A Matter of Honor by Elizabeth D. Michaels

Author:Elizabeth D. Michaels [Michaels, Elizabeth D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance, Inspirational, Anita Stansfield, Horstberg series, saga, clean romance, romance, the captain of her heart, Buchanan series
ISBN: 978-1-939203-37-3
Publisher: White Star Press
Published: 2014-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

THE INTRUDER

“So talk to me,” she said. “At the very least, we ought to be civil enough to be friends.”

“At the very least,” he echoed with sarcasm, then he sighed, hating this bitter, cynical side that had come out in him.

“So, are you going to tell me why you feel as if you’ve been kicked off the edge of the world? Or did you just come to talk about the weather? Still cold, isn’t it?”

Lance looked at her hard. “Yes, it’s still cold,” he said, unable to avoid a double meaning. How he missed her warmth!

“Talk to me,” she said with just enough of that warmth showing through to soften him.

“I have recently learned . . .” he began, but he found it difficult to go on. “Uh . . .” He cleared his throat, recalling how Abbi had made him say it. He had to accept it. He had to adjust. He had to say it! “I have learned,” he began again, “that . . . in reality . . . I am,” he cleared his throat again, “the illegitimate son of . . . Ferdinand du Woernig.”

He watched her and waited for some kind of shock, for her to be appalled and disgusted, but her expression didn’t change. “An illegitimate child with royal blood,” she said, “just like Dulsie.”

Lance took a sharp breath. In all his pondering and stewing over this, the connection had never occurred to him. And how could he forget Dulsie once telling him that they were the same? An innocent statement with more depth behind it than he ever could have known at the time.

“Yes,” he said, “like Dulsie. At least I can hope it’s like Dulsie.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can hope that my mother truly loved the duke, as opposed to being some tramp. I do know, however, that she was married to my father, when . . .” He stopped and cursed under his breath before he corrected himself. “She was married to Jacob Dukerk, the man I thought was my father, at the time. So, the tramp theory seems to carry more weight.”

“You know absolutely nothing about that relationship, Lance,” she said firmly. “No, it wasn’t right, but that doesn’t automatically mean it was cheap and ugly. And even if it were, that doesn’t make your existence the same.”

“Then why do I suddenly feel that it is?” he said sadly.

“What?”

“That my existence is cheap and ugly.”

“You’re obviously very upset over this.”

He chuckled with no humor. “Upset? Oh, Nadine . . . upset is the least of it.” He looked at her hard and commented on what had felt incongruent since he’d mentioned it. “You’re apparently not . . . upset, I mean. At the very least, I thought you would be . . . surprised. Or shocked.”

“I was,” she said, praying he would take this well, knowing she couldn’t deceive him, “when I initially learned of it.”

Lance’s heart quickened painfully. “What are you saying?”

“I already knew.”

Lance erupted from his chair and resisted the urge to kick it across the floor.

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