Page 89 of Beyond Scandal and Desire
He considered the pride with which Aslyn would walk beside him, knowing from whence he’d sprung and knowing how far he’d had to climb.
He might even discover who had given birth to him. He wanted to know about the woman who had brought him into the world and then allowed Hedley to cart him away. Had she been a longtime mistress? A lover for only a single night? Was she some servant he’d taken advantage of? Was she still alive? Did she ever think about him?
“The man was a wreck,” Aiden said, interrupting his satisfying musings, “sobbing like a babe in need of a tit, when he realized his wager hadn’t paid off and he wasn’t getting that property back.”
“He wagered it?”
“He was desperate to win that final hand at all costs. I had to do some negotiating with the fellow who did. You owe me five hundred quid.”
Five hundred? This property’s annual income was worth ten times that. He’d hoped for it but never truly believed Kipwick would be desperate enough or stupid enough to give it up.
“This is the last piece,” Aiden said. “You can destroy Hedley now if he doesn’t acknowledge you.”
“Why would Hedley acknowledge you?”
At the soft voice, the voice that only minutes ago had been screaming out his name in rapture, Mick squeezed his eyes shut. Damnation. Spinning around he faced her. She stood in the opening to the hallway, as beautiful as always, his dressing gown drawn protectively about her.
“Why?” she repeated insistently. “Why would he acknowledge you and as what precisely?”
He hadn’t meant for her to find out like this, had wanted to prepare her gently, once he had the promise of the duke’s acknowledgment.
“I’m his bastard.”
Chapter 19
It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t.
The words spun through her mind like a child’s wooden top, only she would be the one to topple over when everything came to a stop.
Mick was the duke’s bastard? Certainly she’d had a passing thought there was some resemblance, but dark hair and blue eyes were not all that uncommon. The ramifications that the duke had been unfaithful to the duchess sickened her, caused her stomach to roil but not nearly as much as the realization that she knew as little about the man with whom she’d fallen in love as she’d known about Kip when she’d accepted his offer of marriage. Had she learned nothing from that disastrous affair?
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded. During all the moments when they were together, surely there had been one when he could have told her who he was.
“Because I couldn’t be certain you’d choose me over him.”
She slid her gaze over to the brother, the one who had burst in so jolly pleased that he now held the deed to Loudon Green. Kip’s heritage. It wasn’t part of the entailed properties, but the beautiful estate in Yorkshire had been in the family for at least two generations. She’d always preferred it to the ducal seat, had even imagined she would eventually make her home there when she’d thought she’d marry Kip. She cut her gaze back to Mick. “You took him to your brother’s club.”
“Yes.”
“Knew he gambled to distraction.”
“Yes. I needed him far into debt. I needed the properties. I need the threat of ruining him to convince Hedley to acknowledge me as his son.”
“Meeting at Cremorne wasn’t happenstance.”
“No.”
At least he was admitting—
Her thoughts slammed to a halt; her stomach was on the verge of heaving. “Am I part of your revenge or whatever the deuce it is you think you’re doing here?”
He didn’t look away from her, but she saw the guilt wash over his features. “In the beginning . . .” he said slowly, quietly.
Covering her mouth with her hand, she spun around, presenting her back to him. Dear God, her chest hurt. Her heart hurt. “All the random times our paths crossed . . . they weren’t random at all, were they?” Every encounter played itself over through her mind. She twirled around. The brother was gone, thank goodness. She didn’t need an audience to witness her humiliation, far worse than what she’d experienced when Kip had gambled away her jewels. “The urchin who nicked my bracelet . . . tell me he didn’t do it on your behest. Tell me it was not a ploy to speak with me, to appear to be heroic.”
He said nothing, and in the silence she heard his answer so loudly she thought she might go deaf. She slammed her eyes closed as every warning the Duchess of Hedley had ever given her mocked her. “I was such a fool.”
“What was I to do, Aslyn, in order to spend time in your company? I wasn’t invited to balls, soirees, or dinners.”
