“I think she would have been the one best positioned to know the truth.”
“Your mother— It was only after your birth that she took other men to her bed.”
“Why would she lie to me?”
Henry looked at Susannah again.
Charles turned on Susannah now. “And who are you? This is family business.”
Henry stepped to Susannah’s side and took her hand. “She is family. I don’t know if I’ll ever convince her to marry me, but she is the wife of my heart, forever.”
“Her?” Charles looked Susannah up and down. “Your tastes have changed, my lord. She’s no match for my mother.”
Henry squeezed Susannah’s hand as he said, “You mean that as an insult, but it is not one.”
Susannah squeezed back.I am not insulted. Tend to your son.
“Your mother.” Henry sighed. His body sagged slightly towards Susannah, but then he straightened. “Your mother lied about many things. She told you I took you from her outof spite, but she had a lover who violated your brother. I took both of you away from her because she refused to banish that man from her house.”
Henry had at last told his son the truth.
“Impossible,” said Charles, and if Susannah closed her eyes, she would have thought Henry had spoken, they sounded so alike.
Charles went on, “In all the world, I was closest to Hal. He would have spoken to me of it.”
“Would he?” Henry smiled sadly. “Your brother was so much like your mother, don’t you remember? In that she wanted love. Admiration. Do you think your brother would have dared risk your love? The way you looked at him, looked up to him. He was your hero. To tell you of the atrocity done to him even though he was a child and even though it was not his doing, and?—”
“Stop! Stop!” It was a shout. “Don’t you dare cast a shadow over my brother’s memory.”
“It’s not his shadow. It was never his. It was that vile man’s. And it was your mother’s because she made it possible and would not listen when I told her?—”
“Why should she have listened to you when all you did was treat her in the most despicable manner?”
“I was a bad husband,” Henry said heavily. “I shared nothing good with your mother except you and your brother.”
“And now you have my brother’s daughter, but she belongs to me. By right.”
The door to the drawing room burst open, and Swift appeared, breathless, frightened.
“She’s gone. Mina’s gone, Lord Ashthorpe!” The nursemaid turned to Charles. She was crying. “I’m sorry, Lord Delamere.”
Henry strode forward, towered over the nursemaid. “What are you saying?”
“Just minutes ago I went to the necessary, and she was playing with her new doll, but when I came back, she was gone. The other nursemaids have not seen her, but they’re searching the upstairs now.”
“She ran away.” Henry lunged for the door. “We have to find her.”
Susannah ran after him, went out into the corridor. “No. She didn’t run away. Henry!”
“Yes,” he said and kept moving.
“No. She wouldn’t run away. Remember?”
He stopped and turned.
“Remember what she said earlier?” Susannah pointed at the little library door and formed the wordsShe’s hidingwith her lips.
They went into the little library and directly to Mina’s favorite hiding place, the cabinet that had no key. Today was not a day to wander about, pretending they couldn’t find her.
