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‘Why the sudden wish to marry? I’ve no claim upon you that would make such a personal matter my business, but you are my tenant, a condition which would certainly be altered by your marriage. Besides, I seem to recall when we discussed wedlock, you declared yourself firmly against it, saying something like “only desperation would drive you to it”? Have you just lost your fortune on the ’Change? Do you need me to spot you a loan to secure the school?’
She smiled a little, but her eyes had gone bleak.
‘No, my fortune is intact.’ She dropped his arm and took a step away, then halted, looking back at him. ‘I was going to try to fob you off with some plausible excuse, but I’m a terrible liar. You already know some of the worst about me, so I might as well tell you the rest.’
‘I would very much like to know why you’ve had such a radical change of heart. There’s always been honesty between us, which I prize, just as I admire your frankness and ability to face facts as they are, free of wishful imagining. And I think it goes without saying that whatever you tell me will be held in strictest confidence.’
‘Only one thing I must insist on before I tell you,’ she said, her expression almost...defensive. ‘I believe you’ve developed a fondness for the school and the children. Despite what you may think of me, will you pledge to help safeguard them?’
‘Nothing you reveal could alter my regard and admiration—but if you insist, yes, you have my promise.’
‘Very well,’ she said, and took a deep breath. ‘You remember Audley Tremaine, who visited me at the school?’
Distaste and irritation stirred. ‘The man you wouldn’t let me pummel. How could I forget?’
‘After I refused his...disreputable offer, he threatened to reveal something he’d just discovered. I tried to mask my concern by asserting no one ever believed what he said. Well, I was wrong.’
She looked suddenly weary and heartsick. Dom had the strongest urge to wrap his arm around her and enfold her against his chest. Resisting it, he said, ‘What had he discovered?’
‘Tremaine was acquainted with Lord Everly and his wife, Alicia, and knew them both to be dark-haired and dark-eyed. That day at the school, he got a close look at Charles, who is, obviously, blond and green-eyed. As was my fiancé, Marshall. Putting two and two together, Tremaine concluded that Charles wasn’t Lord Everly’s son, he was Marshall’s. And mine. He must have gone straight from Suffolk to Viscount Hazlett’s estate, for the day you left for Newmarket, I had an unexpected visitor. Lady Hazlett arrived, wanting to meet Charles. And telling me she intended to take him away with her.’
Dom felt like he’d just been dealt a roundhouse blow to the chest. ‘Charles is...your son?’
Miss Branwell lifted her chin and turned back to face him squarely. ‘Yes. I had made it known that Alicia became too ill to finish the journey to Lisbon, so we had to stay at the convent until the birth of her child. But I was ill, too, having only just discovered I was increasing when I got the news that Marshall had been killed. We both gave birth there. Her child died; mine survived. When I brought Charles back with me, intending to confess my shame, Everly’s commander assumed the infant was Everly’s. Seeing a way to keep Charles from being branded a bastard, I didn’t correct him.’
Dom shook his head, still trying to wrap his mind around the astounding fact. ‘No one else knew, or suspected? Not even your father?’
‘Constancia knew, of course. Widowed by the war, she’d taken shelter at the convent with an ailing child who later died. She agreed to accompany me as Charles’s nurse. But no one else knew.’
She paced away from the house, away from him, down the small allée of trees. As he followed, the full horror of the situation she’d found herself in slowly registered: her fiancé dying...finding herself unwed...increasing...the prospect of the shame, scandal, and the inevitable banishment from polite society she would endure once the truth became known. The child of the man she loved branded a bastard for ever—and nothing she could do to prevent it.
Heaven have mercy, how alone and frightened and desperate she must have been!
Reaching the back garden wall, unable to go further, Miss Branwell halted. Turning to him, anguish in her eyes, she said, ‘I wish now that I had followed the dictates of conscience and revealed Charles’s true parentage from the first. Papa would have been shamed and embarrassed, but he was a soldier, and had faced worse. Forfeiting his respect and good opinion would have been terribly painful, but my conduct deserved his disdain. Now, unless I take some immediate remedy to prevent it, my irresponsible behaviour threatens me not just with the loss of my son, but the possibility of incurring such censure I might have to close the school, or risk making it impossible for my orphans to find respectable positions when they leave it. Ruining a number of lives, instead of just two. Only one remedy can prevent all that. Marriage.’
Dom tried to quell the thousand questions running through his head and concentrate only on the important one. ‘Why is marriage the remedy?’
‘I induced Lady Hazlett to agree that, if I wed a man of substance who can provide the same social advantages for Charles the viscount would—a man of discernment to model himself after, one with the proper connections to introduce Charles at university, in his clubs, and those masculine domains necessary to a gentleman’s life—she would allow me keep Charles and uphold the lie that he is Everly’s. If the Hazletts support the story of Charles’s parentage I have always put forth, Tremaine’s version won’t be given any credence.’
‘What of Lord Everly’s father, the Marquess? What if he should change his mind and decide to recognise the boy?’
‘Lady Hazlett thinks it unlikely. As do I, at this late date. The Marquess has an heir, several other sons and a number of grandchildren. Lady Hazlett’s are the only conditions that matter. And so I must marry. I cannot lose Charles. ‘
Dom stood silent for a long moment, mulling over what she’d told him. Though Jemmie’s alarm had been sincere, he’d discounted the boy’s account as over-dramatic, thinking there was probably some more rational explanation for Theo’s sudden departure.
But analysing the dilemma after knowing the truth, he had to admit he could not come up with any better remedy than an immediate marriage. ‘With the grandparents insisting the boy must be raised as a gentleman by a gentleman, there doesn’t appear to be any alternative.’
Then he girded himself to ask the only other question that had bedevilled him on the long journey to London. ‘Had you someone in mind to marry when you left for London?’
‘No. I’m trusting Aunt Amelia to help me find someone suitable. I’ll take any gentleman who will accept Charles, serve as his mentor and keep our secret. Most likely some widower needing a new mother for his brood, or an older man wanting a nursemaid.’
Huge relief filled Dom. So there was no secret admirer waiting in the wings; he could take centre stage himself. ‘Someone who seeks only a governess or a nurse? You’d be bored and miserable within six months.’
‘What I feel doesn’t matter, as long as I can have Charles and keep the school safe. Which brings me to that favour I mentioned. Even if Aunt Amelia works her miracle and finds a gentleman who’ll accept me, it’s quite possible he will not allow me to continue running the school. If that happens, would you watch over it for me until I can make other arrangements?’
She gazed imploringly up at him, looking taut as an overstrung bow ready to snap. Incorrectly interpreting his continued silence as disapproval, she continued. ‘Think what it would mean if you were threatened with losing one of your cousins—like Will, who nursed you for months after you were wounded. Wouldn’t you do whatever you had to, in order to prevent that? What is boredom and dissatisfaction compared to losing someone so dear to you?’
She was trembling, tears hovering in corners of her eyes. ‘Please?’ she added in a whisper.
No longer able to restrain himself, Dom took her hand and kissed it, the decision already made somewhere on the road to London. ‘I can do that, and more. Why not marry me? My family and connections pass muster, you can keep Charles and manage the school. You won’t be bored, and—’ he ran a finger over her lips ‘—I can guarantee you won’t be miserable. In fact, I think I can quite confidently promise...delight.’
‘Oh, Dom,’ she whispered, a few tears spilling over to slip down her cheek. To his joy and relief, she closed her eyes and leaned into him. He pulled her against him, wrapping her in his warmth and strength, cradling her as he breathed in her delicate violet scent.
Just as he was about to tell her not to worry, he would always be there to take care of her, she gave a little gasp and pushed him away.
‘Oh, no, I couldn’t marry you!’
