Page 36 of To Claim the Long-Lost Lover
She stopped to check on Charlotte. She was as white as bone, and tense with the stillness that hinted at feared pain if she moved. However, she insisted she was comfortable, and would be able to get up later. “You must both visit me, and tell me how Elias has taken the news,” she insisted. “Now smile, darling. You know I am like this when my inconvenience is on me, and I shall be well directly.”
Sarah had to smile as she acknowledged the truth of that.
Nate was waiting in the sitting room. She would never tire of seeing his eyes light up as she came towards him. “How is your sister, my love?”
“Uncomfortable,” she admitted, “but she will be better tomorrow, or the next day.” She could not resist leaning in to kiss him. “She is happy for us. Let us go and have breakfast with our son.”
The footman stationed on this wing kept his eyes firmly fixed on the painting opposite him as Sarah and Nate passed. Sarah, who had been leaning on Nate’s arm, straightened, but the joy kept bubbling up in a smile.
The secondary staircase at the end of the wing was deserted, and they soon let themselves into the main passage that ran through the nursery and schoolroom floor. Sarah sobered at the thought of the explanation to come. She and Nate had discussed it the night before and again this morning.
They would be honest with Elias from the beginning. They owed him that. But what would he think?
A footman opened the door into the complex of rooms that formed the nursery. The door opened directly into the day nursery, and Elias, his face painfully clean and beaming with delight, was there to greet them.
“Mama!” And then, with a glance at his nurse, “Good morning, Mama.” He bowed to Nate, grinning. “Good morning, Lord Bentham. How are your sisters this morning?”
“They were well when I saw them yesterday, Elias,” Nate told him, while Sarah fought the panic that threatened to close her throat. She masked her anxiety by sweeping forward to sink to her knees and give her son a hug and kiss on the cheek.
“Now?” Nate asked. Sarah nodded. Best to get it done before she ran screaming from the room.
“Elias, come and sit by the window. There is something your mother and I wish to tell you.”
Elias obediently took a seat, and Sarah sat beside him, taking his warm hand in her cold one. Nate squatted on his heels before them. They had agreed that Nate would start the story, and Sarah would add what she felt was needed.
Before he could speak, Elias said, “She is not truly my mother, sir. But I love her just as if she were.”
Sarah could not quite account for the tears in her eyes. Regret at the lies her dear son had lived with? Fear of his reaction? Joy at the life before them? Perhaps all of these.
Nate replied to the boy. “I would like to tell you about your true mother and father, Elias, if you would like to hear.”
Elias stiffened and went still, his eyes huge in his face. He nodded, a single jerk of his head.
Nate settled back onto the carpet, his legs crossed at the ankles, his elbows on his knees. The position put him below Elias, so he was looking up into the boy’s anxious face. “First, I should say that Lady Sarah knew some of this, and I knew some, but neither of us knew the whole until we shared what we knew with one another.”
Elias gave another jerky nod.
“Your mother was very young when she became acquainted with your father. Just fifteen, and as lovely as a fairy princess. They had seen one another before, when she stayed in the house her father owned near the village where he lived. But her grandfather owned many houses, and this was not a favourite of his. They didn’t come often or stay for long. Until that summer.”
“Was her grandfather rich?” Elias asked.
“Very. And important. He was friends with the King and a leader in the House of Lords. Her father was his heir. Your father was not important at all, or rich. He was seventeen, your father. His father was the local vicar, and your father was his father’s steward and errand boy and groom. So your mother was as far out of his reach as the stars in the sky.”
Sarah took up the tale, unable to resist. “She was lonely, and had nothing to do. She and her sister had been very ill, and they had been sent to the country to rest and recover. When your mother was well again, your aunt still spent most of her days sleeping. Your mother started to wander the woods and the fields near their house.”
They continued that way, taking it in turns, telling of Nate’s approach to Sarah’s father, of his exile, of his plan and their elopement, their marriage.
Elias listened without comment until they got to Nate’s beating and abduction, and subsequent career in the navy. “Why didn’t he come back? Didn’t he want me?”
“He didn’t know about you, Elias.” Nate told him. “He should have come back for his wife, once he could. But it was three years more before he had rank enough for the navy to listen him, and by then he thought her grandfather would have made her marry someone else. He thought coming back would make trouble for her.”
Elias turned his attention to Sarah. Had he guessed what they were about, or was it just it was her turn to tell a part of the story. “Didn’t my mother want me?”
“Very much. When she knew you were coming, she was frightened of what her grandfather might do, but she was very happy to think she would have you to love. You were taken from her when you were born.” The tears that had been threatening throughout the recital overflowed. “They wouldn’t even let me hold you. I spent years trying to find you. I thought about you every day.”
“You?” Elias’s voice was hushed and strained. “You are my true mama?” He drew away from her, just a little. She put out her hand, but stopped herself from touching him.
“I am your true mama. I was so happy when Mrs Wakefield found you for me, Elias.”
