“Could that be true?” Stenfax asked, turning to John.
John, who looked angry and frustrated. “If he is delivering a payout, it certainly implies that someone uncovered whatever secret he was keeping. If it was just a bluff because the names weren’t encoded, why not do it long ago?”
“If that is true, then we know the secret,” Rosalinde said, getting up and pacing off. Gray followed her, placing a hand on the small of her back as she leaned against the mantel and took a few long breaths.
“Our father,” Celia whispered in a broken tone that hurt Asher’s heart.
“Your father?” he repeated.
The two women looked at each other, then to him. Finally Rosalinde sighed. “It’s a long story. But you are a friend to this family and it’s time you know it.”
“How do we even begin?” Celia said.
“At the beginning,” John suggested.
He and Celia exchanged a look that told Asher those words meant something to them privately. He found himself looking toward Felicity, thinking of their beginning.
She wasn’t looking at him, though. She was staring straight ahead, her face still and cold. He hated to see her that way.
“My grandfather always told the story that our mother had gone to visit a distant aunt, then fallen in love with and married a gentleman’s son. She bore him two daughters,” Celia said. “But they’d died in an accident and so he came to collect us, to raise us as any loving grandfather would do.”
Rosalinde snorted her derision at that story. “But it wasn’t true.”
“Whatwastrue?” Asher asked.
“A long time ago, long before we were born,” Celia said, scrubbing a hand over her face. “Our mother fell in love with one of our grandfather’s servants.”
“Gregory Fitzgilbert is a miserable man,” Rosalinde explained. “It was no wonder she wanted some way out. They ran away together. My grandfather was furious. He had only one child and he had wanted to trade on our mother to increase his position. He searched for them and they were forced to hide. To never marry for fear that reading the bannes would put them in Fitzgilbert’s crosshairs.”
“The servant was your father,” Asher said softly.
Celia nodded. “But we didn’t know that. We’d always heard the other story, the lie. Until our grandfather decided he could use us to further himself.”
“I bucked that,” Rosalinde said. “I married someone below his desires.”
Asher looked at Gray and he shook his head. “Not me. Rosalinde was married before.”
“Her marriage enraged our grandfather,” Celia said. “So he came to me and told me the truth, that our father was actually alive. And that if I wanted to ever know his identity, I would marry well. I would marry Stenfax.”
Asher sat down hard. “Yes, I remember something about that. This is all very intertwined and complicated.”
“It is,” Stenfax said with a sigh. “I had no idea, of course. I never would have allowed either Rosalinde or Celia to be treated in such a manner.”
“Ultimately, it all worked out as it did,” Celia said. “Stenfax and I broke off the engagement, Gray and Rosalinde married and I found John. But Fitzgilbert has kept his secrets very well. Westilldon’t know who that man was who fathered us.”
Asher bent his head. “I’m so sorry for you both. I was separated from my father for a while when I was a boy and it was very difficult. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to never even know him.”
Celia sighed and leaned her head against John’s shoulder. “It has been difficult, even if Rosalinde and I have come to accept that we will likely never know him.”
“Unless the code has been broken,” Felicity whispered, involving herself in the conversation at last. Her voice trembled and barely carried. “If the code has been broken and that is what your grandfather is being blackmailed over, you two could at last find out the truth.”
Rosalinde and Celia exchanged a glance. Asher knew it too well. It was a look of hope that was tempered by years of disappointment.
“It’s true,” John said. “If Asher and I can retrieve the book, we might find your answers at last.”
“And if the code is broken, I hope that will be the good that comes out of it,” Felicity said. Her breath came short as she lifted her fists to her heart. “But if their secret comes out…mine cannot be far behind. And if it does, then all your happiness will be ruined and it…it is my fault.”
She let out a cry and rushed from the room.
