Page 35 of A Lady’s Dangerous Secret (Scandalous Secrets #1)

The Duke regained some of his composure and gestured toward a group of chairs that were across from the settee. “Let us sit.”

“Sit?” James responded incredulously. “I’m not your son, and we should be focused on Lady Charlotte.”

“I gave her extra laudanum while you were speaking with the magistrate, because she became uncomfortable and was agitated. She’ll be comfortable for a while,” Arthur reassured James.

James ran his hand through his hair while emotions further tumbled inside him. There was no way this duke could be his father.

“Sit down,” the Duke said. “Please,” he added as an afterthought. James stared back at him.

Arthur intervened. “I understand the discomfort of this situation, but I see a strong resemblance between you two. A standoff is not going to get us anywhere. We should discuss this calmly,” Arthur mediated, his nervousness gone and his political acumen now at the forefront.

“Fine,” James huffed, and he went and sat on one of the chairs. The Duke sat in the one facing him, while Arthur sat to his left. To his right, Lottie was sleeping soundly on the settee, breathing even.

“Your Grace, please start from the beginning. Captain Hughes, try not to interrupt until he is finished speaking.”

“Is this some kind of legal proceeding?” James asked.

“Well, no, though I suppose it would become a legal matter if you truly are his son.” Arthur stroked his chin contemplatively.

James let out a sigh. “Get on with it then.”

Arthur continued in an even tone, “Your Grace, please explain.”

“Your mother is truly alive?”

“Yes.”

The Duke shook his head in disbelief. “I cannot believe this. After so many lost years… And your name?”

“James.”

The Duke mouthed James’s name. He shifted in his seat.

“Your Grace, please proceed,” Arthur said.

The Duke struggled to settle down, but finally, he rested his forearms on the armrests of the chair and began.

“You see, I was a second son. I bought a commission in the army, never expecting to inherit. My older brother was healthy, and my father had groomed him to become the next duke since the day he was born. While I was in the military, I was stationed in Birmingham. One of my comrades was from Yardley so we traveled the few miles there for a local ball. I met two lovely women, identical, with hair as black as ravens and eyes the color of silver,” he fondly reminisced. The corners of his mouth curled up.

James straightened in his chair, forgetting his annoyance at the Duke. “You knew Aunt Julia?”

His Grace placed his forearms on his thighs and leaned forward, looking James in the eye. “I did. Although the two women were twins, your mother had this mischievous look that her sister did not.”

James eased himself back into his chair, entranced. He could not believe he was hearing this story, and from the Duke of Westcliffe of all people?

“The moment I spoke with your mother, I fell in love with her and knew she was the only woman I could marry. I was nervous that she would only like me due to my connection with the Duchy of Westcliffe, so I didn’t mention it at first. After Rose expressed her interest in me, I immediately approached her father, who was a baronet.

I asked for permission to ask her to marry me.

I told Sir Reginald that I was the second son of the Duke of Westcliffe to help persuade him to agree, but he scoffed at my request. He thought the chances were low I would inherit, and he had his eye on a particular baron for his daughter. ”

The Duke proceeded with the tale in a foreboding voice.

“I rushed back to tell Rose that her father rejected me, but still did not tell her about my father, the Duke. I wanted her to make an unbiased decision. She professed her love to me and agreed to marry without her father’s permission.

I obtained a special license. We ran off and wed shortly after.

Then, the day after our wedding, I received an urgent missive to return to Westcliffe immediately.

The rider said it was dire but wouldn’t reveal any details.

I had to leave forthwith and didn’t have a chance to tell Rose about my background.

I was going to explain everything when I came back. ”

Although James had been listening intently, the spell broke at this part of the story. He eyed the Duke accusingly. “But you never returned.”

The Duke’s head fell. He took a deep breath before he raised his head again. When he lifted his eyes, they were laced with anguish, but James did not have any pity. “You deserted my mother.”

“James.”

“Don’t call me that. It’s Captain Hughes to you.”

“Let me explain.”

James stood abruptly. “You don’t know how much my mother was tortured, how much I was beaten by my ruthless uncle. Decades of suffering because you never came back!”

Arthur jumped up from his chair before James could storm toward the door. “I understand your anger, but this is the one chance you have to hear the full story from Westcliffe’s point of view.

James eyed the Duke. Arthurs softened his voice. “You don’t want to look back on this moment years from now and wonder ‘what if I had listened?’”

The Duke dropped from the chair to his knees.

“Please, let me explain.” James looked down at the Duke disdainfully.

He didn’t care that he was groveling, and surprisingly felt no satisfaction from having a nob beg before him.

James could still feel the pain between his shoulder blades from his uncle’s whip and see the suffering in his mother’s eyes.

Arthur looked anxiously between the two men. “I can’t watch this collapse.” He squared his shoulders and used his most commanding voice, which was a stretch for the thoughtful academic. “Westcliffe, off your knees. Captain Hughes, back to your chair.”

The Duke and James looked at him in surprise.

“Now!” Arthur ordered.

The two men trudged back to their seats.

“Your Grace, please continue,” Arthur said.

The Duke proceeded in a tortured voice, “I returned to Westcliffe to learn my dear brother had died in a carriage accident and that I was the heir to the Dukedom. I loved him and was crushed by the news, but was relieved to tell my father I already had a wife who could be pregnant with the Westcliffe heir.” Pain flashed across his face.

“I never saw my father so angry. My brother had been betrothed already, and he expected me to marry my brother’s intended, Miss Antoinette Waycott.

Her father was a wealthy baron who neighbored our estate and had married a French émigré .

I refused and told him how much I loved Rose.

My father accepted my decision, which should have made me suspicious, but I was grieving and not thinking properly.

I sent a letter to your mother explaining everything and that I would return as soon as possible. ”

“She never received a letter,” James said.

The Duke shook his head. “My father forced me to stay in Westcliffe to learn about my future responsibilities. I begged him to return to Birmingham. He said I could go back in six weeks and that Nott would check on Rose in the meantime. I had no choice but to acquiesce. Before the time was up, Nott returned and gave me the devasting news that Rose had died.”

James was out of his chair again. “My mother was alive. Aunt Julia was the one who died. She supposedly drowned before I was born, but my mother didn’t believe it. She was convinced someone murdered her.”

The Duke put his face in his hands. “I was young and na?ve. I believed Nott when he said your mother was gone.”

“You were wrong, and she suffered for years!”

The Duke lifted his head and looked absolutely defeated. “Knowing what I do now, he must have murdered the wrong sister.”

James stood. “Your family killed my aunt!”

Arthur sprang from his chair, and despite his slender frame, he demonstrated surprising strength. He grabbed James’s coat and dragged him back before he could reach His Grace.

“James, I mean Captain Hughes, I’m so sorry.

I had nothing to do with this horror. I was too trusting.

I’m only to blame in that I believed Nott and my father.

In truth, he was a monster. He tried to force me to marry Miss Waycott immediately upon learning of Rose’s death.

I refused because I was heartbroken. The most I could do was push it out six months, and then she became my wife.

” The Duke ran his hand through his hair the same way James did.

“You never came back,” James choked out, with tears welling in his eyes. He never thought he would see the day he would feel this magnitude of pent-up emotion.

The Duke leaned forward with a pleading look in his eyes.

“James, if I had any idea, I would have come back. This was my father’s doing, and I was duped.

He was an evil man. I know you’ll never forgive me, but please, at least know that I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you.

I loved your mother, and I would have loved you, too, had I known you existed. ”

James jerked himself out of Arthur’s grasp. He slumped into his chair and buried his face in his hands while tears streaked down his face. He swallowed a sob and rose from the chair.

He had to leave.

James rushed out of the room in search of a place for solitude.

He could not stomach seeing anyone at the moment, especially not a herd of bloodthirsty nobs with a tear-streaked face .

The guests were surely reveling in being present at what would be the most scandalous ball of the Season.

The gossip in drawing rooms and gentlemen’s clubs tomorrow would be unrivaled.

The animals.

James hurried farther into the Rowley’s private quarters. He jiggled a few door handles, only to find the rooms locked. His face felt cool from the dampness of his tears. If he did not find a room where he could be alone soon, he would knock down one of these locked doors.

Frustration building, he continued on his until finally a door eased open.

He poked his head inside the room, a library, and let out a sigh of relief as he noted a single candelabrum on a table, providing a soft glow to a room of books.

He closed the door behind him and flopped onto the library’s chesterfield sofa.

He lay back and covered his eyes with his arm.

The momentous information he had just learned from the Duke, no—his father—sank in.

James had no idea who he was.