Page 91 of Tempting the Marquess

“She isn’t! And it was bloody obvious very early on. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it did and, that is all there is toit.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” White replied, folding his arms and giving him a disgusted look. “Does Claremontknow?”

“I think the fact I’m standing in front of you rather than being fished out of the Thames answers your question.”

“Isee.”

“I just want to protect her and our child. Samantha is at Claremont’s townhouse right now, and I can’t stand it. He could be saying all sorts of things to her. Or hurtingher.”

“Again, I do understand. But I will have no dead marquesses on my watch. And blood is thicker than water—have you thought how Lady Samantha might react if yours was the hand that killed her father?”

Anger surged through his body and he stared at the floor. Yet White spoke the truth. She probably would hatehim.

And yet how could he not be involved?

William raised his head. “I promise,” he said deliberately, as he shrugged into his greatcoat, “not to do anything foolish.”

“Standish,” White growled, his eyes narrowing, but William merely bowed and departed the office.

If White thought he could keep him away from Samantha, if he believed William Hastings, Marquess of Standish, would play no further role in bringing down the man he had been chasing for half of his life, the man he hated with every fiber of his being, he was very much mistaken. Whether in self-defense or not, the only person who would have the ultimate vengeance on the Earl of Claremont would behim.

* * *

It wasmid-afternoon when Samantha dragged herself from her bed, her rumbling stomach no longer able to be ignored. It was the strangest things about pregnancy—one minute you couldn’t imagine eating anything ever again, the next you were practically gnawing chair legs to appease a bottomlesspit.

The hours in her room hadn’t really helped, though. A desperately needed nap had remained elusive, as the conversation with her father whirled around in her head as much as last night’s with William. Reality was being in the middle of two factions who were at war with one another. And soon, very soon, she would be forced to choose aside.

William, the man she loved, and the father of her child. The man she believedin.

Or her own father. Her blood.

Shuddering, she left her chamber and started down the hallway, only to halt at the sound of raised voices. How very odd. Her parents never fought, mainly because neither cared enough about anything the otherdid.

Every hair on the back of her neck rose. Instinctively, Samantha ran back into her chamber, and grabbed the sheathed dagger from her reticule. With a firm shove, she pushed it down between her stays and skin, then darted back out and into a shadowed alcove between her mother’s bedchamber and the stairs, close enough to hear them, but not beseen.

Her father was looming over her mother with his arms folded. “Remind me how long you’ve been Countess of Claremont?”

“Twenty-one long years.”

“And you couldn’t even do the decent thing and provide anheir.”

“What is all this about, Claremont? You know very well Samantha’s birth went badly, and I couldn’t have any more children.”

“Ah, yes. Your daughter the bastard.”

“You acknowledgedher!”

“I hardly had a choice. The dates were approximately right, and the baby had my eyes…but we both know why that is, don’t we? I must say, I did admire your cold-heartedness in forgetting your dead lover so quickly in order to lure me into a library and get caught. That was how I knew you’d be the right kind of wife. An amoral whore.”

Reeling, Samantha pressed a fist to her mouth to prevent a cry of disbelief. John Buchanan wasn’t her father? She didn’t want to hear one more cruel word, yet her feet were frozen to the floor.

“I don’t wish to discuss this,” said her mother, voice rising in fear. “I’m going to summonhelp.”

John laughed, an ugly sound. “But we are going to discuss it, Eva. And if you take one step toward the door, I will be very displeased.”

“All…all right.”

“I’m going to tell you a tale. A tale of a second son who was always forced to live in the shadow of his perfect brother and sister. Who had no purpose in his life, until the day he met a man named Phillipe. Phillipe taught this second son all he needed to know about being successful. About wealth and power. About victories. About the joys of hunting.”