Page 74 of Unchaining the Heart of the Marquess
“It is, but there is no need for you to be alone, my boy. I may have lost the only lass I will ever love, but yours lies upstairs waiting for you. She came back, Frederick. She came back to you. Tell her how you feel.”
“I have. She did not want me.”
“Tell her again. Life is too short and brutal to live without the one you love by your side. I was at sea and missed everything with you and your mother. Do not let your fear of a further broken heart do the same for you. In spite of all evidence to the contrary at times such as these when those you love have caused you such pain, life truly was meant to be shared. Go to her.”
Frederick and Tatham both stood. “Will you stay or will you go?” Frederick asked, uncertain what he wished his answer to be, but knowing that he did not want him to go so far that he could not be found.
“I will stay, if that is what you wish,” Tatham replied, his eyes uncertain and yet hopeful.
Frederick studied his face for a moment. He thought of everything that had transpired and actions that had brought them to where they now stood. “Whether you stay or whether you go, there will be concessions to be made.”
“The Duke and I have already discussed it. I will not reveal your true paternity to anyone, and I will not threaten the Duchess again. All I have ever wanted was for you to know the truth. I cannot reclaim what is lost, but you know, and that is enough, it will have to be enough.”
Frederick nodded. “It is not fair to you, I know, but there is more than you and I to consider here.”
“I understand that more than most. Maids, very much like your dear sweet sainted mother, would have no place to go were the truth to be revealed and all was lost for Pentford and then Chescrown. Noble estates are for more than just the nobility. They provide jobs for the people that would otherwise starve. I could never be the man responsible for such suffering.”
“Nor could I.”
Tatham stepped forward and laid a hand on his shoulder. “We will get through this together, my boy, one day at a time.”
“One day a time,” Frederick agreed, his eyes misting with tears once more. Tatham pulled him into his arms and hugged him with such strength that Frederick could barely breathe, but he did not pull away. Instead, he returned the embrace as fiercely as it was given. They released each other, dashing at their eyes and clearing their throats, neither wishing to weep in front of the other man. “Together,” Frederick promised, squeezing Tatham’s shoulder one last time then left the stables.
Now to face Mother.
Chapter 35
Frederick entered the house and found his mother in her drawing room, sitting staring out of the window. Her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot from her tears. Her skin was pale and drawn. Her hands shook, causing the handkerchief she clutched to flutter about as if there were a breeze in the room. “Mother?”
She turned, and seeing Frederick arose with a cry and sank to her knees before him, clutching his hands in hers. “Forgive me,” she whispered the plea with such desperation it was as if her very life would expire before his eyes were he to refuse her request. “Please forgive me. I cannot bear the thought of life without you. You are my life, my heart. You are the only truly terrible and good thing I have ever done.”
Frederick bent down and lifted her up from the floor. He led her back over to her chair and placed her in it, then sat down in the chair opposite. “What you did was wrong in the worst possible terms. You stole an infant from the arms of his dead mother, denying his father any part in his life, forbidding him any joy that his child might still live.”
“Frederick,” his mother whimpered at the harsh truthfulness of his words.
“But you did what you did out of a strange sort of desperate love, a love I will never understand, but love nevertheless. Because of what you did, I have known a life of privilege and plenty. I have known love, friendship, responsibility, honor, life in all of its glorious beauty. It is for that life that I forgive you. It is for that love that I will forever remain your son.”
“Oh, Frederick!” The Duchess cried out and flung her arms around his neck.
Frederick held his mother as she wept, unable to hold onto his anger under the onslaught of tears and kisses that she rained down upon his face in joyous relief. “There, there,” he murmured in helpless sympathy. “Dry your eyes.” He eased her arms from around his neck and helped her back to her chair once more. “I may forgive you, Mother, but there is much atonement to be had. Devon Tatham is owed an apology for a start, as are the Evans family.”
The Duchess nodded. “I will have them summoned to Chescrown.”
“No, Mother. It is you who have done the wrong, and it is you who will go to them. It is a matter of doing what is right, not what is socially acceptable.” Frederick gentled his voice and took her hand in his. “I would also like for you to see what my life would have been like had you and Father not been in it.” Frederick knew that if they were ever to move on from what had happened that they would both have to face the truth together. “We will go upon the morrow after services.”
The Duchess nodded hesitantly, a frightened, but resigned, look in her eyes. “Tomorrow,” she agreed.
“There is something else,” Frederick paused before leaving the room.
“Yes, what is it, dear?”
“I intend to marry Josephine if she will accept me, and I do not want to hear another word against her for the rest of our lives.”
“I do not believe that she is a suitable bride for a man of your standing. It will draw unwanted attention to you. What if word gets out about your birth?”
“Let us not pretend that I am any more than what I am, Mother.” He gave her a stern look, and she lowered her eyes in shame. “No one will ever know. There is no reason that they should, as everyone who knows has successfully kept this secret for many a year and is unlikely to divulge it now. But, Mother, you should know this… That even if marrying her meant the ruin of all I hold dear, I would still do it.”
“Is she truly worth all of that?”
