Page 33 of Celestes Forever Marquess
Tears welled in his eyes. Lady Burrows went to him and squeezed his hands. “This is a good thing.”
Caleb looked at them in confusion. Lady Burrows asked, “Are you saying Celeste Hathaway is my husband’s daughter?”
He nodded, and Burrows shook his head. “She’s been right here all this time. I’ve been to her club.”
Annoyance surged in him. “She wrote you countless times.”
The Burrows shook their heads. Lady Burrows said, “We’ve never received any letters.”
How could that be? Caleb didn’t understand what was going on. Devons and Derry said Celeste had sent him multiple letters, but Burrows was acting as if he didn’t know she existed. “You are saying you weren’t aware that Celeste Hathaway was your daughter?”
Burrows continued to sit there in shock, but Lady Burrows said, “Excuse my husband’s silence, but he grieved Anna Hartly and their child’s death for many years. We thought she and the child had passed away during childbirth.”
“My mother sent me away to the Continent, hoping to snap me out of it, but it still took me years. Lady Burrows helped me move on.”
The couple entwined their fingers together, and Burrows shook his head, finally finding his voice. “I don’t understand. I was told she didn’t survive.”
“Who told you that?” Caleb asked.
Burrows flew to his feet and left the room. Lady Burrows said, “Did you say that she wrote to my husband?”
He nodded. “More than once. There was a point when they were in a dire situation, and he never responded.”
Lady Burrows placed her hand on her chest, outraged. “Lord Burrows would have helped.”
Burrows returned with his mother, who had her usual pinched expression on her face. “Lord Haven just informed me that Anna Hartly’s child survived.”
The Dowager Lady Burrows shrugged. “I must have been misinformed.”
“She is my child!” Burrows thundered; his face turning red with rage.
“Calm down, Thomas,” Lady Burrows said to her husband.
He took a deep breath and asked, “Did you know about the letters she sent?”
The woman's coldness didn’t fade. “I told the staff to give them to me. You didn’t need to deal with some by-blow begging for help.”
“His daughter was living in squalor in Devil’s Acre,” Caleb snapped. He didn’t share the rest of it. There was already so much guilt and regret etched on Burrows' face. There would be time for that later.
“She is your granddaughter,” Burrows snapped.
Anger flashed in her eyes. “She is most certainly not.”
“I loved Anna, and you made me believe that she died.”
“You were young and foolish. You found a proper wife eventually,” his mother said coldly.
Lady Burrows' eyes flashed. “Thomas was a mess when I met him. You almost destroyed your son.”
Burrows scowled at his mother. “You will go to the dowager house in the country and not return unless I say otherwise.”
His mother pressed her lips together, displeased, but didn’t say anything else. She spun on her heels and stiffly walkedout of the room. Burrows sat and placed his head in his hands. “How did I not know?”
Lady Burrows wrapped her arm around him. “Thomas, you were so young and naïve.”
“Devil’s Acre is a horrible place to be in.”
The pain on the man’s face convinced Caleb there was no deception on Burrows’ part. His mother had manipulated him. Burrows asked, “Where is she?”
