Approaching the Cascade, Thomas deliberately slowed his pace even further and glanced around. They had reached the periphery of the crowd, but when Amelia moved to follow Lady Everly through it, he held her back.
“No,” he told her plainly.
Her eyes rose toward his, and he saw then the tragic despair she was trying to hide. “Let me go, Thomas.” His given name, spoken like a plea almost brought him to his knees.
“Amelia—”
“Stop.” She tugged on her arm, but he wouldn’t release her. “Please,” she begged.
He shook his head and drew her back, away from the crowd and toward a copse of trees shrouded in darkness. “Youwilllisten to what I have to say, damn it, and you will do so now.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” She was heartbroken, embarrassed and furious all at the same time, and the bloody man who’d stirred all these feelings in her would not allow a reprieve.
“Giving you the knowledge you need in order to make an informed decision,” he retorted, steering her between the trees until they found themselves at a safe distance from all sound.
Confused, she stared at his dark silhouette and quietly asked, “What does that mean?”
He drew a deep breath. “We need to address the attraction between us, and I need to tell you the absolute truth about Jeremy.”
“Please don’t.” She had no desire to listen to one more word. Not when it would involve the greatest love of his life.
“Amelia—”
“Damn it, Thomas!” She hadn’t meant to become overwrought, but he was pushing her fragile emotions to the limit. “I know you had a mistress whom you loved beyond all reason. I know it broke your heart when she died giving birth to Jeremy, and I know I will never be as important to you as she was, so then what is the point here? What do you want from me?”
Silence fell and for a long moment, there was nothing but their breathing—hollow and deep like they’d both run a mile.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low and ragged. “Do you have any idea what such words do to me?”
His change of tone unbalanced her. There was something about it that heated her skin and made her think of decadent pleasure and warm caresses. But it was fantasy of course. This was the Duke of Coventry, a man who’d made his lack of interest in heading down that particular road explicitly clear. And yet he took a step closer, and his hand was suddenly on her arm, his fingers trailing a long delicious path up over her shoulder, across the sweep of her collarbones and toward the opposite side of her neck.
“Please don’t do this.” She would die if she let him continue. Her heart would simply shatter. Because this could never be and the pain of that... oh God... “Please stop.”
His hand stilled against her cheek. “What if I told you there is no mistress, no ghost for you to measure up to, no long lost love—no memories shared with another woman more important than you?”
Her heart stopped beating. Or that was how it felt. And in that moment, Amelia would have given everything in the world in order to see his face and to know if what he said was true.
“Explain yourself.”
His hand fell away, and a brief pause followed. She fought the urge to beat the answer out of him, holding herself completely still and under remarkable control.
“Jeremy isn’t my son, Amelia. He is my sister’s boy.”
Her lips parted, and she spoke on a breath of air. “What?”
“Melanie was seduced. When she died in childbirth, I swore to protect Jeremy as if he were my own.”
“The illegitimate son of a duke is less scandalous than the son of an unmarried lady and a...” She blinked. “Who is Jeremy’s father?”
The air seemed to shift around them, and when Thomas spoke again, his voice was tight. “An undeserving cad who denounced them both.”
“A gentleman?”
“A young man with a title, but hardly a gentleman.” A breeze disturbed the leaves around them, and Amelia instinctively shivered when Thomas said, “It was Fielding’s younger brother.”
The memory of words spoken by Raphe flew to the front of Amelia’s mind. She drew a sharp breath. “And Fielding did nothing, did he? That is why you dislike him so much.”
“He discovered the affair, which took place at one of my estates during a house party. Desperate to cover it up and avoid the scandal of a hasty wedding, Fielding helped his brother quit the country before I found out about it.”
