Page 444 of From Rakes to Riches

David’s expression must have revealed something, for the earl’s face gathered into a frown.

“What did you do?” his father demanded.

David stiffened, but he refused to withhold the truth. When had his father become Victoria’s champion? “I put conditions on our marriage from the beginning, demanding that she commit no scandal. Therefore, she withheld something from me out of fear.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I have spent my adulthood attempting to rebuild our name, Father, can’t you see that? After everything that had happened, we were laughingstocks. And when I couldn’t marry someoneof noble blood, I married Victoria, who has the grace and intelligence to rival any woman. But I didn’t know what I had.”

His father’s hands were shaking as he reached up to wipe his face. “There is no excuse for my behavior after your mother died except grief too long withheld. I never thought you should hear this, but now I see that I was wrong not to explain things to you once you became a man.”

“Father, you don’t need to?—”

“Yes, I do. For you see, David, during your mother’s short life, I didn’t know how to help her. She loved you so much that she wanted more babies, even though the physicians all said it could kill her.”

David slowly sank onto a chair opposite his father and just stared at the old man.

“I tried to deny her, to help her understand that I needed her healthy more than you needed siblings. She didn’t want to accept that, and I…I could deny her nothing.”

“She…wanted more children?” David whispered the words, feeling the foundations of his childhood shake and reform all around him.

The earl nodded forlornly. “She wouldn’t listen to me, and in the end, it killed her. And then like a foolish old man, I let my need for happiness outweigh a child’s need for stability. David, forgive me for not seeing how unhappy you were with Colette’s presence.”

David could only nod. He’d spent years simmering under the weight of his anger toward his father, years of trying to repair the family name. And now he knew that his father had almost been destroyed by grief, and found comfort where he could. Colette had driven him away from his father, and David had let it happen.

“Can you forgive me?” his father asked.

David rose to his feet and crossed to the earl, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Perhaps we can forgive each other, Father.”

The earl looked away and patted David’s hand.

“Don’t stay here,” his father said. “Find Victoria.”

David talked to the head groom, only to discover that Victoria had not summoned a carriage. But she certainly could have hired one. He questioned Anna again, who handed over the names of every person who had shown friendship to Victoria. It was a small list; it was sad to see that so few had understood Victoria’s true nature.

Hell, he wouldn’t even be on her list, not with the wayhe’dbehaved.

He rode at breakneck speed to the Fogges’ residence first, interrupting a luncheon of the family of three.

“Forgive my intrusion,” he said, “but have you seen Lady Thurlow today?”

They hadn’t, and something of his urgency must have communicated itself, because Lady Fogge walked him to the door, wearing a worried expression.

“My lord, surely she just forgot to tell you where she was going today.”

“No, not even her mother or her lady’s maid knows where she is.”

“She’ll be home soon.”

“But I can’t wait for that.”

“Is something terribly amiss?”

He looked at the door, wanting to be gone, but not wanting to offend this woman who’d treated Victoria so kindly. “I fear my wife and I have had a misunderstanding, Lady Fogge. I must remedy it at once.”

She smiled up at him, then patted his arm. “I’m certain you will. She is one to see and understand the truth.”

“If only the same could be said about me,” he said grimly. “My thanks for your assistance.”

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