“We already established we are going to my residence. We must make a plan after all.”
“A plan. I don’t even understand. You said this is Arabella’s child. That she had…”
“While in Italy, yes. She came to me about a month ago as I said. She told me that the young man she had involved herself with had left her with a child. He wanted the child but not her. He lured her to Italy under false pretenses, saying that his uncle was a count there and that they would be married and return as husband and wife with their little one. But it soon became quite clear that he had no interest in her, that she was nothing but a passing fancy to him and the child an inconvenience but an inconvenience he intended to claim. His plan was, it seems, for her to have the child, and then he would send her away while he kept the baby.”
“What?” Clara exclaimed. “That is unconscionable.”
“Indeed, it is. So, she pretended to go along with the plan, but after the child was born, she escaped from his grasp with the baby. Some servants helped her. She returned to England and availed herself of my financial help before disappearing again.”
“Why didn’t you help her more? Why didn’t you stop her from leaving?”
“You did not listen to me earlier at all, did you? I tried to. I offered, more than once, but she refused. I still do not even know who the man was.”
She considered this. As much as she wanted to be angry at someone in this moment, she knew Julian was perhaps not the best target.
“Bella has always been stubborn. If she thought that you were going to involve yourself, she likely would have kept it all to herself. She must have been terribly frightened to even come to you in the first place.”
“Indeed,” he said. “If she was afraid, I could have found her a place to hide. I have connections. This way, she is entirely on her own.”
“Perhaps she thought that if you were to help her using your connections, it would make it easier for the man to find her. You are not exactly inconspicuous.”
In fact, Julian was not only a wealthy duke. He was well connected in the House of Lords with many alliances. His reputation was stellar. The attention was on him often, especially when he dwelt at his estate near London.
“Arabella must be terrified of this man to do what she did. And that man who handed me the child, do you suppose he was a servant?”
“Indeed, he was,” Julian said. “When I followed him, I thought he was going to cry. He had an accent. An Italian one.”
“I did not pay any attention to it,” she admitted. “But now that you say it, yes, I think you are right.”
“He must be one of the ones who helped her escape. If she sent the child away to be hidden with you, then it must mean that,wherever she is, the man has found her, or at least is close, and she thought it no longer safe. We must do what we can to keep the child safe.”
“Of course,” she said. “Arabella has been one of my dearest friends since I was a child. But this way? Why did you say I was your wife?”
“So that the child can be under my protection. I do not know if Arabella sent the child away the way she did because she intended for people to think it was yours or if it was simply the young man who made that choice. In any case, everyone now believes this child is yours. And without a husband, there would be no protection for either you or the baby.”
“I know,” she said. “But how will we explain this? Everyone will think this child was born out of wedlock. I cannot have that stain upon my reputation.”
He nodded and tapped his fingertips together—a habit she remembered from the time they had spent in each other’s company years ago. It meant that he was anxious but also thinking.
“Very well. You have been in Scotland for one year. Correct?”
“That is correct.”
“That will be perfect,” he said. “We will say that I came to Scotland with Arabella when she visited you. In fact, duringthat time, I was at my country seat fighting a dreadful cold, so nobody would have seen me for a week or two. After that, we wrote to each other—not exactly proper, but I think we will get away with it in light of everything.” He looked at the baby, who was still sleeping in her arms. “We fell in love, married quietly, and you were with child quickly.”
“That is all well and good, but why wouldn’t we have simply declared our relationship?”
He took a deep breath and raised his eyebrows. “That is a very good question.”
Clara looked out of the window then it came to her.
“My fiancé left me a year ago.”
He looked at her, head tilted to one side. “I am aware. But exactly how does that …”
“We will say that we thought it inappropriate that I should move on so very quickly to not only be married but with a child when I had just been left by my fiancé. We thought it would be improper, so we kept our relationship from everybody, and then, when the child was born, we decided to have him in peace and only return to London once some time had passed.”
She did not remind him that Benjamin’s leaving her for the cousin of the Prince Regent had been quite the scandal and extensively talked about in high society. In fact, news of it hadbeen on every tongue for weeks. She had heard of it even in Scotland.
