Page 109 of A Baby to Seal the Duke’s Fate

Leopold stood in the center of it. He had told her to leave. She had obeyed. This was what he had wanted. So why did the emptiness feel like punishment?

He returned to the study, where he did not read or work. He only sat at the desk and stared at the closed ledger in front of him until a knock came at the door.

Barnaby entered without waiting for an answer. He took one look at Leopold and closed the door behind him.

“You need to sit down.”

Leopold was already sitting. He started to snap at his friend with a remark stating such, but Barnaby did not appear to be trying to be funny. In fact, he looked frazzled, as if he did not even realize Leopold had already been seated until he spoke the words. Any previous irritation dissolved, replaced with concern.

“What is it?” Leopold asked.

Barnaby crossed the room and stopped on the other side of the desk. “I found something.”

“What?”

“About Honora Bellamy.”

Leopold sighed.

“If you have come to tell me that she used me, that has been made perfectly clear, I assure you.”

Barnaby shook his head. “I know what you were told. But she is not the woman Isolde described.”

Leopold’s fingers tightened on the edge of the desk. “What do you mean?”

Barnaby locked his gaze firmly on Leopold.

“Honora Bellamy is indeed her name. But she is not what Isolde said she is.”

“You said that already,” he said. “But if the name is correct, how does that change anything?”

Barnaby nodded, somewhere between impatient and frantic, and completely out of his usual character.

“She is not the opportunist Isolde claimed she was.”

Leopold’s heart managed to simultaneously rise and fall.

“Go on,” he said, his mind already reeling.

Barnaby nodded.

“Her sister was named Celestine. Celestine Bellamy before her marriage to Tobias Ainsworth.”

Leopold nodded, though nothing his friend said made sense yet.

“And Celestine and Tobias Ainsworth have something to do with this?”

Barnaby nodded. “Celestine and Tobias died a few months ago. They left behind a young infant daughter. Honora Bellamy’s niece.”

The room seemed to lose some of its air. Leopold looked down at the desk.

“Do you mean…”

Barnaby nodded.

“Your Cecily is actually Cecily Ainsworth. Honora Bellamy’s niece.”

Leopold felt suspended in a room that was silently exploding around him.