Page 53 of Her Tiger of a Duke
He remained silent for a moment, and Beatrice willed him to say something. Even if it was that he felt immense shame that she could be illegitimate, it would be something more than the dreadful silence in the air.
“For a start,” he said after a moment, “that man shall never enter this household. I forbid it.”
“But he is my… well, supposedly, he is my father.”
“And no father should ever treat his daughter that way. I do not care whether it is by blood or not, he chose to be your father and should have acted as such. You are not to blame for him being awful.”
“And my mother?”
“Do you blame her?”
“I– I do not know. I prefer to believe that he is not my father, but then that leaves me questioning my mother.”
“Do you want to see her?”
“I do. I have so many questions, and she is the only one who can answer them, as long as she does so truthfully.”
“Very well. She may come to see you, but your father will never, under any circumstances, darken our doorway. Do you understand?”
It should have destroyed her to know that her father was not welcome in her home, but it only made her feel better about everything. Her husband had chosen where his loyalty lay, and they were with her. When he wanted to speak with her, she had hoped that it was so that he could tell her he was feeling differently about her, so she could tell him that in spite of how hard she tried she was falling for him.
Instead, he had told her nothing of the sort, yet she was left wanting him even more.
“We ought to continue entertaining our guests,” she whispered. “They are enjoying drinks and cards now, but if we are away too long, they shall wonder where we are.”
“Let them think on it,” he smiled, standing and offering her his arm regardless. “Besides, Dorothy knows that I intended to speak to you about all of this.”
“I cannot imagine what they will think of me,” she sighed. “I can hardly believe that you are as unfazed by it as you are.”
“Why would I see you any differently? You remain Beatrice, my wife, and you are still a beautiful person, one who I am very fortunate to have as company for the rest of my life.”
It was not the confession she had been hoping for, but it was somehow even better than that.
CHAPTER 22
Owen was not a hateful man.
He liked to think that he was very agreeable, and difficult to anger. When he heard his wife’s story about her childhood, however, he felt for the first time in years the wave of fury that he had always sworn to suppress.
He did not care about Beatrice’s parentage. He did not care if she was the daughter of Lord Jennings or Lord Smythe or Mister Greene. All that mattered to him was that she was a good wife, and she far surpassed such an expectation.
They were eating breakfast, the ladies having been told the truth about it all, or at least what Beatrice knew, and as expected they did not care very much either. She was the same lady they had known for years, and that was all that they cared about. Owen was pleased beyond belief that his wife had such excellent support.
“They may come again when they like,” he told her gently as they boarded their carriages to leave. “I have enjoyed their presence.”
“As have I. I cannot believe that I assumed the worst of them.”
“How so?”
“Well, with all that has happened in the last few years, I thought we had grown apart. They had their husbands and their children, and until very recently I remained unmarried. They have all been wanting me to find a husband for a long time, but I could not do it, as you know. I thought that they would turn away from me eventually, but I was wrong. We are as close as ever.”
“That is all I wanted to hear. Now, I did not want you to be too nervous, and with all that we discussed last night I thought it best to tell you now, but there is a ball to be held tomorrow night, and I accepted the invitation on our behalf.”
She turned her head to one side, looking up at him curiously.
“Why did you not ask me?”
“I thought you might find a reason not to attend, what with the rumor. I do not want you to feel as though you cannot enjoy yourself because of some ridiculous scandal, and so I decided we would attend. Nobody will say a word to you when I am there, Beatrice.”
