“What about your sisters?”
“Viscount Perry,” he answered. Hatred filled his being. “He was the one that my mother was supposed to marry. It had been arranged. When my mother was free again, he sought her out, because he did still want her.”
“They married?”
“He punished. Mother could not find work and when she did, there was not enough money to feed us. He provided her with a home so long as she was his mistress, but none of her brats could live there with her. Mother would go to that home whenever Perry requested her presence and remain as long as he insisted, but she always returned to us to make certain we were well and did not starve. Sometimes it was a night, sometimes a sennight.”
“You were just children!” Lavinia exclaimed.
“There was a woman in our same building that would watch over us when mother was away. Mother paid her with items she had taken from the house so that they could be pawned for cash. I am certain my mother did the same for us because she did not have a position where she earned wages.”
“I am sorry, Demetrius.”
“Do not be sorry for me, but my mother.”
“How long…”
“Until she died.”
“So, Perry is the father of your sisters and Bertram.”
Demetrius nodded.
“How did Vicar Grant find you?”
“I was attempting to pick his pocket while Benedick tried to distract him.” As horrible as his life had been then, that was one memory he intentionally held onto. “I was all of nine, Benedick was eight, and we were the ones that had to make sure that our siblings were taken care of. Perdita was just an infant and the wet nurse required payment.”
“I am sorry. I am truly sorry.”
He did not want her pity but knew better than to argue.
“Vicar Grant grabbed us both by the ear and made us take him to our home. When he learned that our mother had passed and that there was no father, he was determined to find us a better place to live.” Lavinia really did not need to know how his mother’s family had rejected them again because he’d already told her the worst of his past.
“Vicar Grant and his wife took you in,” she surmised.
“They had never been blessed with children and welcomed us.”
“Where did the surname Valentine come from?”
“My aunt’s sister was married to a missionary; his surname was Valentine and they had two children. They were the ones who were in India. My aunt and uncle had received word shortly before we were discovered that the couple had been killed along with their children. As they had lived there for several years, it was easy to pass us off as the Valentine orphans.”
Lavinia was silent for the longest time and Demetrius began to worry that she was trying to find the words to distance herself from him and prepared to have his heart broken by her rejection. It was for that very reason that he turned so that they could stroll back to her cottage.
“Thank you for telling me,” she said after a moment. “I will hold your secret as Society would not approve.”
“What of your brother?”
“Leopold does not need to know anything,” she insisted. “You are a solicitor with a brilliant mind. It makes no difference who your father and mother were or your humble beginnings.”
“What of you?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I am not worthy to touch you, let alone kiss you, or anything else that I have done.”
Lavinia stopped and turned to face him. “You are still a good man, Demetrius.”
“You are the daughter of a duke and were married to a marquess.”
