Page 103 of Beyond Scandal and Desire
“They mean me no harm.” She reached out for him. “It’s like Pandora’s box. You can’t shove back inside everything that flew out. Besides, I rather like your mother.”
“You’re my mother.”
“How fortunate you are to have two when there are some who have none.”
He took her hand, squeezed it. He would protect her unto death. Releasing his hold, he dragged out the chair and dropped into it. He glared at Aslyn. “What is the game being played here?”
“No game. The duchess was merely curious about your upbringing, your life.”
“It was nothing at all like Kipwick’s,” he said tersely. “You don’t want to know about it.”
“It was hard and filthy—at least on the streets. I suspect your home was clean. It’s obvious Mrs. Trewlove loves you dearly. I can’t claim to hold that deep affection for you. I did not cradle you to my breast. I did not sing you lullabies. I wept when you were born, but the tears had nothing at all to do with joy.”
“You don’t have to tell me this.”
“You have no idea what it cost me to come here. I shook the entire way. Do you know that except for when we travel to and from the ducal estate, I never venture far from Mayfair? I almost never leave Hedley Hall, to be honest. I have spent most of my life fearing my own shadow. But wanting to see what you have accomplished forced me out of my little hidey-hole.”
He hardly knew what to say. He knew what Aslyn had told him about the duchess, but he assumed it was her frailty that kept her indoors.
“I am not your mother. I know this, but I look around and I see what you have built, what you are building, and I am impressed. I can take no credit for it. I did not influence you. But now that I know the truth of you, how can I not want to know everything?”
Her eyes delved into his, and he was very much aware of his mum holding her breath. She was the one who had raised him, who demonstrated kindness even though he didn’t always embrace the lessons—especially where those of his past were concerned. And then there was Aslyn. For her, he wanted to be better than he was. He took a good healthy swallow of the whiskey.
“I have three brothers and two sisters.”
“Four brothers,” the duchess said.
He flashed a grin. “I doubt Kipwick is keen on acknowledging me as such.”
“He’s adjusting,” Aslyn said.
He turned his attention to her. “Is he?”
“It’s been a shock to him obviously, to all of us. I think he’s struggling as much as you are with figuring out his place in the world now.”
“I’m not struggling.”
“You’re denying the truth of your birth.”
“No. I accept it, but it does not alter my present or my future.” He looked at the duchess. “I can’t be part of your life without causing speculation, gossip and quite possibly scandal.”
“I have a very simple solution for how you can be in their lives without anyone ever being the wiser,” Aslyn said quietly.
He gave her a mocking smile. “Have you?”
“Yes. When you first arrived at Hedley Hall, you told the duchess you were the man who would wed me if I would have you. Well—” She gave him an impish grin. “I will have you.”
Staring at her, he was vaguely aware of the duchess and his mum quietly leaving the table, like two old friends who communicated without words. He should have finished off his whiskey. Perhaps her words wouldn’t have come as quite a shock to him then.
“Aslyn—”
“You’re not going to cause an upheaval in their world by allowing them to declare you as their son. And I love you for it.”
“Aslyn—”
“You’re not turning your back on your adoptive family, and I love you for it.”
“Aslyn—”
