“No, the infant survived,” he said in a grumbling if slightly proud tone. “The man I sent the wench off with was to find her a husband in another country but she refused, then died. He didn’t know what to do with the infant so he brought him home to me. I had him educated at boarding schools and he comes home to us on holidays.”
Her eyes widened. “Why didn’t you say Daniel knew she had given him a son?”
“Because he doesn’t know and don’t you dare tell him. He would legitimize him just to spite me! He and the boy both think he’s an orphaned cousin of my wife’s and that is how it will stay.”
“He claims to have a lot of bastards. Are you secretly raising them, too?” she asked.
“They had mothers to see to them. I made sure they managed on their own, those I knew about.”
She was incredulous that this vengeful old man had done that much. But then he added, “Now tell me why Daniel would even mention that woman to you?”
She thought about lying, or claiming intuition. She wasn’t sure what she’d hoped to gain for sharing her suspicion. A reconciliation of father and son that would result in an end to the vendetta against her father as recompense for pointing out the reason why Daniel refused to marry? Or it could go the other way and he could end the marriage bargain because she’d interfered in his family’s personal matters.
So she said simply, if rather evasively, “I asked him if he’d ever been in love before. His reaction was honest. But you must realize a son, the son of the woman he loved, could change everything. You should tell him!”
“To what point? He still needs a wife, still needs a son of good breeding, not a servant’s whelp. He needsyou.So get him to the altar. Whatever you’ve been doing, it appears to be working.”
He abruptly walked out of the room. Her shoulders drooped. She didn’t want to pursue a marriage to Daniel, not when she had information that could turn him around, might even mend the rift with his father if he knew that Albert had done right by his first love’s son. But what she knew wasn’t going to get her father home. She would have to keep her enemy’s secret.
Chapter Forty-seven
“IWAS BEGINNING TO THINKyou’d abandoned Charley and moved to your family’s residence in town,” Vanessa said when Monty found her in the small garden behind the town house. Two days had passed since she had last seen him when he’d gone off with his father.
“Gads, no, not with my father in London. He’s too nosy, too demanding, and too autocratic. He tends to still treat his children like children—and I’ve missed you.”
She almost blushed when her heart skipped a beat, and his warm smile didn’t help her get beyond the rush of excitement those words gave her. She took her eyes off him and continued walking to regain her composure, while he fell into step beside her.
“Was it painful, having to explain those tawdry rumors to him?” she teased.
He laughed. “A little.”
“My mother is autocratic like your father. I’m glad I missed the worst of her regimen, and now it’s too late for her to take control of my life again. My father, on the other hand, was just the opposite.”
“And yet your mother arranged that engagement for you and you’ve allowed it.”
“Because she did me a favor! And don’t give me that look, Monty. I warned you, I’ve said all I’m going to say about my reasons.”
He pulled her behind a bush and into his arms. “What if I could find another solution that doesn’t involve you marrying a man you don’t actually want?”
“You can’t. And don’t use unfair tactics, such as suggesting you can come up with miracles, to get me to confess all. Besides, I think I may have burned my bridge to Daniel. He didn’t stay for the dinner the other night after I threatened to shoot him, and he didn’t show up at either of the last two social events I attended, either.”
“Are you exaggerating?”
“No.”
He was too amused by that. “You give me such hope!”
“Oh, be quiet. I am devastated.”
He raised a brow. “Not after only two days you aren’t. But it does give me an excuse to distract you.”
His distraction was to start kissing her. She groaned because she couldn’t just enjoy it as she so wanted to. She stepped back to glower at him.
“No more rule breaking. Don’t force me to never leave my room without a maid in tow.”
He cringed and lamented, “The bane of most marriages. How are couples supposed to actually find out if they are suitable for each other with a chaperone listening to every bloody word they say? They might as well be strangers at the altar.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Are those chaperones the reason you turned away from the marriage mart?”
