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“I can tell you that. She’s in excellent health, as is her daughter.”
Julian was disappointed that he had not been there to attend her, but grateful to hear things had gone well. He noticed the fond glance with which Rebecca regarded Cliff, and thought perhaps it was time she found love again.
“I’ll want to tell the men goodbye. Are they still
here?”
“Yes, they’re staying for dinner.”
Rebecca shaded her eyes with her hand as she looked up at her brother. “Eden’s mother has come for an extended stay. I’m sure she’ll be a big help since Yadira left yesterday.”
“Yadira’s gone?” Julian asked much too quickly.
“Yes. She said she couldn’t abide babies and found another position.”
Julian shrugged as though the matter didn’t concern him and went on in the house. He knew he would never meet another woman with such a hearty sexual appetite, but after a brief moment of sorrow that she left without saying goodbye, he was overwhelmed with relief that she was gone.
The birth had been an easy one, but that exertion combined with the lingering effects of the sleeping powder kept Eden asleep until early afternoon. She awakened to find Raven seated beside the bed, gently rocking the cradle in which her infant daughter lay sleeping.
“I meant what I said, I do love you,” she told him. “I wish I’d said it before you went away, but I didn’t realize it until you were gone.”
“‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’?”
“Something like that.”
“Then I should have left sooner,” Raven teased. “There’s something I wish I’d told you too, and last summer.”
He suddenly looked so serious, Eden grew worried. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
Raven flashed a rakish grin. “Maybe. Just listen and then you can say.” Wanting to get the ordeal over with quickly, he plunged ahead. “I told you that I’d lived with Alex since I was a child, and that’s true, but there’s one important point I never explained.”
Eden plumped up her pillow to get more comfortable. “Well, why don’t you do it now?”
“That’s what I’m trying to do. Just hush. The first time I saw Alex, I was down at the docks in Kingston. There was a magnificent black horse tied up near the wagons being used to load provisions on his ship. I was standing there petting him when Alex walked up and asked me if I’d like to go for a ride. He was wearing the finest suit of clothes I’d ever seen, and I knew he had to be very rich. I told him I’d never ridden a horse but that I’d like to and he picked me up and put me into the saddle. Alex was twenty then, and I think I was eight.
“He led the horse up and down the docks and then offered to take me home so my mother could see me ride.” Raven paused for a moment, but he had rehearsed the story so often while he had been away, he could have finished it in his sleep. He kept his glance focused on the baby, though, rather than Eden.
“I told him that I didn’t have a mother and he asked with whom I lived. I said I swept out The Blue Parrot tavern and that the owner let me sleep in the back. Alex didn’t say anything until I got to that part. Then he told me he needed a cabin boy, and if I’d rather go to sea than sweep out taverns, he would be happy to hire me for the job. Of course I said I’d do it. He helped me off the horse then and we shook hands on the deal.
“He asked my name, and I said I didn’t have one and that he could call me whatever he liked the way everybody else did. He just laughed at that and told me he would give it some thought. The next day he bought me the first new clothes I’d ever owned and two days later we sailed for England. By the time we got there, Alex had decided to call me Raven Blade simply because he liked the sound of it.
“When he asked if I’d like to be his nephew, I thought it was a fine idea. So the first time I went to Briarcliff, that was the way I was introduced. When we returned home to Jamaica, everyone assumed I was a nephew who had been orphaned in England. Your father was the first person to ask me how a man with no brothers or sisters can have a nephew, but I didn’t explain.
“Alex thought it was a harmless ruse, one that benefitted us both when Eleanora died without giving him a son. When he died without telling you the truth, I didn’t dare reveal it either. I was so proud of the fact everyone mistook me for Alex’s kin that I didn’t want you to know I was just someone he’d picked up off the street.
“I wish I’d had the sense to be honest with you from the start because it hurt to have you constantly questioning my motives, when all I ever wanted was to win your love.”
Tears were now sliding down his face and Eden had to wipe away her own before she spoke. That he had once been a child without even a name to call his own explained so much about him. It was no wonder he grabbed for whatever he wanted the instant it came within his reach.
“Why did you marry me?” she asked softly.
Raven had not realized he was crying until his tears fell on the baby’s blanket. Horribly embarrassed, he pulled out his handkerchief and hurriedly dried his face. “Alex took me to London so I could find a wife. You were the only woman I wanted, but he had seen you first. I didn’t care what wild scheme had brought you to my bed. Once we’d slept together, I had a reason to force you to marry me and I did. It wasn’t to cheat your child out of a title. I’d never dreamed you would have a baby with Alex. It was simply you that I wanted.”
Eden was not even tempted to admit she had imagined him to be Alex the first few times they had been together and chose to talk about him instead. “Why do you think everyone has always believed that you’re Alex’s nephew?”
“You know what Alex was like. He was so charming he could have said day was night and everyone would have agreed with him.”
“No, that’s not it at all,” Eden argued. “I know you don’t like to look at yourself in the mirror but you really ought to study your reflection someday soon. I’m certain your parents loved you dearly, and I’d be willing to wager they had titles too.”
