He did as instructed.
“Are you coming home with us?” Diana asked him.
At his daughter’s mention of “us,” Purity looked around until she spied the person who was attending the child, a middle-aged woman.
“No, sweetums. I’ll see you later. Be good for Mrs. Caldwell.”
Diana made her favorite exaggerated frowning face. “I always am.”
Then she grinned, dashing off like the sprite she was, nearly trampling and being trampled in return, before she returned pell-mell to his side once again.
“Goodbye, pretty lady,” she said. “Goodbye, Papa.”
And then she ran back to her nanny.
“Four years of age?” Purity asked.
“Round about.”
This earned him a scowl. “Don’t you know?”
“Not precisely, no.”
“I see,” Purity said. Her saddened expression made his gut tighten. “And she lives with you?”
“You do not understand, I assure you.” Matthew wanted to rail with righteous indignation that she was condemning himunfairly. Yet however much he branded his paternity with the stamp of magnanimity, he had fornicated with Diana’s mother. There was no denying it. She could as easily be his if the timing were different.
Catching himself from offering a long explanation that had no place in front of Gunter’s Café, instead he sighed.
“While I don’t think this is the time or place, I owe you the full story.”
“You owe me nothing,” she said softly. “However, I must return home. I’ve been out longer than expected, and my family may have returned already. I wouldn’t want them to become concerned.”
“You no longer wish to have an ice or a cake?” He gestured toward the busy doorway behind her.
“No, thank you,” she said, remaining perfectly calm and polite.
That worried him.
Then she added, “You may wish to call your daughter back and offer her a flavored ice.”
He didn’t respond, still staring into her eyes, trying to discern how much trouble he was in. He shouldn’t have concealed Diana from her, but he had hoped they would become close enough he could tell her anything without it mattering. The engagement had happened too quickly, and now he was out of time for telling his secret since his secret had revealed herself.
Matthew should press the point of wishing to convey Purity home in his carriage, but her brittle demeanor spoke loudly. She needed to be away from him and to process what she’d learned. Maybe she simply didn’t want to be a stepmother.
Nodding, he doffed his hat and bowed to her.
“At some date in the very near future, I hope you will allow me to enlighten you on Diana’s situation. I would hate for you to jump to any conclusions.”
Purity pursed her lips, and a spark of anger flared to life inside him. She was so bloody perfect that Matthew didn’t know how anyone around her could possibly measure up.
Was he to feel unworthy the rest of his life for having enjoyed himself in his younger years?He wasn’t sure he wanted a critical wife who was always going to look down her nose at him, deeming him inferior.
“You knew I was a rake,” he reminded her, earning him a stony expression.
She raised a gloved hand at the unpleasant word.
“Good day, Lord Foxford.” She started walking before he could respond in kind.
