lacking as husbands.”
Nicholas swung around. “I will not take exception, madame. You are, naturally, upset that your well-wrought plot failed to turn out as expected.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she replied disdainfully.
“Don’t you? Let me thank you now, before I forget. If not for your brilliant guest list, my wife and I might still be estranged. We’re not. And we have you to thank for our reconciliation,mother.”
Miriam’s expression mottled with fury she couldn’t contain. “I am sick to death of hearing you call me that. And, Nicholas, you don’t know just how brilliant my guest list really is,” she laughed. “I have a wonderful surprise for you. You see, your real mother is here! Isn’t that marvelous? So why don’t you make a fool of yourself by spending the rest of the evening asking every lady here if she’s the bitch who whelped you? That would besuchfun.”
Nicholas couldn’t move. He was so stunned he couldn’t even reach out to stop Miriam from walking away. Reggie’s heart twisted when she took Thomas from him, he didn’t seem to know she had done so.
“Oh, Nicholas, don’t let her upset you,” Reggie said gently. “She only said that for spite.”
“Did she?” The eyes that met Reggie’s were tormented. “Did she? What if she told the truth?”
Desperate for help, Reggie turned toward Eleanor. The older woman was ashen. Reggie understood, but the need had never been greater.
“Tell him,” she said quietly, and Ellie gasped.
“Regina!”
“Can’t you see? It’s time.” She grasped Thomas more tightly and waited.
Nicholas looked from Reggie to Eleanor, misery and confusion mixed in his face.
“Oh, Nicky, don’t hate me,” Eleanor began on a pleading note. “Miriam was being spiteful, but—but she also spoke the truth.”
“No!” The word tore out of him. “Not you. You would have told if—”
“I couldn’t.” Eleanor was crying. “I gave Miriam my word I would never claim you whenshegavemeher word she would raise you as her own.”
“Is that what you think she did?” he asked painfully. “She was never a mother to me, Ellie, even when I was a child. You were here then.You know that.”
“Yes, and I dried your tears and soothed your hurts and died a little every time. Your father didn’t want you labeled a bastard, Nicky, and I didn’t either. Miriam kept her word that she would never tell, so I had to keep mine.”
