Georgie took a shuddering breath. “A duchess.”
Silence. Her heart seemed to crack and flake apart. She was about to shame herself before this kind man. Worse, she was about to shame Jamie and Lully. But there was nothing else to do.
“Is she not Jamie’s child?” he asked in a very quiet voice.
That brought her head up and fire into her heart, just in time to prevent it dying. “Did you not take a good look at her?” she demanded, truly outraged. “Did you not see Jamie in her smile? In her whimsy and, sweet lord, her beautiful hair? All she got from me were her eyes and her reserve.” Without her permission tears collected again in her eyes. “If she had received Jamie’s personality, she would have taken you under her wing and patted your hand like a puppy. She would have dragged you outside to play and fed you scones in the kitchen.”
She wasn’t as astonished as she should have been to see Adam’s eyes brighten with his own tears. “I know.” He cleared his throat and dipped his head. “It is her smile most of all. That is the image of Jamie as sure as I’m born. My apologies, Lady Georgiana. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Yes, you do,” she admitted, sinking back into her seat and wishing she had yet another few fingers of brandy. “And you had every right to ask. No. There is no question who Lully’s father is.”
“Then what is the problem?”
She looked up, silently begging his understanding. Knowing she had no right to it. Knowing too that this was the moment she reached the crossroads and set off on her path alone.
“The problem is that Lully has no right to a title of any kind.”
He went very still.
“Why?”
It was all she could do to keep her eyes open. “Because Jamie and I never quite managed to marry.”
6
Georgie thought she would never see another human as shocked as Adam Marrick. He opened his mouth, but for the longest time couldn’t seem to manage words. She swore she could almost hear the thoughts whirling in his head.
“Jamie never told me.”
She flushed miserably. “No. He wouldn’t. I had hoped he could get home in time to rectify the matter.”
A shrug completed the thought, the truth that would never change.
This time it was Adam who gained his feet much faster than he should have and began to pace, his cane thumping and his right leg dragging just a bit. Georgie remained where she was, a miserable lump of shame.
“Who knows?” he asked, not bothering to turn from where he was pouring another tot for himself.
Georgie almost asked him to simply bring the bottle over. She didn’t have enough courage left.
“My parents. Hattie Clark, Lully’s governess.”
He stopped. Looked up. “That’s all? Not even your brother or his wife?”
She shrugged. “What would have been the point? There was no consequence to the lie. We fully assumed we would spend our lives tucked away out of sight.”
“But what about when Lully came of age? She must be presented.”
Georgie lifted an eyebrow. “Must she? You saw what happened when my father found out where she was. Do you think he would be any more considerate if I were brazen enough to try to pass off my daughter among the ton?”
He downed the liquid in his snifter and refilled it before heading off again, his limp increasing with every step. She was close to begging him to sit for his own sake, but she knew how necessary movement was sometimes when shock was suffered.
“I’m sorry,” she managed.
Which brought him to a dead stop right in front of her. “What in the name of God are you apologizing for? This was as much Jamie’s fault as…”
She shook her head. “He never knew.”
Adam stared. “He certainly did. I never received a letter without a recitation of every achievement you shared of his brilliant daughter. He evidently went on a two-day drunk when she learned to walk. He wasn’t there, you see, and...”
