“Don’t you have clients waiting in Nottingham?” Da asked.
“I told you this morning. I have the day at leisure and a good thing, too, when Morgan came and—”
Rob glanced up to catch Eli’s arrested expression.
“But I’ve been meaning to look in on Ellis and Emma. They’ll want to hear the news about the excitement at Caulfield Hall, for certain,” Eli said, rising. “Think on the sale, Robbie. I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a suitable place for Lucy, like you planned.”
“Enough, Eli,” Da said sharply, sending him on his way.
“You ran him off,” Rob murmured, drinking the last bit of ale.
“Aye. Now tell me what you plan to do with Willowbrook.”
“I plan to sell it.”I always did, didn’t I?
“So, no change?” Da shook his head in disappointment.
Rob leaned across the table. “My life is in London. I never pretended otherwise. I’ve stayed away from my work long enough. It’s a good life, Da. I have respect. I’m good at what I do.” His father didn’t speak, and so he went on. “I know I stayed away too long. I’m sorry. I can be back to visit. Emma and—”
“Why did you leave, Robbie? Why stay away?” The old man’s eyes pinned him in place. There could be no evasion this time. Rob told him about that morning at Caulfield Hall, even, painfully, the part about Maddy.
“Someone needed to tell you Lady Madelyn is your sister. I should have done it sooner, and I’m sorry about that, Robbie. But you let that old witch’s words keep you away all this time?”
“I don’t give a damn about the opinion of the Countess of Clarion. I never did. I stayed away because of you, Da.”
“Me? What did I do?”
“Youliedto me. The man I respected more than any man on earth lied to me.”
“I have never lied to you in my life!”
Years of hurt rose from the depths to churn in Rob’s gut. “You let me believe I was your son.”
“Youaremy son, Robbie. Don’t be daft.”
Rob raised both hands to push the lie away, but the old man leaned closer and went on. “When I had the chance to marry your mother, I jumped at it. You were born a few months later. When they set you in my arms, you were my son. In my heart, always. I never thought otherwise. I never thought to tell you otherwise because youaremy son. It just didn’t occur to me, like I didn’t think to warn you about Lady Madelyn. That’s the one thing I regret. I’m sorry for that.”
“But the earl—”
“Forfeited all rights. If the reprobate had attempted to claim you, I would have shot him. You were mine.”
The two pairs of eyes held across the table. Rob broke away first.
Da spoke again, more softly. “I can’t say I regret him leaving you Willowbrook, though. It brought you home.”
“I thought he wanted to make me into some sort of landed gentry, something I never wanted,” Rob muttered. “Maddy says he did it to spite David, making us both miserable in one act.”
“Caulfields weave an awful tangle,” Da said, shaking his head. “There’s one more thing you should know. The old earl offered me money to marry your mother. I wanted to shove it down his overbred throat. I would have starved in a barn with the pair of you, but Mary deserved better. I demanded the Willow instead. Got him to sign it over, free and clear.”
“How could you manage that? He left bastards across the county. He can’t have cared about one more.” Rob’s astonishment left him breathless.
Da cringed at the word but answered anyway. “I was groom at the hall. I saw him molesting the Earl of Summerdale’s foolish daughter in one of the stalls. When I found your mother weeping in the still room, I threatened to tell the girl’s father.”
“Youblackmailedthe earl?” Shocked and amused at the same time, Rob choked on his words.
“He tore the chit’s gown. Damn fool’s button got caught in the lace at her neckline. I kept the piece with the button still in it.” Da’s smug expression warmed Rob to his toes. Realization that his raising by this honorable man had been a blessing overwhelmed him in a flood of gratitude. He swallowed past the lump in his throat, grinned at the man across the table, and squashed the urge to leap up and hug the old man and embarrass the both of them.
“Still leaving?”
