Page 45 of Lady of Fortune
Julia turned to see what had halted his words — not that she wanted to answer them — and she was stunned by the hard look that had crossed over his face.
“Eddie? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he said brusquely.
“I rather think you are not,” she said, unwilling to allow him to simply brush her off.
“I said it’s fine,” he repeated, and Julia didn’t think she had ever seen such a surely expression on him.
She crossed her arms over her chest, looked around to make sure they were hidden enough in the shadows so as not to attract any attention, and then turned her full gaze upon him.
“Look, Eddie, it is clear you have some sort of… disdain for the nobility. I can understand it to an extent, looking at it from your point of view. Why should certain people be born entitled to wealth and social status, while others are not? I have no idea. I wish I could answer that question for you. And yet I know many who arenotof a noble station who are not quite as angry towards us all. I know you have been treated well in the past by my father, you ride for Lord Torrington and have for many other lords, and you have always been exceptionally lovely to me, even before you came to know me well. You are also typically one of the happiest men I have ever met. So why,whydoes your countenance change so suddenly from time to time? What makes your smile fade so quickly?”
He looked down for a moment, as though unsure of how — or if — he was going to answer her question, but then finally his eyes hardened, and he turned and jutted his chin out, pointing across the room.
“Do you see that man over there?” he asked her, and she tried to follow to where his stare led.
“Who? Lord Dorchester?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“He’s friends with my father, I believe. They’ve known one another for some time, what with both of them spending so much time in Newmarket. Has he done something to upset you in the past?”
She looked at him quizzically, though instead of returning her gaze, he continued to stare across the room.
Finally he turned his eyes to hers, the gold flecks within his seeming to burn.
“He’s my father.”
* * *
What had ever possessedhim to tell her that? Eddie had never breathed a word of his birth father’s identity to anyone, and now he suddenly decided to tell a woman something that could change everything.
“Your father?” she breathed. “It cannot be. Your father is Adam Francis. He worked in our stables. You learned from him. He helped me mount and ride my first horse. He was a wonderful man. Lord Dorchester…”
Her words trailed off as he slowly shook his head at her. He shouldn’t have said anything. Julia was all that was good in this world. She saw the best in everyone, had the most positive outlook on life. Even sharing with her the remainder of the story seemed cruel in some sense. But he had started down this path and now he must finish it.
“Adam Francis raised me, it is true. He was a good man — as good as they come, I would say. I loved him as my father and thought he trulywasmy father for the first part of my life. And then when it was time for me to begin working myself, to go out into the world, he and my mother told me the truth. She had been young, a maid at the time in the home of the former Lord Dorchester. My mother was beautiful in her youth, and she caught the attention of the Lord’s son. My mother said he was an attractive man himself at the time, and when he began flirting with her, paying her special attention, she was flattered, though she never thought anything of it. She was just a maid, after all, while he would become Viscount one day.”
He paused for a moment, looking at Julia, who stared at him with rapt attention. The sounds of the room behind them seemed to have disappeared, leaving just the two of them alone in this small alcove.
“Go on,” she whispered.
“He told her everything she wanted to hear,” he said simply. “That he loved her, that no matter what the difference in their stations, he would have her, would fight his family for her. In her naivety, she believed him, and she gave him… her innocence. When she found out she was with child, she told him of it, and what did he do?”
“I would like to think he did the honorable thing, but I know that is not the end of this story.”
“No, it certainly is not,” he said gruffly. “He denied any knowledge of how the baby came to be, said she had fabricated it all in a ridiculous attempt to capture herself a lord. She was not only left alone with a child on the way, but she was turned away from her position onto the street, with nary a thing to her name.”
Eddie couldn’t miss the sheen of tears than now covered Julia’s cornflower blue eyes, and she bit her lip, seemingly in an effort to control her emotions.
“That’s truly awful, Eddie,” she said, her voice wavering, and he nodded, appreciating her concern.
“Yes, it is,” he said with a sigh. “But in the end, it turned out well for my mother. For that very day, as she wandered the streets of London with not a penny to her name nor a thought of where to go, Adam Francis nearly ran over her. He was a driver for your father, who had recently become the Earl. He rushed over to make sure she was all right, and, from what he told me, fell in love with her instantly. Even knowing she was pregnant with someone else’s child wasn’t enough to drive him away. He loved her too much. Your father was kind enough to offer her a position in the household.”
Julia slipped a gloved hand into his.
“I’m glad to hear the story had a happy ending,” she said with a small smile. “I remember your father. Adam Francis — who, honestly Eddie, is truly your father. He raised you, he loved you, he gave you his name. How could you ever think otherwise?”
