Page 100 of Deceiving an Earl
“It would be difficult to misinterpret Needham telling Mother that if she didn’t marry him then he would tell the world that you are my father.”
Oliver’s blood turned cold. “What? What did you say?”
“You heard me. Needham is blackmailing her into marrying him by hanging my parentage over her head.” Bitterness crept into his voice, and Oliver was consumed with an anger he’d never felt before.
“That doesn’t mean it’s the truth. It just means that somehow Needham found out that… That… Your mother and I…” Oh, hell. How was he supposed to navigate these waters?
“So you did?” There was a touch of hopefulness in Philip’s voice that Oliver didn’t want to squash. Did the boywantto be his son? Was this fabricated by Philip to break up his mother’s betrothal to a man he didn’t like?
“That is none of your business,” Oliver said, trying to add a touch of sternness to his voice.
“It’s my business if I’m the outcome of your night together.”
“That’s enough.” He didn’t have to pretend sternness with that. He would not have Ellen’s name besmirched. “Tell me everything from the beginning,” Oliver said.
Philip started talking. He spoke of the time he thought he saw a bruise on Ellen’s cheek, to the sadness he felt in her after that. He told Oliver of Needham confronting Philip and punching him in the eye and of standing outside the parlor door, listening to Needham tell Ellen that he wouldn’t hesitate to use her secret to his advantage.
By the end Oliver was enraged on two levels—that the man hit a young boy so hard he made his eye swell shut, and that he was blackmailing Ellen into marrying him.
“There is a very good possibility that Needham knows only that your mother and I were once close and that he’s fabricating this entire story to force her to marry him,” Oliver said.
Philip’s shoulders slumped. “I never thought of that.” But then he turned speculative. “But why wouldn’t Mother say that when I confronted her?”
“What exactly did she say?”
“When I asked her she got quite agitated, even grabbed my arm, and said I was not to say anything about it again, to anyone.” His lips turned up in a self-deprecating grin. “I guess I broke that rule.”
“You do see that by circulating such a lie it puts your mother’s reputation on the line and questions your inheritance, don’t you?”
“I’ve thought of that,” Philip said, his grin fading. “And that’s why I think it’s true. I think Mother would do anything to protect me.” He paused. “If it’s true then I am not really Lord Fieldhurst.”
He sounded like such a lost little boy that Oliver’s heart went out to him, and he didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. He found himself studying Philip closer than normal, his mannerisms, his facial expressions, the cut of his jaw, the curl of his ear.
Did he see his family in Philip? Was there a bit of Josie in the curve of his brows? Or was Oliver fishing for resemblances?
Did he want Philip to be his son?
That answer was far too complicated for a yes or no. The repercussions would be staggering. If he was Philip’s father, he would never be able to admit it publicly without fear of Philip losing the Fieldhurst earldom.
But for a moment he thought of what it would mean to be this boy’s father, and he felt warmed. And then he thought of all that he had missed out by not knowing.
But he still refused to believe. Not until Ellen herself told him the truth.
“I need to speak to your mother about this,” he said, and then almost laughed. How many times had his own father said that to him when he was growing up? That and,Don’t tell your mother we did this.
The memories made Oliver ache with the dulled grief of his father’s passing so many years ago.
“If Needham is blackmailing her, you will stop him, won’t you?” Philip looked at Oliver with so much hope hanging on his words that Oliver had to look away.
“Ultimately, it is your mother’s decision whether she marries Needham.”
He cursed himself for accepting O’Leary’s request to attend the salons. He cursed himself for opening the door to the old feelings he had for Ellen. But mostly he cursed the anger he felt for her actions toward her own son. Sending him away? Marrying Needham? None of this made sense. It didn’t seem like the Ellen he knew and had loved so long ago.
Why on Earth would Needham want to blackmail Ellen? Why would he want to force a woman to marry him if she didn’t want to?
“She doesn’t love him,” Philip said, as if reading Oliver’s mind. “She’s miserable every time she’s with him, and I hear her crying sometimes after he leaves.”
The image twisted his heart. To hear that Ellen might be unhappy enraged him.
