Page 37 of To Claim the Long-Lost Lover
“You did not tell me.” It was a cry of sorrow, flavoured with a world of betrayal.
“Elias,” Nate said it again, when Elias didn’t shift his disappointed eyes away from Sarah. “Elias.” This time, the boy turned to him. “Elias, your mama told me what they said to you at the house party; what they said at the workhouse.”
No answer, but Nate continued, “She did not know I was alive, believed what her grandfather told her, that we were not truly married. She would have told you the truth when you were older; when she could be sure you would not accidentally speak of it to someone who would use the knowledge to say things that hurt. Someone who tried to make you ashamed of who you are. Do you understand what I mean?”
Elias thought about that and his body softened until he was leaning against Sarah, and her arms were around him. “I suppose so. That old grandfather was a bad, bad man.”
“He was,” Nate agreed.
“When did you find out that Mama had me?” Elias demanded, but he did not try to leave Sarah’s embrace.
“Two days ago,” Nate told him. “Someone had mentioned a ward, but it wasn’t until I heard how old you were that I guessed.”
Again, those accusing eyes. “Why did you not tell him, Mama?”
And once more, Nate answered for her. “Your mama and I had not seen one another for seven years. She needed to know I was still a man who could love you and her, and be kind to you both. She could not trust your safety to just anyone.”
Elias relaxed again, thinking that over, while Sarah used the handkerchief that Nate passed her to mop her eyes. After a while, the boy spoke again, his shy smile at last in evidence. “Is Norie my cousin, then, Father?”
At the form of address, Nate’s eyes filled, and he had to clear his throat before he could reply. “She and her sisters are my half-sisters, my son, so they are your aunts.”
Elias sat up straight at that, his eyebrows shooting up. “My aunts? That is ridiculous.” He shook his head. “One of them is just a baby. Can we go and visit my aunts, Mama?”
Sarah looked a question at Nate, who answered, “I will send a message to my stepmama, Lady Lechton, and ask when would be convenient, Elias. I know both she and my father, your grandfather, are anxious to meet you.”
* * *
The revelation to Elias had gone better than Nate expected. Over breakfast, he answered question after question about his family, his life in the navy and his work as a doctor. Elias said nothing about the future, but surely he must wonder?
Nate introduced the topic. “Your mother and I have not yet talked about where the three of us will live now that we’ve found one another again,” he said.
The flare of hope in Elias’s eyes was unmistakable. “I am to come with you?” he asked.
“You are our son. The three of us belong together,” Sarah told him.
“We have been robbed of so many years,” Nate added. “I want you and I want your mother. I want us to be a family.” Sarah nodded and so did Elias, and when it was time to leave Elias to his lessons, he gave Sarah a hug, hesitated, then stepped into Nate’s welcoming arm, for a hug that turned into a friendly wrestle.
Sarah took the moment to speak to the nursemaid. Nate didn’t think Elias, currently consumed with giggles, was listening, but he heard Sarah tell the maid to feel free to discuss the story she’d heard with the other servants. “We will not be announcing our marriage until the ball at the end of the week, but after that, we want to spread the news of our marriage and of Elias’s parentage as far and as quickly as possible,” she said.
“Poor Morris,” she commented to Nate as they left. “Elias is going to have trouble focusing this morning, and who can blame him?”
“Who, indeed? I feel that way myself,” Nate said.
He continued on down the stairs while Sarah went to check on her sister. He found Lord Andrew in the breakfast room, finishing his breakfast while reading the morning paper. “My father is in his study, Bentham. He wishes to talk to you about settlements.”
“Will you let Sarah know where I’ve gone?” Nate asked.
The duke had a hot pot of coffee waiting for him to drink, and a draft marriage settlement for him to read. “This is a close copy of the one we prepared for my daughter Ruth, Bentham. Or can I call you Nathaniel?”
“Nate, Your Grace, if it pleases you.”
“Nate, then, and I am Uncle James to my nieces, and to you, if you will. Read it through, Nate, and let me know if you have any concerns.”
He began to read through the first sheet of the neatly written stack of pages. “Has Sarah read this, sir?”
“You wish her to do so?” the duke asked.
James looked up to see the man smiling. “I do, Your Gr–Uncle James.” He had better get used to the familiar form of address. “She will have an opinion, I am sure.”
