She took a deep, shaky breath, wringing her hands against her stomach. “I’m not the woman who stood beside you at your wedding. I am her sister, Camilla.”
He chuckled, although humor was still not the emotion running amok through him. “The woman I married was named Camilla, my dear. Or have you forgotten?”
“I’m the twin sister of the woman you thought you married.” She licked her lips. “In my father’s confused state of mind, he absently arranged for you to marry his good, obedient daughter, Camilla, forgetting I wasn’t living at home but a widow in mourning. The rebellious and not-so-innocent daughter, Katherine, stood in my place as a proxy when we were supposed to marry. Kat was living a lie, Malcolm. She wasn’t your wife. I am.”
Past the ache spreading through his body, his mind pieced together what she was saying. He had wondered if the woman who returned from Preston not too long ago was the sister. Apparently, he had been correct after all.
She wiped at the tears streaking her cheeks. “Malcolm, youknowI’m different from the woman you thought you married. You have told me that several times. Even your children know. Would the woman you married have loved your children as much as I? Could the woman you married have been able to make you fall in love with her?”
Good heavens, she made sense. But… No. It was impossible to believe.
Yet he did want to believe her. He wanted to know he had fallen in love with a different woman than the one who betrayedhis trust a mere month after exchanging vows. “You are telling me we are really married?”
“Yes. When I saw the marriage certificate in the Bible withmyname on it, I was confused. I found a priest and asked him if proxy marriages were legal. He said they were. Kat knew my name was on the marriage certificate, but she went ahead and married you, knowing full well what she was doing.”
“What about that kiss I just witnessed between you and Captain Wilkes?”
She sniffed. “I was protecting you.”
“Protecting me?” He skeptically lifted a brow. “From what, pray?”
“From Captain Wilkes. He caught me coming back from your secret meeting, and I had to do something to distract him.”
Malcolm’s heart lodged in his throat again, and he caught his breath. “Secret meeting?”
“The secret meeting you had at the Lion’s Paw Inn.”
He scowled. “How do you know about that?”
“I followed you.”
“Why did you follow me?”
“Because my husband didn’t trust me enough to confide his whereabouts this evening.”
He swallowed hard. “And the captain knew about the meeting?”
“No. At least, he didn’t say he did. Because of the way I’m dressed, he thought I was out trying to find him. Apparently, Kat had been meeting him secretly for some time before she went to the insane asylum in Preston. I couldn’t let him think differently and suspect there was more to my midnight tryst. I explained I was on my way home, and I was being followed. He would not let me go.” More tears streamed from her eyes. “The only way I could get him to release me was to give him a kiss.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “I’m truly sorry you had to witness that,but I was acting. Nothing more.” Her shoulders drooped and she placed her trembling hand on his chest. “You are the man I love—the man I will love until I die. Me, not the woman who deceived you on your wedding day. I’m not my sister. I would never hurt you like she did.”
Tears stung his eyes and he held back a sob of relief. She seemed truthful. Dare he hope? During their stay at the Burwells’, he had wanted her to be a different woman—the woman of his dreams. Could this be real? She was correct—the woman he’d exchanged vows with had never shed a tear when he caught her with other men. His children would have never loved that woman.
“Who is in the asylum?” he asked.
“Kat, the woman you thought you married,wasin the asylum.”
“What do you mean?”
“She died before I traveled here.” Her voice broke. “Malcolm, I planned on coming here to beg for your help. I did not have the funds to pay for Kat’s stay at the asylum, nor her burial. Since you were her husband, I thought it was only right you pay for it.” She took a deep breath. “But when everyone mistook me for my sister, that was when I decided to play along. Then when I saw my name on the marriage certificate, I knew what had really happened.”
She stared at him with huge, watery eyes. He said nothing, trying to absorb her confession. The pain on her face told him what he needed to know.
“Malcolm, if you don’t believe my story or my true identity, I can take you to London and have you meet my aunts and uncles. They know the difference between me and my twin. They can tell you I’m Camilla Hardy, who married an earl. Even my servant, Timothy, knows the truth.”
Malcolm continued to stare at her in silence. He couldn’t react. The shock was still too real. Camilla covered her face with her hands and sobbed. Her whole body shook. Seeing her like this tore at his heart. Camilla definitely wasn’t her sister. The woman he married never would plead for forgiveness. The woman he married never had any kind of feelings.
His heart soared with relief. But he had been so quick to judge, and now the woman he loved was in pain because of him.
He gathered her in his arms and pressed her face against his chest. He squeezed his eyes closed and breathed in her flowery scent. He had been a fool. Then again, he hadn’t known the truth. Now he did, and he would make up for his horrid treatment.
