His grin was bright. “Actually, yes.” Reaching down, he claimed her other hand as well. “Think of it. I could protect Lully even when I’m not close by. My title alone will guard her. And you. After all, who is going to question a duke about his daughter? Who better to represent her than a man of the same status? There aren’t a lot of us out there, you know. As we have already established, I outrank your father.”
The pain swamped her, the shame. The futility. He had no idea that he was holding her up when she felt his words would shatter her.
“What a lovely offer to make,” she said, her voice as thin as her courage. “But I couldn’t think of imposing on you that way. And I believe I need to sit again.”
He sat her down and handed her the brandy again before sitting himself.
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized, seeing the reflexive pain in his eyes as he bent his knees. “I promise to stay in one place.”
“Do not consider it,” he said, settling once again.
How could she feel worse? She did, staring into her glass as if the answer to her dilemma was swimming about before her. She fought back another bout of tears, because she didn’t deserve them. She should have ended this a long time ago. She should have shown the same courage she had when she’d taken the children and hidden out in the wilds of Cornwall.
But hiding was so much easier than the truth.
“It would not be imposing,” Adam said. “I must marry sometime. Heirs and all. I like you quite a lot, and I consider Lully a gem. Can you say your life would be worse married to a duke? You could help me so much. After all, I cannot imagine the marchioness raising you without extensive training in how to be married to a peer. We could make the title what we wanted. And we could cushion Lully and help her grow into her own title. Who else can better raise her to fulfill her responsibilities? After all, I shall be growing into my title the same time she grows into hers. We can help each other.”
She couldn’t bear it a minute longer. She downed her second glass of brandy as if it had been a cordial and braced for the renewed fire. She should be stumbling in her altitudes about now. She didn’t feel a thing. Certainly not the courage people said resided in the stuff. Certainly not peace of any kind. She just felt worse, because she had come not just to respect this man--heavens, she had respected him all along, ever since Jamie had spoken of the cousin who had nurtured him and encouraged him to be the man he was. No, now that she had finally met him, she had to admit that she had built a far more thorough fondness for him out of no more than stories and smiles. And now? Now.
“That is the problem in its entirety,” she blurted out, staring unblinking at the empty snifter in her hands, knowing that if she didn’t tell him now, her father would. And he would make it so much worse. “She isn’t.”
There was a pause. “Isn’t what?”
Georgie took a shuddering breath. “A duchess.”
Silence. Her heart seemed to crack and flake apart. She was about to shame herself before this kind man. Worse, she was about to shame Jamie and Lully. But there was nothing else to do.
“Is she not Jamie’s child?” he asked in a very quiet voice.
That brought her head up and fire into her heart, just in time to prevent it dying. “Did you not take a good look at her?” she demanded, truly outraged. “Did you not see Jamie in her smile? In her whimsy and, sweet lord, her beautiful hair? All she got from me were her eyes and her reserve.” Without her permission tears collected again in her eyes. “If she had received Jamie’s personality, she would have taken you under her wing and patted your hand like a puppy. She would have dragged you outside to play and fed you scones in the kitchen.”
She wasn’t as astonished as she should have been to see Adam’s eyes brighten with his own tears. “I know. “He cleared his voice and dipped his head. “It is her smile most of all. That is the imp of Jamie as sure as I’m born. My apologies, Lady Georgiana. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Yes you do,” she admitted, sinking back into her seat and wishing she had yet another few fingers of brandy. “And you had every right to ask. No. There is no question who Lully’s father is.”
“Then what is the problem?”
She looked up, silently begging his understanding. Knowing she had no right to it. Knowing too that this was the moment she reached the crossroads and set off on her path alone.
“The problem is that Lully has no right to a title of any kind.”
He went very still.
“Why?”
It was all she could do to keep her eyes open. “Because Jamie and I never quite managed to marry.”
CHAPTER 6
GEORGIE THOUGHT she would never see another human as shocked as Adam Marrick. He opened his mouth, but for the longest time couldn’t seem to manage words. She swore she could almost hear the thoughts whirling in his head.
“Jamie never told me.”
She flushed miserably. “No. He wouldn’t. I had hoped he could get home in time to rectify the matter.”
A shrug completed the thought, the truth that would never change.
This time it was Adam who gained his feet much faster than he should have and began to pace, his cane thumping and his right leg dragging just a bit. Georgie remained where she was, a miserable lump of shame.
“Who knows?” he asked, not bothering to turn from where he was pouring another tot for himself.
Georgie almost asked him to simply bring the bottle over. She didn’t have enough courage left.
“My parents. Hattie Clark, my companion.”
He stopped. Looked up. “That’s all? Not even your brother or his wife?”
She shrugged. “What would have been the point? There was no consequence to the lie. We fully assumed we would spend our lives tucked away out of sight.”
“But what about when Lully came of age? She must be presented.”
Georgie lifted an eyebrow. “Must she? You saw what happened when my father found out where she was. Do you think he would be any more considerate if I were brazen enough to try to pass off my daughter among the ton?”
He downed the liquid in his snifter and refilled it before heading off again, his limp increasing with every step. She was close to begging him to sit for his own sake, but she knew how necessary movement was sometimes when shock was suffered.
“I’m sorry,” she managed.
Which brought him to a dead stop right in front of her. “What in the name of God are you apologizing for? This was as much Jamie’s fault as….”
She shook her head. “He never knew.”
Adam stared. “He certainly did. I never received a letter without a recitation of every achievement you shared of his brilliant daughter. He evidently went on a two-day drunk when she learned to walk. He wasn’t there, you see, and...”
Tears welled again in both their eyes. “Of course he knew about her. He was over the moon.”
Adam dropped back into his chair. “Then what?”
She drew another breath. “He thought I had permission for the marriage. When we stood before the priest. I was under-age when we married in Portsmouth before he sailed that first time. When my parents found out they disowned me.”
He blinked a couple of times. “That’s it? You had a license and a priest and everything?”
“Banns read. But in Portsmouth where my father wouldn’t find out. I...forged his signature.”
“But there is a license? It is recorded in a church?”
“It doesn’t matter. My father was happy to tell me he he would be delighted to announce my crime if I dared try to tout my supposed marriage. They took the license. It is undoubtedly ash long since.”
For the longest moment Adam just watched her, his eyes dark, thoughtful. And then, amazingly enough, he smiled.
Then he laughed. Georgie stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.