Page 51 of Wedlock

“You could have come to me!” He roars, causing the baby to unlatch and cry out.

I place my hand over my infant’s ears as I hiss my reply.

“You fucking BIT ME! You wanted to kill me. If Jag hadn’t stepped in you probably would have.”

He looks pained at my reminder and shakes his head, but I carry on.

“Regardless of the past. The boy is yours, Falcon. I’ve never called him Tiger, because his name should be Talon, and he should be your heir.”

He sighs heavily and looks at the ceiling.

“As I said, I’ll ensure my affairs are in order before I leave.”

“You accept that he’s yours?”

Looking back down at me, he stares into my eyes for a long, long minute.

“If that’s what you need to hear, yes.”

I let out a long, quiet breath and take my hands off my baby’s ears. Even though I’m planning to escape and take my boy with me, it’s a strange relief to know Falcon finally acknowledges that the baby is his.

“You’ll do this now, in case somethingunfortunatehappens?”

“Yes.”

“And why should something ‘unfortunate’ happen to you?”

“Because if my mother is correct and Viper lies dead on Spider’s Estate, and if I ascertain it was not Jag, but Spider who killed him, I’ll be honour-bound toendCount Dartlore once and for all. If I win our battle and the Queen finds out I harmed the Count,shewill end me. I’m confident I’ll succeed and not be discovered of course, but just in case, I’m hedging my bets.”

Frowning, I pull the baby from my breast and rise, moving to walk over and place him securely in the centre of our vast bed, before turning back to face Falcon, hands on hips.

“So, he’ll win.”

“Pardon?”

“You’ll go and attack Spider and get yourself killed just as your evil half-brother and he probably planned all along.”

His brow rises and I realise, too late, what I’ve said.

“Half-brother?”

36

I stride the length of my study back and forth as I await her, my skin prickling at the remembrance of my discussion with Angie.

I no longer doubt the baby is mine. Her earnest words and gaze hadn’t been the deciding factor; it was that the timeline made sense, and his resemblance to me was uncanny. Deep down, I think I already knew this. I’d calculated the months myself, but my anger over her affair with Jag had blinded me to the obvious.

‘And she remembered my words that night as clearly as I did. How I’d told her I’d loathed her as she lay still slick with sweat from our passion. The guilt I’d felt over those words and the pain they’d caused her was clearly justified. And to have conceived a child on such an occasion? What a welcome into this world for the future Lord Dragonspur.’

But what she’d said about Viper…

Either the woman was lying to me because she hated me so deeply, so thoroughly, that she’d say anything to hurt me, or my mother had been lying to me my whole life. Without knowing why, I think the latter is true. Angie had looked contrite, aghast, when she’d realised what she’d said, but the cat was out of the bag. When I pressed her she’d told me what Mother had revealed. Viper was my father’s bastard, kept, as the twins Asumpta and Attracta had been, on a whim after my father realised Mother would never have another child.

Only, if that was the case, why had the twins been relegated to the kitchens and never acknowledged, while another baby had been placed in my nursery and raised as my sibling?

As the door opens and she enters I don’t know what she sees in my face, but her steps falter.

“Why, Mother?”