Page 92 of The Bridal Quest

"I beg your pardon—" Irene began, her eyes lighting with an even brighter fire.

"Pray, do not spew your venom on me just yet," Gideon told her quickly. "I promise you, you will have ample opportunity to do so in a few minutes. But first, I must settle this. And I do not intend to have you locking yourself away in your room so you don't have to face me."

Irene's brows shot up, and she replied caustically, "Face you? You think I am afraid to face you?"

A grin touched Gideon's face and left just as quickly. "Nay. I do not. "Tis why I said it. Please, just come with me while I tell them. And then we will have this out."

Irene gave in with little grace and walked with the two men into the sitting room, where Lady Odelia and Lady Pansy sat, waiting for them. Gideon's grandmother occupied the corner of the sofa, looking wilted. Her cheeks were streaked with the tracks of tears, and she clutched a balled-up handkerchief in her hand, using it from time to time to dab at her eyes.

"Oh, Gideon," she wailed when she saw him. "It can't be true." She began to cry again. "That dreadful little man. He is lying, I know it."

Gideon sighed and raked a hand back through his hair. "Lord Jasper said Rochford told you about Owenby." He hesitated, then went on. "Did he relate what Owenby said about ... my parentage?"

Lady Odelia's eyebrows lifted almost comically, but her sister only looked confused.

"Your parentage?" Pansy repeated. "I don't understand."

Lord Jasper took a step forward, frowning. "What are you talking about? The duke said only that Owenby confessed to hiding Selene's body after Cecil killed her. What else did he tell you?"

"That Lord Cecil was not my father," Gideon replied. "I am sorry. I do not mean to cause any of you further distress. But that is what he said. And ... I think it is probably true."

Lady Pansy let out a soft little mewl of distress. "No! No! It is not true. Those rumors are false. Yes, it was some time before Selene got with child. But it is clear that you are Cecil's son. Anyone with eyes in his head can see that."

"Yes, you have the look of the Lilles," Lady Odelia added authoritatively, some of her old starch back in her voice. "Just look at Rochford. Look at your uncle."

Irene turned automatically to look at Jasper, as the old woman demanded. She stiffened, her eyes narrowing. Jasper was gazing at Gideon with an expression of pain and regret so sharp that it jolted her. She pivoted slowly to stare at Gideon beside her, an idea forming in her head.

"Of course!" she exclaimed without thinking. She wondered how she could not have realized it before.

Everyone in the room turned to look at her, and Irene blushed.

"I— I'm sorry. But Gideon ..."

"What?" He looked at her in some concern. "Is something the matter?"

"Well, um, I think—may we speak privately?"

"Of course. But first I must finish what I came here to say."

"But—wait—" Irene stopped, glancing over at Lord Jasper.

"I think what your future wife wishes to say is this," Gideon's uncle told him. "I believe she just realized why you have the look of the Lilles and of the Bankes, as well. Look at me and you will know what you will look like in twenty-some years."

Gideon stared at him speechlessly.

"Owenby did speak the truth when he said that Cecil was not your father," Jasper went on. "I am."

"You—" Gideon replied blankly.

Jasper nodded. "Yes. I—I have wanted to tell you many times since you returned. But I knew how you felt about us all. I feared that such news would cause you to despise us even more. Especially me. I went away and left you with him. Left both of you with him. I was a fool and a coward. I swear that I would not have done so had I had the slightest inkling what he was capable of doing. I never dreamed— He was not fond of you. He knew, I think, that you were not his. I am sure he suspected that I was your father. Any fool could have seen that I was head over heels in love with Selene from the moment I met her."

"Jasper!" Pansy looked at him in horror. "What are you saying? How could you! You betrayed Cecil?"

"Cecil?" Jasper repeated in amazement. "You are upset because I dared to love Cecil's wife? Cecil was a brute. He murdered Selene. He was a bad-tempered bully, and he never had the sense to appreciate what a jewel his wife was. He betrayed her a hundred times over, yet he railed at her if she so much as smiled at another man. She loved him when she married him. She would not have taken a lover if he had not ground her love for him into dust. Cecil kept a mistress in London for his visits there, yet he never allowed Selene to even go to London for fear some other man would catch her eye. There were the tavern wenches in the village, the barques of frailty in London or Bath, for a little variety when he tired of his mistress and his wife. But he ranted at Selene if she gave a dance to the squire at the assembly or nodded to the doctor in greeting on the street."

Jasper swung away, struggling to gain control of himself, then turned back to Gideon, his voice cold as he continued. "Your mother was a good woman, Gideon. Do not think her loose or wicked, I beg you. She was faithful to my brother for six long years. I was the one who pursued her. And she did not turn to me until my brother had finally broken her heart one too many times. Even then, she hated the deception, the sin of it, and after a few months, she sent me away. I traveled, I studied—I occupied myself in every way I could think of—and I did not come home until you were three years old. Mother had written me about your birth, but I did not realize that you were my son, not Cecil's, until ... until Selene told me when I returned. That was when I begged her to leave him, to take you and come away with me. But she would not. She said she could not take you from Cecil, that he believed you were his. She could not take your future inheritance from you. We ... for a time, we had what happiness we could, until I could not bear any longer to watch her being his wife. That is when I deserted her the second time." Jasper's face was grim. "You know the rest of the story."

"My God." Gideon stared at him for a long moment. "I scarcely know what to say."