Page 58 of Bad Duke

“I didn’t want you to know. Ever,” he tells me when he eventually looks back up.

“Don’t put this on me.” Beatrice points her finger at him.

“Well, you were the one that had to show up,” he accuses her, running his fingers through his hair.

“I was going to be broke, Will. I’d have had nothing.”

“Stop!” I yell at them both when none of their bickering gets me any answers.

“Beatrice is my sister too.” Will slides his hand over his face looking guilty.

“What? No. She can’t be. Not unless your?—”

“I’m not your daddy's son if that's where your head’s going,” he stops me.

“Well, then I can’t be…”

“You took that sibling test and the results were correct, we are siblings.” Beatrice steps closer and takes my hand. “We share the same mother and Will and I share the same dad.” I take a huge pace back when I hear what she says, then go over it a couple of times in my head while I consider what that means.

“No, that can’t be. My mum and your dad…” I look back at my best friend. Who nods to confirm it.

“I knew about it, even when we were kids. I caught ‘em at it once.” He keeps his head down as he takes a seat at the table and I flop into a chair myself feeling all the anger I came in here with drain from my body.

“They were at it for years. Dad really did love her. He was always making her little gifts and leaving ‘em around the woods so she’d find them. He told me we were all going to run away together one day, and that me and you would be brothers.”

“You never told me,” I manage to whisper, trying to figure out how I never saw this for myself.

“I couldn’t, your mum kept promising Dad that she was going to leave Theodore, but she never did. He’d have to look at what your father did to her and she wouldn’t let him do anything about it.” I grip my hands together on the table when I remember how badly he used to beat her. I always figured she had no other option. Jack was a good man, and not the kind I could imagine standing by and watching another man hurt the woman he loved.

“So, what happened?” I look to Will for more answers.

“I happened.” Beatrice picks her time to step in. “My auntie Reena told me that Mum got pregnant, and she knew your father would know I wasn’t his.”

“Dad begged her to keep the baby, he just had to get some money saved up, and a job in place so we could all leave. Years ago he’d given her this antique ring that was his grandmother’s. It was the only thing of any value he owned. He wouldn’t let her sell it though. He told me that once we were away from her that ring would be the only fine thing she’d ever have. Life was going to be tough but he was in love with her, and we were going to be a family.” I stare at my best friend wondering how he’s kept this all to himself. “He told me to pack a bag and be ready to leave anytime, that bag was packed for months under my bed. Then one day, he came to me and told me I was gonna be a big brother.” Will looks at Beatrice and smiles at her fondly. There's a familiarity there, a bond that shows me they’ve known about each other for a while.

“But she didn’t leave with him. He….”

“Died from the stroke he had, that drowned him down at the stream.” Will shakes his and laughs bitterly. “Do you believe that, now?”

“Hang on, are you saying you think my dad found out and killed him?” I check. I was in the woods the day they found Jack's body. It was one of the worst of my life.

“I think it’s a coincidence that his wife was pregnant with another man’s child and that man ended up dead.” Will shrugs and I stroke my hand over my forehead when I feel my head start to pound

“But you…” I look at my sister and suddenly I see it. She has the same nose and eyes as Mum did. “I’d have remembered if Mum was pregnant.” I can’t piece any of this together.

“She left here a few days after my dad’s funeral. Reena said she suspected Theodore had found out about them and was scared of being next, plus she was starting to show.”

“I remember the day she left.” The little boy in me feels that pain and sadness, all over again. “My dad wouldn’t let her take me and she was beaten so badly. I told her to leave. I told her I could be brave…But she killed herself. Three weeks later.”

I can be sure of that because I wracked my brain wondering if it was something I said to her that made her do it. Did she think I wanted her to go and leave me because I didn’t? I was scared as hell of her being hurt again. I wanted to beg her to stay but I knew if she did her life would never change.

“She would have had to be more than almost showing when she left here,” I point out when I figure Will and Beatrice’s timeline doesn’t match. That’s when I notice that look exchange between them again, and I get the feeling there’s more.

“Your mum didn’t go to Ireland like she told you she did, she went to live with dad’s sister, Auntie Reena,” Will tells me. “She tried to get me to go with her but I’d never met the woman and I wanted to stay here with you. I’ve got Mrs Draper to thank for the fact I did.”

I smile at him when I remember Barnaby's wife. She used to be our cook, and I can remember her and Barnaby agreeing to be responsible for Will if Dad let him stay.

“She was living with them when she gave birth to me, five months later.” Beatrice pulls a picture from her wallet and shows it to me. I see Mum sitting on some bright-coloured sofa, holding a baby in her arms with a big wide grin on her face.

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