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The older woman smiled. "Are you sure you dare leave with
me? Yes? Then let us go." Murmuring her thanks to their still speechless hostess, Lady Seagrave clasped Helena's arm and guided her firmly out of the room.
As if by agreement, neither spoke until they were seated in the carriage. "Thank you for your assistance, Lady Seagrave," Helena said. "If you would set me down at Darnell House, I should be most appreciative." She smiled sardonically. "I expect it would be prudent for me to begin packing at once."
"Don't you wish to know why I intervened?"
Helena shrugged and raked the woman with a scornful glance.
"Because it amused you?" she suggested.
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To her surprise, tears began to glimmer in the older woman's eyes. "Ah,.how like him you look—full of scorn and ready to defy the world! So like your father."
Helena stiffened. "I would thank you not to liken me to Lambarth, madame."
Lady Seagrave smiled through her tears. "Never would I do so, my dear! I meant your true father—my son Gavin."
"My true—! Helena gasped. For a moment, shock held her immobile. "Are you claiming that Gavin Seagrave is my father?"
she demanded at last.
Lady Seagrave nodded. "Indeed I am. "lis a rather long story.
Why don't you come home with me and let me tell it to you?"
Numb with astonishment and silenced by an incoherent jumble of disbelief, grief and curiosity, Helena allowed Lady Seagrave to conduct her to her North Audley Street town house and shepherd her up to her parlor.
When they were both settled, Lady Seagrave began, "From his earliest years, Gavin was wild—passionate, impulsive, ready to fight at the first perceived slight, just as quick to forgive. He'd wooed his share of ladies, but when he met your mother, they fell instantly and completely in love. From that moment Diana favored only Gavin, ignoring Vincent Lambarth, who had courted her for months. Though her family—your late grandparents—
thought Gavin too unsteady and refused his suit, she would have wed him anyway—if not for the duel."
Lady Seagrave sighed. "A trumped-up affair. To 324 THE UNTAMED HEIRESS
protect her actual lover, the married lady in question named Gavin as her paramour, expecting he would deny it and that her husband would let the matter drop. But once insulted, Gavin insisted on having satisfaction. They met, the husband died and Gavin had to flee England."
"So what makes you think he's my father?"
"Diana, as you could imagine, was heartbroken at Gavin's sudden departure. Then within the week, her family announced she was to marry Lambarth. Even at the time I thought the unseemly haste more than just an attempt to distance her from Gavin's disgrace, but being persona non grata to the Foresters, I was notper-mitted to see her. Even if I had, suspecting what I did, how could I urge her to refuse Lambarth and wait for Gavin, when neither of us knew where he was or when we might hear
from him again? By the time he did contact me, 'twas too late.
Diana had married Lambarth and gone with him to Cornwall."
"All you've told me are your own suspicions," Helena said flatly. "Have you any real proof?"
"Patience, my dear. After a few years, I heard there was a child. I kept hoping Lambarth would bring the family to London, but he never did. Then my son contacted me, saying he'd sent agents into Cornwall to check on your mother and learned she was grievously unhappy. He was determined to rescue her and her child, and take them back to the estate he'd settled in the Caribbean. As you know, that rescue was not entirely successful.
It wasn't until after his men brought the hysterical Diana to him that she told him
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the child she'd borne—the child they'd failed to free— was not Lambarth's daughter, but his."
"Mama told him that?" Helena demanded.
"Yes."
"You swear this is the truth?"
"I swear it."
"But..." Helena shook her head. "Mama wrote me letters—
many, many letters over the years. Not even when she knew she was dying did she inform me Lambarth was not my real father.
Why would she not, if it were true?"
"After their second rescue attempt failed, Diana and Gavin believed Lambarth when he vowed he would see you dead before he would relinquish you. Not daring to attempt another rescue, Gavin engaged the best lawyers in England to find some legal way for Diana to wrest you from Lambarth. But as his acknowledged daughter, legally they could do nothing. So Lambarth had his revenge, making them live knowing he held Diana's beloved child in his power."
"That still doesn't explain why Mama didn't tell me in one of her letters. Or why you are only now coming forward, when I have met you on several occasions."
"Since Lambarth refused to divorce Diana or release you, what point would there have been in telling you? Your parents' only hope was that you would survive until Lambarth was dead or incapacitated enough that you could be freed. Then, as either heiress of Lambarth's estate or in possession of the fortune Diana had amassed, you could claim a respected place in 326THE UNTAMED HEIRESS
Society. A place that would never be granted the illegitimate daughter of a man who'd fled England in disgrace.
"For the same reason," she continued, "I dared not show too much interest in you, for though in voice and profile you favor Diana, in coloring and stature you are all Gavin. The resemblance would be only too obvious had he not been absent from England for so many years. Even now, 'tis striking enough that some might recall the old scandal and remark upon it, were I to spend much time in your company. And so.. .1 watched from a distance, my heart breaking that Gavin was not here to see you. That I could not claim my only grandchild as my own."
Still not sure she believed it, Helena said wryly, "A grandchild who has caused a scandal nearly as great as the one created by the man you say is my father. Are you sure you want to acknowledge me?"
"Oh, my dear, selfish as it is of me, I rejoice in your scandal!
Were it not for Miss Standish's knavery, I should never have allowed myself to approach you. And if you wish to attempt a recover, I shall still let our relationship go unacknowledged. But I could not do so without, just this once, seizing the chance to let you know the truth. But here I'm rattling on, when I meant to show you this first."
Taking Helena's hand, she led her out of the parlor, down a hall and into a small, elegant sitting room. Gesturing to the portrait of a young man that hung over the mantel, she said, "Your father, Gavin Seagrave."
Helena felt her breath leave in a rush. But for the 327
gender of the subject, as she gazed at the man's snapping dark eyes, curly black hair, tall frame and arrogant tilt of chin, she might almost be looking in a mirror.
It all made sense—perfect, awful sense. Lambarth's rage, the beatings, his twisted desire to keep her a prisoner he seemed at once to both want and despise.
She turned to Lady Seagrave. "Did Lambarth know?"
"Though he, too, was dark-haired and dark-eyed, he must at least have suspected. Did...did he treat you badly?"
Badly. The small word did not begin to encompass what the man she'd called father had done to her. Curling her damaged hand into its glove, she said simply, "Yes."
Lady Seagrave closed her eyes, as if receiving a blow. "My dear child, I am so sorry. 'Twas your mother's darkest torment, to think of you all alone at Lambarth's mercy. Forgive me! If I had insisted on seeing Diana before she married him, perhaps I could have somehow prevented it."
Vowing to conceal what she had suffered, Helena took Lady Seagrave's hand. "With only suspicions, you could have done nothing. Nor should you reproach yourself now."
Lady Seagrave smiled tremulously. "Thank you, my dear.
Knowing the truth, you still have a choice. For all her flightiness, Lillian Darnell is a clever lady. If you wish it, I'm sure she can figure out a way to salvage your reputation. It might be best to maintain the fiction that I am simply an acquaintance who, having weath-328 THE UNTAMED HEIRESS
ered scandal before, felt sympathy for you tonight. It will be enough for me that you know you are my grandchild."
"I have no intention of letting Aunt Lillian risk any more of her social standing trying to redeem me. I shall leave Darnell House tomorrow as soon as I can pack my things. And if.. .if you will have me, I should like to stay with you until I decide what to do next."
"Are you certain?" When Helena nodded, tears brimmed once again in the older woman's eyes. "Nothing would give me greater pleasure. Why not send a note to Darnell House telling them you
will stay the night? Oh, I have so much to tell you!"
Coming groggily awake the next morning in a strange room, it took Helena a few moments to remember where she was. She'd managed only a few hours of sleep after sitting up nearly until dawn listening to Lady Seagrave describe everything she knew of the love between Diana and Gavin, their reunion after Gavin's rescue and their life together.
Her parents had wed under local Caribbean law, but to their grief had no more children. Having amassing wealth as a privateer, Gavin settled down after their marriage to become a successful shipper of rum and sugar. Tapping his network of trading partners and some less respectable contacts from his days on the high seas, he had watched and waited for the day the daughter he dare not acknowledge could be freed.
