Page 29 of Deceiving an Earl
She drew in a deep breath, shocked at his words. They’d never mentioned anything close to marriage. They’d met only a few times, clandestinely. That he mentioned it now took her aback.
She’d not wanted to marry, but maybe, if her husband was someone like Oliver… Maybe she would consider it.
When Ellen entered the sitting room, she didn’t need to see Oliver’s carefully and quickly concealed surprise at her pale complexion and worry in her eyes. She was put together, as always, but Oliver was good at seeing what was beneath. He saw the real her.
That both bothered and comforted her, because he was the only man, the only person, really, who could do that.
There was one thing that he did not see, because she was very careful to not even think it while in his company—that Philip was his son. She’d never had any intention of telling him, and that had been easy to do for the past sixteen years, because they had avoided each other.
But when she’d seen Philip draped over Oliver’s shoulder the night Oliver had brought him home, she had nearly fainted with fear that her terrible secret was about to be revealed. And then she had been so shocked at the resemblance between the boy and the man that she’d wondered that no one else saw it.
It had taken so much courage for her to ask Oliver for his help, and a great amount of guilt had followed the request. She was asking the man to help his son, and he didn’t even know it was his son. Did he have a right to know?
Would he even want to know?
Yes, he would want to know. He was that kind of man. The kind who would take his responsibilities seriously. After he’d become earl, he’d thrown himself into making the Armbruster estate and holdings even richer than it had been. He’d been innovative and creative in finding new ways to make money. He’d stepped outside the norm and had been one of the first of the aristocracy to invest in trade—something that had always been looked down upon.
And he was a very wealthy, much respected earl in business.
In Society it was a different story. He had a reputation as a rogue, and it had always confused Ellen why he cultivated that reputation when he was so much more than that.
She often wondered how much her son had inherited from his father. Philip was obviously working on the reputation as a womanizer. Ellen had hoped that Philip would have inherited the brains and the drive to succeed instead.
She swallowed all of those thoughts and proceeded into the room. Oliver stood but did not smile at her, which made her insides shrivel.
Oliver had been a handsome young man, and the years had only been good to him. He had filled out. His shoulders had widened and his body had matured. Those bright blue eyes were more cynical, always searching and weighing, but never revealing anything.
She sank down onto the couch and folded her hands in her lap.
“Well?” She could not handle the pleasantries, the trite banter before the real conversation started. She needed to know the fate of her son. For this was his fate. If he didn’t go back to school, she didn’t know what she was going to do with him.
“I’m sorry, Ellen.”
She blinked, expecting that answer but hoping for so much more.
“Th-thank you for trying, anyway.”
“The headmaster said that there have been too many indiscretions. Too many suspensions to overlook this last one and bring him back early. I have to agree with him. It sets a bad example for the rest of the lads.”
“I understand.”
Oliver searched her face, and she turned her head away, not wanting him to see her fears.
“Young Fieldhurst seems to find trouble easily.”
“I think rather than finding it he creates it.”
“I have no words of wisdom for you, as I don’t have a son.”
She closed her eyes, the guilt so overwhelming that she nearly blurted out the truth to him. But that would be disastrous. It would destroy Philip, and he would lose his title. And it could possibly destroy Oliver as well.
And it would paint her as the worst sort of person for not only lying to her husband and all of Society, but for sleeping with Oliver when she’d been promised to another.
“Since Arthur’s death, Philip has been angry and has acted out. Philip was the center of Arthur’s universe and Arthur doted on him. He’d not had any other children, you know.” Her voice cracked. After many years of trying for another baby, Arthur had concluded that he was just too old to father again and had set the sun and the moon on Philip. Only Ellen knew that he’d not fathered Philip, either. She’d let Arthur believe that the boy he loved so much was his, and all had been well for many years. She’d learned to live with the lie and had discovered that the more you lived with a lie the more you began to believe it yourself.
“He misses his father, and he’s at the age where he needs one to guide him,” Oliver said. “Did Arthur teach him anything about the earldom?”
“Some. Philip thinks he’s been taught enough that he doesn’t need school anymore.”
