She smiled weakly. “That is what those at Okehampton called me,” she said. “I think it was more of a jest than a serious title, but Cecil struggled between wanting to be with me and wanting to devote his life to God. I thought I could force him into marriage with a child on the way, but I was wrong. In that respect, I am no better than my grandfather. I tried to control Cecil. But God was stronger than I am, and He took Cecil for His own. ’Tis I who was left ashamed and remorseful. I suppose I knew better all along. Cecil was quite devoted to God, but I thought I could change him.”
It was a brutally honest and intimate confession. Creston listened seriously, seeing that situation for what it was—she’d tried to force something because she wanted it badly enough and it had slipped through her fingers.
That wasn’t too far off from what had happened to Creston those years ago.
Thoughts of Mary began to fill his head.
“Sometimes we learn lessons the hard way,” he said. “No matter how badly we want something, God has a way of showing us that we are never fully in control.”
“That is the truth,” Ophelia said sincerely. “I learned my lesson with Cecil. I will never do something so unscrupulous again. It was wrong. Now that I see how my grandfather has tried to control you, I can see just how terrible I was. I do not blame Cecil for running. I never did. It was my fault.”
Creston was listening to her with some sympathy. “And confessing your grandfather’s scheme to me is penitence?”
She looked at him with a guilty expression. “Aye,” she said truthfully. “I have already tried to control one man. I could not let the same thing happen to you.”
Creston pondered that statement for a moment. “You do realize that you have risked a great station in life by telling me everything,” he said. “If you’d just kept your mouth shut, we would have married and quite possibly have been happy. You would have been well respected and the mother of my children. It would have been a good life for any woman.”
She nodded steadily. “I know,” she said. “But I could not have lived with such a secret. Eventually, it would have come out, and you would have hated me for it.”
“I doubt I could ever hate you,” he said softly. “But it would have made things difficult.”
Ophelia was well aware of that. “Thankfully, now it does not have to be so,” she said. “May… may I tell you something?”
“Anything.”
“Today, when I arrived at The Black Cock, a servant named Greenie helped me bathe,” she said. “Greenie was very kind. She asked why I had come to Exebridge and I told her. She proceeded to tell me what a good man you were and that you deserved someone worthy. I realize now how unworthy I am, so I hope you will not think too unkindly about me in the years to come. In the end, I did what was right for you and for me, so I hope you do remember that.”
He cocked his head. “Lady, the sheer fact that you confessed the scheme makes you quite worthy, indeed,” he said. “You have risked your entire future to preserve mine. How can I just walk away from that?”
“Because you were lied to,” she insisted. “How can you forgivethat?”
“I am willing to forgive you because you confessed,” he said. “You told me that you were honest when I first met you, and you have demonstrated that. But the next question is the one that will decide our fate.”
“What fate?”
“Whether or not we will go through with the marriage.”
She looked at him in disbelief. “After everything I’ve told you, you arestillwilling to go through with this?” she said. “That’s madness!”
He grinned. “Probably,” he said. “But I have found a woman with impeccable honesty and I am not so easily going to let her go. That is why I must ask this question.”
“What question?”
“Are you still willing to marry me?”
She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “I… I do not even know how to answer that,” she said. “You know that another man has touched me.”
“I do. A man you believed you would marry.”
“And it is his child in my belly.”
“When I marry you, the child in your belly becomes mine. He will have no claim.”
Now Ophelia was dumbfounded. “Are you serious?”
He nodded. “Quite serious,” he said. “Since you have made a confession to me, I will make one to you.”
“Go ahead.”
