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“Oh, um, let me think.”She sat up.Her eyes were puffy, her hair in disarray and upon her face, a dent, from sleeping against his coat lapel.“It would be Edmond and Cyril’s father’s brother.Their uncle.Bertrand was his name.Bertrand Elliston.”
“An older man then?”
“Yes.I only met him once.He lives in India.Military then the East India Company.Why?”
“Just curious.Cyril was in India, too?”
“Until earlier this year.”
“He will probably marry soon, I would imagine.Secure his heir.”
“Best wishes to the poor girl, whoever she might be.”
“Did Cyril have any interest in marrying you?”
“Why would you ask such a thing?Cyril is a vile human.”Rose looked away.
“I ask because you are a beautiful woman who already knew the position of duchess.Your children are the daughters of a duke.Along with being a vile human, he would also have to be an idiot not to consider you for a wife.”
She sighed.“He considered it.Then he reconsidered it.”
“So, he asked you to be his wife?Rose, if you were pregnant, why didn’t you say yes?The known had to be better than the risk of marrying an unknown man, such as me.”
“I wasn’t with child when he asked me.And it wasn’t worth the risk.”
“Is that why he reconsidered?He found out you were pregnant?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why?It seems important for some reason.”
She hesitated.“I don’t like this conversation, Matthew.Sandhurst is out of my life forever.What he does no longer affects us.”
Us?Matthew didn’t like where the conversation was going either, but then he knew where most things led.
“Rose, you asked me never to ask, but I think I must.Who is the father of your child?Did Sandhurst know you had a lover?Was that his objection?”
She refused to speak, and she refused to look at him, turning her gaze out the small carriage window.Matthew could normally puzzle things out.The gentle rocking of the carriage and Rose’s withdrawal gave him plenty of time to do so.Oh, shit!
“Did he rape you?Rose?”
“No!”She gritted her teeth, daring him to ask another question.She squinted, as if she were ready to challenge him and his thoughts.
“He did something.Oh, Christ!He’s the father of your child, isn’t he?”
When she turned to look at him, tears had filled her eyes then poured down her face.She pressed her lips together, unwilling to admit what was staring Matthew in the face the entire time.
“Cyril proposed to me, and I accepted.Don’t be shocked.Do you know how little time a duke and his duchess spend together?It would have been the same with Cyril.An amount of time I could bear.He suggested I come to his bed the night before we were to announce our betrothal.He wanted me toencouragehim in any way I knew how.That’s what he said.Encourage.I did.I wasn’t particularly nervous about such a thing.I was no virgin.Dukes were supposed to be men of honor.We were to announce the banns and be married in three weeks’ time.”
Matthew felt hate well up in him like he hadn’t experienced since he discovered what his father had done to his mother.
Her voice caught.“The next morning...the next morning he called me to his library.He said he could never be serious about marrying a whore.He just wanted to know if everything Edmond had told him about my enthusiasm for the sex act were true.”Tears gushed again.“Edmondtoldhim.Lord, I had never felt such humiliation.Something so private, something I was already ashamed of admitting to myself, let alone a husband.And here I am telling you, a man who couldn’t possibly understand.I would have done, and will do, anything to prevent him from ever finding out the real truth about the child.”
“Including marrying a laborer?A merchant?”
“Including marrying you.Do you know how much I had to hate him, knowing there was a possibility I could bear a son?That with just a few words before a minister, I could deliver a son and heir to Sandhurst?”
She didn’t have to say that the coupling resulted in a pregnancy.He took her hand and returned to his contemplation.“Being a bastard myself, I think I do understand.Given the opportunity, I will kill him for such a dishonor.”
