Page 105 of A Stolen Heart

“Well, not to the Countess. She gave them to Willa, actually, because the Countess was not receiving anyone. She was prostrate with grief. But Willa was having an affair with Richard, the new Earl, and she realized what it would mean to him if my brother suddenly showed up.”

“Of course. He wouldn’t be Earl anymore.”

“Exactly. So she gave the others to Richard instead of the Countess, and she kept it a secret from everyone.”

“But, then, what Willa just said…the little boy died?”

Alexandra nodded, tears welling in her eyes again at the thought of the brother she had never known and who had died so young. “Yes. He had a bad fever. Fa—Mr. Ward had died of it, too. And the girl, Marie Anne—that wicked, wicked man gave her to an orphanage. She grew up poor and alone—and we have no idea who she is now.”

“Poor little John,” Rhea said and began to cry. “Poor Marie Anne. I did so poorly by Simone! She entrusted them to me, and I failed her. If only I had known, I would never have turned them over to that woman!”

“Of course you wouldn’t, Mother. But you couldn’t have known what would happen. You did all that anyone could ask of you.”

“Did I?” Rhea asked mournfully.

“Yes. Yes.” Alexandra bent to hug her mother. “And this thing that you have suffered over all this time—taking me for your own? You saved me! Don’t you see? You kept me from the same sad fate as my sister!”

“Oh, darling,” Rhea began to cry, and so did Alexandra, and they clung to each other.

At last their tears dried, and Rhea gave a weary sigh, laying her head on Alexandra’s shoulder. Aunt Hortense intervened, circling an arm around Rhea’s waist and pulling the smaller woman onto her feet.

“I think it’s time you were in bed. You’ve lost a fair amount of blood.” She bundled Rhea into bed, fussing over her.

Alexandra turned to Sebastian, who took her hand in his. “So the attacks on your mother and you—Willa hired them done so that no one would find out what had happened to the children?”

Alexandra nodded. “If Mother told the Countess the truth, the Countess would have realized that Willa and Richard had done away with her other grandchildren. It would have been a terrible scandal, at the least, for the Earl, and Willa knew that the Countess would never forgive her for what she had done. She would be ruined with the woman who was her whole life. I don’t know if they acted together or separately, but I am sure that they are the ones who were behind the attacks.”

Sebastian put his arm around her, and she leaned her head against his shoulder. He led her into the hall, away from Aunt Hortense and Rhea and the gathering crowd of servants.

“I have sent for the doctor for Rhea and the magistrate for the rest of it.”

Alexandra nodded, then sighed. “Oh, Sebastian, what a terrible thing! How are we going to tell the Countess? To find out after all this time that her grandchildren did not die in Paris twenty-two years ago—and at the same time to learn that they are still lost to her.”

“It’s a hard thing,” he agreed. “But the Countess is a strong woman. And now she has you to help her through it.” He squeezed her hand. “We will find your sister. I shall put a Bow Street Runner on it right away. We’ll search every orphanage in London if we have to.”

“Do you think we can actually locate her?” Alexandra asked, hope beginning to stir in her. “It seems a hopeless task.”

“Not as unlikely, I should think, as you being restored to your grandmother,” he told her. “At least we know that she grew up in this country.”

“That’s true.” Alexandra brightened. “Perhaps we can investigate it on our own.”

“Oh, no.” Sebastian shook his head, pulling her against his side. “I do not plan to engage in any more mysteries with you. We are going to be married, and you are going to be a good and proper wife, not one who gets kidnapped or stabbed or winds up in a brothel every few days.”

Alexandra chuckled. “I promise I shan’t get kidnapped anymore. But if you expect me to be a good and proper wife…”

“I know.” Sebastian sighed. “I am doomed to disappointment.”

“You needn’t marry me,” Alexandra replied.

“There you are wrong. I need very much to marry you.”

He bent and kissed her lips tenderly. “If I don’t marry you, you see, I shall be doomed to spend the rest of my life in boredom.”

“That will never do,” Alexandra responded, smiling. “I suppose I simply shall have to marry you.”

“Thank God. I was beginning to think I would never get you to agree.”

“And if I hadn’t?”