Page 46 of The Remarkable Myth of a Nameless Lady
She caught his hand. “Stop. Just stop. Talk to me. Why did you trust him?”
He shook his head. “Alicia, my pet, there are things I have never told you. Things…about your mother.”
Alicia stumbled back, coming up short against the footstool and sinking down to sit again, not because she wanted to, but because her legs would no longer support her. “What about my mother? You have told me all there is to know.”
He winced, and rubbed his hand over his face again. His eyes were tired, and filled with sorrow. “I might have left out a few things.”
“Like what?” she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. “You told me about her, about meeting her when you went to buy horses in England, she being the daughter of the Lord who bred that bay you used to ride.”
“Aye, she was a bonny mare…”
“Da!” Alicia could have screamed from frustration. “We were talking about my mother. About Juliet, whose hair was like the sun,” she said, quoting the story the way he always told it, almost desperately. “You said she was sickly, but you loved her all the same. That you brought her here, but she died when we were born. That is all there is to know. You said so yourself.”
“I said all that, aye.” He reached down to rummage on the floor under his chair. “I could have sworn I had a bottle here somewhere…” He came up triumphant, only to swear when he realized the decanter he held was likewise empty.
She was on him in an instant, wrenching the decanter away and throwing it on the hearth beside its mate. The glass shattered, sparking bits that reflected the light of the fire, which was dying low, sending the room into deep shadows.
“What have you kept hidden from me, from us? What did you not tell Adam?”
“Adam…his death was my fault, too. Did you know it? I felt so guilty about losing the estate that I pushed him. Oh, I admit it, dinna look so shocked. He was too young, too scared, but I invoked the name of Ballyroyal as though it were a magic talisman and he fought. My God, he fought as well as any of them. Died every bit as well.”
“You still have not explained. Why did you sell our land to the old Duke? Why would you give away our title, our home? There are Irish nobility still, what could possibly induce you to throw away everything?”
“I had already lost everything. My Juliet, as beautiful as the rising sun, had already been taken from me, and when her brother came to me and told me this was the right thing to do, I believed him. Why would I not? They were twins, too, though they looked not a thing alike. Not the way of you and Adam, who were as two peas in a pod.”
“Her brother? Our mother had a brother?” Alicia blinked. “I thought… You had said her family was dead. Is the whole of it a lie?”
“Oh, they died long ago. Her sister-in-law, her brother’s wife, though, she was a conniving thing. She came to Ireland and saw the potential. Her husband could have power, riches for the taking. He had only to prove himself. If he claimed the Irish lands as his own, without there being bloodshed, the government would reward it. The Crown was well-pleased, they said. I saw the letter that worded it thus. ‘The Crown is well-pleased.’”
“My mother’s brother,” she prompted. “Who was he?”
Her father peered up at her, and sighed, seeming suddenly very tired. “Why, he was the old Duke of Woodworth. I thought you knew.”
Chapter 34
Alicia stared at her father, reeling in shock. “My uncle was… the old Duke? So, my aunt is… the Duchess of Woodworth?”
He nodded woozily. “Aye, though I don’t take kindly to you calling that wretch any family of ours. She ain’t no such thing. She’s as guilty as that husband of hers, right enough. She were the one who gave him the idea in the first place. I’d stake me last coin on it.”
But that means…Her heart lurched violently, and she thought she might be sick. Her near empty stomach would not be happy about the loss of that bread and cheese. For that reason, and that reason alone, she held onto the bile in her throat and swallowed it bitterly.
If the old Duke of Woodworth was truly Alicia’s uncle, then it meant Jacob was her cousin. And just when she was starting to wonder if there was something more between them… The blow could not have come at a worse moment. She knew a lot of folks barely sniffed at that sort of thing, especially the wealthy ones, but it did not sit well with her at all. Marrying relatives only resulted in sickly children and inflictions. Given the weakly nature of her own youth, she did not want that for her children.
What am I worrying for? As if I could ever marry a Duke, besides,she scolded herself sternly.
“You’ve gone awful silent.” Her father peered at her, closing one eye so he might see her better. He always did that when he’d had a tipple or more.
“I were just thinking, Da. You’d know what it looked like if you ever bothered to do any of your own.” She paused, not wanting to rile him up when he seemed to have settled. “What does the Duchess of Woodworth have to do with them papers?” She nodded toward the fireplace, where the last remnants of her father’s pilfered pages had curled to ash.
He sighed heavily. “I wanted a list.”
“I gave you a list. The ball list, with all the arriving guests,” she replied.
“Not that list, pet. That’ll serve its own purpose, right enough, but that ain’t the most important list.”
“Da, will you be straight with me, for once?” Exasperation bristled through her, making her agitated.
“There were names on them papers,” her father said, after a moment.
