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“Partially,” she admitted, biting her lip.

“There is something you aren’t telling me,” her friend correctly inferred. “I can see it on your face. Tell me at once, Ophelia. I insist.”

She sighed heavily. “When I returned from the house party, Reggie wasn’t at home. He was at a horse auction with Lord Timothy. They returned, and Lord Timothy questioned where I had been, warned me against causing any scandal, and threatened to take the children from me.”

“That scurrilous rat’s arse,” Aphrodite hissed.

“That isn’t all,” she admitted, her voice cracking. “Reggie wasn’t himself all week afterward. I knew something was wrong, and when I finally managed to get him to confide in me, he told me that he’d fallen in the road when his uncle took him to the horse auction and he’d nearly been hit by a horse and cart.”

Her friend gasped.

“It gets worse. He also told me he thought Lord Timothy had pushed him. I didn’t know what to make of Reggie’s story initially, but he seemed so very certain of what had happened. And then I began to think of what Lord Timothy and his sons stood to gain should anything happen to Reggie…”

“The title,” Aphrodite concluded grimly. “Now you must tell Apollo. He can help. I know he can.”

“Promise me you won’t,” she insisted. “I am keeping Reggie close by my side, and as long as I remain free of scandal, Lord Timothy won’t object to the children living with me. It is easier for him that way. Involving Apollo would just make everything so much more complicated and difficult for me. Do you not see?”

“No, I don’t.” Aphrodite frowned. “I would think you need all the help you can get if Lord Timothy is trying to harm Reggie or otherwise take the children from you.”

“This is my battle to fight,” Ophelia told her firmly, for she couldn’t bear to be the object of Apollo’s pity.

Her pride was too great, and there was truly nothing he could do anyway. She wouldn’t accept his money, and Corbett’s will and the law had put her in this precarious position. No one would be able to extricate her, Apollo included.

Her friend’s countenance turned stubborn.

“Promise me you won’t breathe a word of this to Apollo,” she added.

Aphrodite gave her an odd look but finally relented. “Very well. I promise.”

Relief slid over her.

It was not until later, when she had collected her children from Apollo’s study and taken her leave, that the reason for Aphrodite’s expression occurred to Ophelia.

She had called him Apollo instead of Prestwick, the slip of the tongue an easy, foolish mistake that had given her away. At least she had Aphrodite’s promise not to tell her brother. It was a small comfort as the carriage swayed over rutted roads and her children nestled against her.

“The duke was quite nice, Mama,” Catherine said, gazing down at Rosebud’s face.

Her heart gave a pang as she thought of how kind Apollo had been to her children, of how the three of them standing together in his study had looked, for a moment, like a small family.

Like hers.

She patted her daughter’s hand. “Yes, he was, darling.”

“And he said we could pay a call on him whenever we wished,” Reggie added. “Do you think we may call again on Auntie there and visit the duke as well?”

“I’m sure we could visit Auntie Aphrodite there again,” she allowed, for although her friend customarily called upon them at Ophelia’s town house, she had sometimes visited her friend at Apollo’s in the past.

As for Apollo, she had no intention of seeing him again, with her children or without them. She didn’t think she could bear it.

The carriage swayed on, carrying them home.

CHAPTER 21

There was one word churning in Apollo’s mind at dinner that evening. A word which, if he hadn’t been so caught up in his wounded pride, would have likely occurred to him at Wingfield Hall and saved him a great deal of misery. One word that would change everything.

Marriage.

“You really ought to think about marriage at your age, my dear,” Mother told Aphrodite from across the table, quite as if she were echoing Apollo’s thoughts.