Page 18 of My Favorite Mistake
Nathaniel Cradduck’s eyes were miserable. “Like I said, this is all my fault. I’m a fisherman by trade, and in those years, we all signed on with the sea fencibles. They didn’t call us up often, but when they did, I had to go patrol the coastline, looking out for the French. And that’s why I was away when Sarah went into labor with Noah.”
He shook his head. “I should’ve made sure we were legally married as soon as we realized she was carrying. There’s no excuse for it.” He squeezed his son’s shoulder. “But Noah did come early, much earlier than we were expecting. They’d already called the banns, but with me being away at sea, suddenly Sarah was faced with the prospect of Noah being born a bastard.”
“I couldn’t let that happen,” Nick said. “I was the one who suggested it to Sarah. I didn’t think of it as me marrying her. I was just standing in for Nat because I knew if he had been there, he’d have married her in a heartbeat. It was almost like a marriage by proxy.”
“Which is not legal,” Fanny muttered.
“No. No, it’s not. But I’ll tell you this—every single person in that church, save you and your mistress who were new in town, knew that was me and not Nat standing up with Sarah.” He gestured to the mole on his lip and the bump in his nose. “We may have looked identical on the day we were born, but we don’t anymore.”
Fanny snorted. “It’s not hard to see how you came by that bump on your nose. I can easily understand someone getting an urge to punchyouin the face.”
Nat and Noah chortled. Nick cast them a withering look, then turned his scowl upon Fanny. “I fell out of a tree when I was ten years old!”
“’Tis true,” Nat said, wiping his eyes. “Which is not to say he’s never been punched in the face. Take the night of our twentieth birthday—”
“Thank you, brother,” Nick said, putting a hand on the side of Nat’s head and shoving him out of the way. “But the point is, everyone knew. Hell, even the vicar knew! But he cheerfully conducted the ceremony and wroteNathaniel Cradduckin the parish register. I gave him just enough plausible deniability that he was willing to sign off on the marriage. And everyone in Birchington-on-Sea has carried on regarding Nat and Sarah as a lawfully wedded couple ever since that day. Because nobody wanted their marriage to be invalid. Nobody wanted Noah to be born a bastard on account of bad timing.”
Noah chose that moment to step forward and seize Fanny’s hand. “Oh, please, Miss Fanny. Please, won’t you forgive Uncle Nick?” He swallowed thickly, and his eyes were miserable. “I’ve always felt like it was my fault that he lost you.”
“It absolutely was not!” Nick exclaimed in the same breath his brother said, “That’s not true, son. The fault is mine, and mine alone.”
Fanny laid her free hand on top of Noah’s. “Now, I won’t have you blaming yourself. You didn’t do one single thing wrong, so we’ll hear no more of that.”
Noah gave a jerky nod. “That’s right generous of you. But it would be such a weight off my mind if you could find it in you to take him back. Why, if you could see how torn up he’s been, even after all these years!”
Nick cleared his throat. “Thank you, Noah. Now—”
“It’s downright pathetic if you want to know the truth,” Noah confided.
Nick gave an awkward chuckle as he laid a hand on his nephew’s shoulder. “I can take it from here.”
Noah waved a hand. “He mostly puts a strong face on it. But when he’s been drinking, that’s when it all comes out. How he still thinks about you every day. How all of the women throwing themselves at him don’t make it any better, because none of them are you.” He gave a low whistle. “And you should have seen how many women were throwing themselves at him on the way here! It happened at every single inn—”
“Noah!” Nick barked.
Noah continued, undeterred. “I’ve heard him say that day at the fair was the happiest day of his life, and every day since he’s felt hollow.” He leaned forward, giving Fanny a commiserating look. “He’s got itbad.”
At this point, Nick pulled his nephew out of the way and took his place standing directly before Fanny. “Thanks so much for the ‘help,’ Noah,” he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. He turned to Fanny, his stormy eyes intense. He started to reach for her hand, then paused. “I won’t lay my hands on you unless you tell me it’s all right.” He turned to lock eyes with Billy. “I forgot myself earlier, and I want to thank you, Billy, for speaking up.”
Billy ducked his chin. “’Twasn’t much.”
Nick shook his head. “It takes a great deal of courage to say something like that to the man you’ll soon have to answer to. It’s an admirable quality, one I appreciate.”
“Thank you, sir,” Billy muttered.
Nick turned back to Fanny. “Will you hear me out?”
Fanny started to take his hand but stopped as something occurred to her. “Aren’t you still married? At least, in a certain sense?”
He shook his head. “Even if you considered me and Sarah to be married, which I don’t, the worst you could say is that I’m a widower now. She passed on a couple of years after Noah was born, ya see.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Fanny said. She was running out of excuses now, and she honestly wasn’t sure how she felt. Everything was happening too fast.
For fourteen brief, shining hours, Nick had been Fanny’s every dream come true. But she had spent the last sixteen years hating the man. Actively. Passionately. Even loudly, on those special occasions when Lord Ardingly sent a few bottles of the good stuff to be opened in the servants’ hall.
Was Nick Cradduck honestly expecting her to forget all those years of hatred in the space of seven minutes? To recast him from the story’s villain to its hero in the blink of an eye?
And… maybe he wasn’t her story’s villain. Hell, she didn’t know anymore. Maybe this was happiness staring her in the face, and she was about to throw it away with both hands.
