Page 91 of One Night with a Prince
“We both know you want them for yourself. If you had them—if I could give them to you—what would you do with them?”
“It would depend on what’s in them.”
“Suppose I said it was something that could damage His Highness.”
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“Create a scandal, you mean?” When she didn’t answer, he debated whether to tell her the truth. But after last night, surely she’d understand and sympathize with his aims. “I’d use them as leverage to force him to make a public apology to my mother, among other things. To declare that she wasn’t the liar and the whore he painted her, but the true mother of one of his by-blows.”
“You know it’s highly unlikely that he would ever agree to that,” she pointed out. “His reputation is soiled enough right now; it would damage him too much before the people to be painted as a liar and a cheat.”
“Which he is.”
“Yes,” she admitted with a sigh. “What you want isn’t unreasonable. And perhaps he might grant it if you can obtain the letters.” She stared at him. “I’ve decided to tell you what’s in them.”
Thathe had not expected. He gazed at her with suspicion. “Why now?”
“Because I’m hoping that once you understand their importance, you’ll treat them with the proper care. Perhaps you’ll even show some mercy toward your father, despite his many sins.”
He wasn’t about to tell her that she was wasting her breath, not when he was this close to hearing the truth.
She swallowed. “I’m praying that any man who cares as much for his mother as you obviously do could never harm another mother who sacrificed for the good of her child.”
His eyes narrowed. “What other mother?”
She squared her shoulders, clearly gathering her strength. “Maria Fitzherbert. Whom some still consider to be Prinny’s lawful wife.”
“Mrs. Fitzherbert has no—” He broke off, his blood thundering in his veins. “She has a child?”
“A son. In Gibraltar. Where my father took him twenty-odd years ago, along with a soldier and his wife who took him in. The letters are from Mrs. Fitzherbert to my father, discussing their plans for…er…removing the child from England and having him become known as the soldier’s son.”
The ramifications of her words shook him with the force of a tempestuous sea. “Bloody, bloody hell. Prinny has ason by Mrs. Fitzherbert. You know what that means.”
“Of course. Why do you think they had him whisked out of the country and hidden all these years?”
“If the child is really his by Mrs. Fitzherbert, the succession would be in danger.” He leaned forward, hardly able to contain his excitement. “This is no by-blow of a mistress. The Catholic Churchstill considers their marriage valid, which means plenty of people would consider the boy a legitimate heir to the throne. And neither George III nor Parliament would let the crown pass to Prinny when Prinny’s own heir is in question.”
She nodded. “Exactly. That’s why His Highness is so desperate to regain the letters. Because if they’re published now, it would put an end to any hope that he’d ever be king.”
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“My God,” he crowed, “I’d hoped for leverage to force him to admit the truth, but this is far better! A way to rid the country of the bastard once and for all!”
She’d gone white as ash. “Gavin, listen to me. I don’t blame you for hating him, but surely even you can see why these letters mustnever be published. You have to think of more than yourself in this.”
“Why?” he snapped. “That arse has never thought of anyone buthimself . The country would be better off without him: He’s a bloated, self-serving cancer eating away at the good name and reputation of England. Plenty of people would thank me for making it impossible for him to succeed to the throne.”
“But others, like the Tories, would champion him. It would embroil England in chaos for years, Gavin. Years . The dispute over Charles II’s succession went on for over fifty years and caused the Glorious Revolution, not to mention the Jacobite rebellion a mere sixty years ago. Why do you think Mrs. Fitzherbert agreed to send her son away? Because she didn’t want him at the center of such a storm. Because she loved him too much to put that burden upon him.”
“No, she did it because Prinny forced her to. Because she let that arse pull the wool over her eyes.”
He’d be damned if he’d accept her comparing Maria Fitzherbert’s sacrifice to his mother’s. “And once again, Prinny gets what he wants. But don’t you understand? This is the chance to rid England of him. To make him suffer—”
“For what he did to you and your mother.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Gavin, all you want is vengeance. But wreaking your vengeance would split the country apart.”
“You’re wrong. They’d simply put Prinny’s brother Frederick on the throne, and that would be that.”
“Even if you’re right, and I’m certainly not willing to take that chance, have you even stopped to think what it would do toyou if you take on the Prince of Wales? You’ll be denounced as the man who brought scandal upon the crown for his own purposes—”
