“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “I see that we already have a great deal of attention. I would like to apologize to Lady Sandringham for having monopolized her splendid ball in such a manner, but as we all know, good help is hard to come by, and it seems that our night nurse has disappeared and a servant has brought our child here rather than send word.”
“Our child,” somebody whispered.
Clara caught Helena’s eye from somewhere in the back, and Helena looked at her as though she had gone to sleep and awoken in an entirely different world. “This was not the way I had planned to announce the joyful news, but Lady Clara and I are married, and this is our son, the future Duke of Lynden.”
CHAPTER 4
Clara thought the entire world was shifting underneath her feet. When she said she trusted him, she hadn’t thought that he was going to announce her as his wife to the entire gathering.
In the back, Helena’s mouth dropped open, and she took a step forward. Whispers immediately erupted all around the room.
“What are youdoing?” she hissed, but he placed an arm on the small of her back.
“You said you trusted me. Now come.”
“I must talk to Helena, and you?—”
“We cannot talk to anyone right now,” he said quickly. “Come.”
Together, the two of them made their way past the crush of people and out of the ballroom.
The baby stirred in her arms again, and she looked down at the little bundle. She had to protect him, whoever he belonged to; he was merely a baby. Her mind flashed back over the last few minutes. The young man who had handed her the child had looked absolutely terrified.
And what kind of trouble was Arabella in? A child with a man she did not know that well and out of wedlock?
She’d been held captive in Italy? Escaped? It was as though Clara was suddenly stuck in her very own gothic novel, and not only that, she was now a main character.
Her head spun, but the more they walked on, the more whispers erupted, and she was beginning to realize that Arabella wasn’t the one currently in deep trouble. She was.
By handing her the baby as he had, the young man had put a target on her back. Everyone thought this child was hers. And now Julian, with his declaration, had done the same. What would her mother say?
“Clara,” Julian said. She blinked and looked up, just now realizing that they were already outside and in front of the carriage. He had wrenched open the carriage door already and was offering his arm to help her up. Holding onto him with one hand and the baby with the other, she made her way intothe carriage. He shut the door and came around the other side, joining her.
“What were you thinking?” she demanded. “Claiming me as your wife?”
“It is the only thing I could do to make sure that you and the child are safe. Everyone already thought that this child was yours—that you had gone to Scotland somehow and returned with an out-of-wedlock child. At least this way, you have a husband to go along with the tale.”
“Oh my goodness,” she said, breathing hard. The reality of it all crashed over her.
He took her hand in his and squeezed. “Please, you must remain calm.”
“Calm? I returned to society after a year away in Scotland and went to a ball I didn’t even want to go to. Then, suddenly, a child is thrust upon me, supposedly the child of my best friend—who is in danger—and I am tasked with protecting the child, only to find myself suddenly at the center of a scandal and supposedly married to you?”
He let go of her hand. “Well, you need not make the part about being married to me sound quite so dreadful. I am a duke, not a fishmonger.”
“I had no intention of marrying. Indeed, I had not expected to come out of this evening engaged at all. I had hoped to return after a dance, having shown my face, and then go to bed after drinking a large cup of hot chocolate and eating far too many pieces of marzipan.”
He smiled. “Well, there is marzipan at my home and hot chocolate too.”
“We are going to your home?”
“Well, we cannot go to yours. That reminds me—who was your chaperone?”
“Oh goodness,” she said and groaned. “Mrs. Wainscott. My mother sent her. She will be out of her mind. I do not much care for her, but I do not want her to be in high dudgeon about all of this.”
“I will send a note back to the ball and one to your family as well, promising to explain in the morning.”
“In the morning? And where am I to go tonight?”
