Harlequin Historical May 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: A Dance with Danger\The Rake to Reveal Her\The Husband Season by Jeannie Lin

Author:Jeannie Lin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Harlequin Historical
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Through the roaring in her ears, Theo dimly heard the clatter of her teacup as it dropped back into the saucer. She found herself on her feet, chest so tight she could scarcely breathe, desperately trying to decide what to do next.

She could laugh, look puzzled, tell Lady Hazlett she had no idea what she meant—though her obvious distress would make such a denial rather unbelievable.

She could walk out, order her butler to show Lady Hazlett the door, and hope that was an end to it.

Lady Hazlett had risen, too, and looked up at Theo, an anguished appeal on her face. ‘Marshall was my only remaining child, you know. I lost two little boys as infants and one dear daughter, and then, two years ago, our eldest and heir, Edward, died after a hunting fall. When Tremaine told me Marshall had a son, I had to come. Your precious child is all I have left. Surely, you won’t be so cruel as to keep him from me!’

‘I never set out to hide him,’ Theo said softly. ‘I didn’t know if you and Lord Hazlett would want to acknowledge him, since Marshall and I never married, but I had planned to contact you. But then, when I arrived back at the army with him, and everyone assumed he was Alicia and Everly’s child whom Everly’s family refused to acknowledge, I saw a way of keeping him that would avoid shaming my father. That would avoid having Charles branded a bastard.’

‘Good heavens, girl, what were you going to do if the Marquess of Wareton changed his mind and wanted the boy back?’

‘I would have told him then about Charles’s true parentage. It’s all recorded in the register at the convent, so there would be proof. But unless and until that happened, Charles could remain legitimate in the eyes of the world, and free from the true scandal of his birth.’

‘As could you,’ Lady Hazlett said tartly.

‘As could I. For what it’s worth, I cared very little what happened to me. I couldn’t imagine ever loving anyone again as I had Marshall, so being ruined and unable to marry didn’t matter to me. I would have grieved at the loss of my father’s respect, but protecting my father from embarrassment and Charles from the stigma of bastardy were my primary motivations. Which you can believe, or not.’

‘Oh, child, I didn’t come here to harangue you! Only to reclaim a part of myself I thought lost for ever. Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh.’

Furious determination boiled up from the depths of her soul. ‘You can’t have him. He’s all I have left of Marshall, too! I’ve cherished him and nurtured him since the sisters placed him in my arms after he drew his first breath. Besides, how could you claim him, without the facts of his birth coming out?’

Lady Hazlett shrugged. ‘Why could we not continue the fiction you’ve already promulgated? All my friends know how devastated I was by Marshall’s death.

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