Page 67 of Lord of Fortune
“She was ill, just as she told you, and she died a few months after you came to live with me, which I also told you.”
“So that much was true.”
“Yes.”
“And when did she take me away from Stratton?”
“You weren’t even born. Stratton was a terrible man. She didn’t want him raising you, and she was right to keep you from him. You’ve seen what he’s done to Gideon.”
Hell, Gideon. Penn’shalf brother. As angry as Penn was, how would Gideon react? He’d suffered his father and his mother’s abandonment, and now his birthright had been stripped away. Not only that, but if his mother hadn’t actually been married to his father, he wasillegitimate. Penn turned his head to glower at his father. “Why was I spared Stratton’s parentage and Gideon was not? You protected me and not him. And you’re still doing it. Exposing this secret doesn’t just make me the earl, it makes Gideon a bastard.”
Father paled as he opened his mouth, then closed it again, his jaw working. “I…tried. I tried to include him in our family as best I could, but you must know there was no way on earth Stratton would let anyone take his son from him. Why do you think your mother—the woman who gave birth to you—ran? She knew it was her only chance to keep you from him. So she faked her death with the help of her parents and the vicar of their church, and that vicar ensured your birth was recorded and hidden.”
“To be uncovered at the appropriate time.” Penn swore under his breath before turning his body toward his father and crossing his arms over his chest. “Why does this vicar need to come forward? Why not let Gideon be the earl? He’s been raised to the title. I have not, nor do I want it. What of my position at Oxford? I have alife, Father.”
His father came around the table then, and Penn dropped his arms, ready to flee if necessary. “I know you do!” Emotion ripped across his father’s features, and tears welled in his eyes. “But there is nothing to be done. The vicar made a promise to Eleanor Kersey and to her parents that you would be the earl.”
Why hadn’t his grandparents taken him in? He feared he knew the answer. “Are my grandparents still alive?”
Father shook his head. “I’m sorry. They died before you came to live with me.”
He’d expected that, but also realized that even if they hadn’t, his mother might not have given him over to them. If she had, Stratton might have found him. “I never met them. At least not that I can remember.”
“Eleanor broke with everyone from her life after you were born. I imagine it was painful for her and for your grandparents.”
“Youimagine?” Penn asked.
“She didn’t reveal too much when she came to ask me to care for you.”
“Enough to persuade you to take me in.”
A bittersweet smile curled his father’s lips. “It wasn’t difficult. At the time, I had no marital prospects, and the idea of a son appealed to me.”
Because of the close relationship he’d shared with his father. Penn had heard of him so much that he sometimes felt as if he’d known his foster grandfather.
“Penn, being the earl isn’t all bad. You’ll be free to do whatever you choose—Stratton was a very wealthy man.”
“Free?” A hollow ache started in Penn’s chest. “What of my responsibilities to the title, to the estate, to the tenants, to my seat in the Lords? All that will take time away from my occupation, mypassion.” The word brought Amelia to his mind, where she lingered for a moment and took some of the sting away. “I’ll be anything but free.”
His father’s forehead creased into deep furrows. “There will be a way to manage it all. I know there is.”
“Because you have so much experience being an earl?” Penn asked, not caring if he sounded cruel.
“No, because I know you, and I’ve no doubt you’ll excel in this as you do in everything.” His father’s gaze was full of admiration and pride.
Penn allowed a soft grunt to push past his lips. He didn’t want his father’s pride right now. And he sure as hell didn’t want this nuisance. He was supposed to be hunting the White Book of Hergest and the real Heart of Llanllwch. “I came here on a mission,” he said with more than a bit of irritation. “Not to be an earl.”
“And no one will interrupt that. When Gideon arrives—”
Penn cut him off. “He’ll be devastated. And furious. I can’t imagine he’ll stay to help me get the book, and I wouldn’t blame him.”
His father flinched. “We’ll work it out. Penn, I’m so sorry for this. Even if I’d told you before, it wouldn’t change things. You are who you are. You’re still Penn, as well as William Kersey, Earl of Stratton.”
Again, the name and title grated, like the edge of a blade scoring his flesh. “Maybe if you’d told me sooner, I could’ve learned to be.” If he’d known he was to inherit a title, he would’ve done things differently. He wouldn’t be working for the Ashmolean, and he wouldn’t be chasing antiquities.
Was that true?
Penn thought back to the first Roman coins he’d found as a young boy. He’d been six years old, living in a town near the Welsh border. Digging in the yard of the small cottage where they’d been staying, he’d found five coins, which he’d later identified as Roman with the help of a man in the next place they’d lived. That man had given Penn a few other coins and shared with him his own meager antiquities collection—some pottery, more coins, and a spectacular bronze dagger that Penn had coveted.
A spark for discovery and knowledge was kindled that day, and so when Fate delivered him to an academic with a passion for medieval manuscripts, Penn had felt a connection. Losing his mother had been excruciating, but he’d thought he’d found a place where he belonged. A place where he could be the man he wanted to be and lead the life he craved.
He was fooling himself if he thought he could’ve changed who he was meant to be. He was an antiquary. A scholar. An adventurer. A protector of history. He lifted his gaze to his father. “You’re right about that—I am who I am. I am not an earl. And I’ll be damned if I let Gideon be a bastard.”
Penn turned and left the kitchen without getting anything to eat. His mind was far too heavy with plans for what to do next.
