Page 12 of A Lady in Name

“Had he no knowledge of your real mother’s family? Might he not rather have tried to settle you with them, when my uncle would not assist?”

“He did assist,” Lucy said coldly. “He sent a draft on his bank for a paltry sum, and recommended Papa to use it to put the child into the care of some suitable country woman who might bring her up to a useful trade.”

“But the Reverend Graydene chose instead to take you into his own care,” Stefan said flatly. “But he might have located your maternal relatives, might he not?”

Lucy shook her head. “She gave no information of that kind. Papa said she was weakened and dying and he could make out little from her mutterings. There might have been a name. When she died, he put me to a wet nurse and searched for where the woman might have come from.”

“He drew blank, I must suppose.”

“No trace was found,” Lucy averred. “Papa supposed he had misunderstood her words. At that point he felt obliged to make contact with Lord Pennington, however he found him out.”

“Easy enough to consult a Peerage, I imagine. Was there anything more?” The look she gave him was a compound of defiance and entreaty.

“You must understand Papa had little time or breath to tell me it all. He was very weak, and he knew it must distress me. Beyond the most urgent of questions, I did not care to disturb him.”

Stefan nodded sympathetically. “I can appreciate that. It must have been a difficult time.”

She closed her eyes briefly, hiding their anguish. “Papa told me I must accept God’s will. But I was out of charity with the Almighty and took His machinations in a most unchristian spirit.”

With difficulty, Stefan refrained from laughter. “I can appreciate that also.”

“Yes, well, it was highly inappropriate in the vicar’s daughter.”

“But you are not the vicar’s daughter, and I’m afraid it is all too reminiscent of my uncle.”

Her eyes flashed. “If you dare to say I am like him, my lord, I may be provoked into doing you a mischief!”

Stefan threw up a hand. “Sheathe your dagger. I was referring to your temperament. I am casting no slur upon your character. My uncle, for your information, was a profligate wastrel who left a shambles for my inheritance, which I am still unravelling.”

The dark gaze deepened. “Has he ruined your life too?”

“Hardly.” A bark of scornful laughter escaped Stefan. “Not from want of trying. Fortunately, there was a limit to what he was able to do. I must thank my grandfather for tying up the bulk of the estate so that he could not touch it.”

Anger flared in Lucy’s face. “And this is the wretch you would couple with me!”

“I am scarcely qualified to couple you with him,” said Stefan, deliberately dry. “I hardly know you.”

She relaxed a little, sitting back in her chair. “No, you don’t know me at all, my lord. If you did, you might have been less ready to abduct me in your high-handed fashion.”

Stefan sighed. “Pray do not go about saying I abducted you. We have enough potential scandal on our hands as it is.”

Chagrined again, Lucy glared at him. “You will hardly blame me for that. I didn’t want to come here. Indeed, I have every intention of leaving as soon as may be.”

Stefan sat forward, letting the flat of his hands lie on the desk. “You will do no such thing.”

She gasped. “I beg your pardon? By what right do you make so bold, may I ask? I shall leave here just when I choose, and so I warn you!”

Stefan met her angry stare with a bland look. “I am the head of the family and you are a member of it. That gives me all the rights I choose to claim.”

“How can you say so?” uttered Lucy furiously. “I never heard anything so autocratic in my life! Until this morning you did not know of my existence.”

“True. But you having obligingly informed me of it, I have no alternative but to take charge of you from here on out.”

Stunned, Lucy could only stare at him. He waited, apparently impervious. At last she found her tongue.

“You must have taken leave of your senses. Why in the world should you wish to be saddled with an impecunious and illegitimate relative?”

“Oh, I don’t wish it,” he said, infuriatingly calm. “I am perfectly certain you will prove to be a curst nuisance, but I was never one to shirk responsibility. Unlike your father.”