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“Who are you?Really?It is no coincidence that you would seduce a mere girl, get her with child, then disappear.It is no coincidence that you didn’t want me at your fine ball.What else do I need to know?”
She still couldn’t see it, even though she’d married his half-brother.Hairstyles and age and simple disbelief explained most of it.
It was by the cruelest design that he’d seduced her.He would admit it to anyone who asked, but who actually knew, aside from Esther?No one would believe the sort of cunning and guile he’d employed when he found out his half-brother was to marry.
Matthew had always believed the title had been stolen from him.From a young age he’d plotted to get it back.He’d plotted because he was foolish enough to believe hecouldget it back.
At first, he thought he could buy it.Then he wondered how he could steal it.Later, he realized death wouldn’t gift it to him either.
But there was one other way to get the title back and that was to have a son by the woman who would marry Welliver, Matthew’s haf-brother.The idea was conceived in malice.The seduction was completed in deceit and the abandonment of her was done with cruelty.
And what if there was a daughter instead of a son?All for naught.
Except it had worked as he’d planned.Esther married Welliver and carried Matthew’s son, giving birth to a healthy child named William.Matthew thought of the boy on occasion.But it wasn’t a luxury he could fully enjoy.
The satisfaction came from knowing his son would be the duke, if time and chance continued to cooperate.The line would be righted.
Nothing he was proud of now.He was even angry with himself for being put to the carpet by her accusations.She had every right, but inside he still raged at the brutalities of his youth.A son hadn’t relieved any of Matthew’s past resentments.
Matthew’s mother was a beautiful and vivacious woman who’d had to prostitute herself for some slight advantages and with men who were a different kind of cruel.It was never fair, but it added to the bitter brew he drank.And as a young man, Matthew had all of her handsomeness and charm to lend to his endeavors, including the seduction of Esther Pennington, Tetbury’s oldest daughter.
“Your Grace, return to the ball.There is nothing about the past that can be changed.You have what you wanted, and I have what I wanted.”A son who would be the Duke of Welliver.
“Do I?When I look around at all this finery and this life, I wonder what I should have had.I will find out who you are and why you’ve done this.”
Good Lord!She’d married the Duke of Welliver, albeit carrying Matthew’s son to the altar, but she had a life such as his with all the glory and power and place without all the grime, labor and sacrifice.
“There is no need for dramatics.Please tell your husband I will be to see him in a week’s time.”
“You would tell him?”
“Tell him what?About a son who isn’t mine?And if he were, would I dare sully his name?”
The title was stolen from his son and his son’s son as much as it was stolen from Matthew.He could at least correct the lineage.And he would never admit that William was his, unless William himself asked.
He was vindictive, he knew.It was a part of him that he could not shed.When it took root, he’d watered and pruned the vine.But with each action, an accompanying guilt followed.It was the driving reason he acted so gallantly with the poor and downtrodden now.
That streak was why he leveraged his lending to force lords like Easterling to do his bidding with a ball invitation to Crestview.Why he spied on nobles who were in debt and from whom he could easily swipe new assets.
It was why he thought he had the right to buy the woman he wanted for a wife.
All his businesses.All those things he bought and sold.He’d never cared about most of them, only what it could mean for his future.Only that it could get him the next thing he wanted, including righting the Welliver line for his sons.
And then there was Rose.
“No one knows, Esther.There is no reason to ever share that information with anyone.It will serve no one.”
“But if you thought it could help you, I think you would tell the world.”
“Imagine doing that.No, I mean really think about it.Aside from society’s derision, what would you earn?Your husband’s contempt?Mockery for your son?”
“I was a young girl.I professed my love and you just disappeared after I told you.”
“Go downstairs, Your Grace.Enjoy life as you have experienced since your come out.Pretend it never happened.”He walked toward the bedroom door and opened it.
She pressed a kerchief to her nose, then dabbed at her eyes.“I pray to God my son is never as cruel as you are.”
“In that we can agree,” Matthew said.
