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was nobody else to look after you but me.’
‘Where was he going to take me, then?’ The question was without inflection and Chloe hated to go on with her story when Verity was already so shocked by it.
‘Your mother was buried at a tiny church on the Moor where the vicar was a good Christian. I was so glad when my family sent for us so you would be fed and warm. I didn’t ask what they intended to do until we were back at Carraway Court and I overheard an argument about which church to leave you at on the way to London.’
‘Poor little baby,’ Verity said as if talking about someone else.
Chloe longed to take her in her arms, but Verity looked as if the last person she wanted close to her now was the one who had lied to her and everybody else about who they both were for so long.
‘I stole every coin I could lay hands on that night and took what was left of your grandmother’s jewellery. I’m sorry, Verity, but I sold it when I got to London and used the money to support us until I managed to get work. I’m a liar and a thief and you must hate me for pretending to be your mother.’
‘You could have left me somewhere safe.’
‘Abandon my twin sister’s beloved child to an orphan asylum? No, I couldn’t. I loved my sister dearly, but I already loved you more.’
‘If not for me you would have a family of your own by now. Grandfather was too stupid to see how beautiful you are, but some fine gentleman would have married you long ago, if you didn’t have me.’
‘Nonsense, I was quite content to be the carroty-headed quiz of the family, my love, and I have loved being your mama, even if I am really only your aunt.’
‘No, you’re truly beautiful, Mama. Oh botheration, I know you’re not my mother now, but I can’t call you Aunt Chloe after all these years.’
‘Then don’t, but you do have a father after all, Verity. Until today all I knew about him was he was young and handsome and Daphne loved him, but from all appearances he is quite the hero and seems very ready to own you as his daughter.’
‘Mr Revereux?’
‘So it seems and the rest of their story is his to tell, since I don’t know it and your mother kept him a secret even from me, for some reason best known to herself.’
‘Would Grandfather and my uncles have kept me if they knew he was a gentleman?’
The comforting lie trembled on Chloe’s lips for a moment, but she bit it back and shook her head. ‘I suspect they did know and forced them apart. My father was a cold man and my eldest brother isn’t much better. ‘
‘Then I’ve had a better life than you did, Mama,’ Verity astonished Chloe by saying practically. ‘Lady Virginia loved us and I had you. I much prefer being me to living the kind of life you two had to at my age.’
‘It wasn’t so bad, our mother’s aunts descended on us every summer to make sure we didn’t grow into a pair of savages.’
‘So you two ran wild, yet I endure algebra, logic and geography?’
‘Such are the injustices of life.’
‘You and Lord Farenze could have married years ago if you weren’t Mrs Wheaton for my sake. That’s an injustice and a shame if you ask me.’
‘Since his lordship doesn’t go into society and I can’t see my father paying for me to come out even if he did, it’s highly unlikely we would have met in my true guise, darling.’
‘He has met you, though, and I think he loves you, Mama.’
‘And I love him back, Verity,’ Chloe admitted quite calmly now it was out in the open.
At times, she reflected, she could wish her precocious niece was a little less perceptive about the adults around her. It was probably because Verity had spent so much time with Virginia that she saw through social pretence. In a few years’ time the beaux of the ton would need to watch out when Miss Verity Revereux-Thessaly was launched into their rarefied world.
‘You two are going to get married like Lady Virginia and her Viscount Farenze did, are you not?’ she asked bluntly now.
‘Lady Virginia was fabulously beautiful in her youth.’
‘And so are you. Eve and I think this Lord Farenze loves you easily as much as the last one loved Lady Virginia,’ Verity persisted stubbornly.
‘I have had to work for my living, Verity. He really shouldn’t wed a housekeeper.’
‘He can do as he likes and I think you can, too, if you want to badly enough.’
‘And I think you need your dinner sent up and a good night’s sleep after all your adventures today, young lady,’ Chloe said as Verity’s eyelids began to droop. ‘Why not climb into bed and I’ll see if I can persuade Cook to send up a tray for you just this once.’
‘I’m not ill.’
‘Maybe not, but you’ve had a busy day, even by your standards. It won’t hurt if you play the young lady and lie abed until noon if you choose to tomorrow either.’
‘But I am a young lady, if all you have told me is true and my father intends to own me as his daughter.’
‘Indeed, Captain Revereux seems the very model of a heroic gentleman,’ Chloe said and managed to hide a nasty little stab of jealousy. Heroic and handsome Captain Revereux would soon win his daughter’s admiration and love and where would that leave Lady Chloe Thessaly?
‘I still like Lord Farenze best, though. He will never let anyone hurt me if he’s my stepfather,’ Verity argued sleepily and Chloe was glad the under-housemaid knocked at the door with the tray Cook had sent without waiting for an order.
She let her niece finish her soup and a syllabub, then sit up fighting sleep, as she had to let it all go down before she could curl into her warmed bed with a guard set before the fire and a weary sigh of relief.
‘I’ll stay with her, you’re needed elsewhere tonight,’ Brandy said, as she swept into the room with a bland smile while Chloe wondered if she should stay in case Verity had nightmares after such a day.
‘Give me time to make certain all’s well and Miss Thibett has been told Verity’s safe and I’ll be back to sit with her myself,’ Chloe whispered and Bran shook her head and shooed her away like a farmer’s wife chasing hens from her kitchen.
‘Managing female,’ Chloe muttered as she stood outside Verity’s room, glaring at the blank and highly polished closed door.
‘It takes one to know one,’ Luke grumbled as he rose from his seat just along the corridor, then tugged her further away so they wouldn’t disturb Verity.
‘You think I’m overbearing, then?’ she asked absently. It was wonderful to feel all that warmth and strength and maleness so close again.
‘Of course I do, love. It’s been your job for the past decade or more to be a managing female. You wouldn’t be much good as a housekeeper if you weren’t a little overbearing at times, now would you?’
He understood her and still wanted to spend his life with her. It was odd and unaccountable, but it felt dazzling to know that stubborn, clever, complicated Luke Winterley was indeed the wild lover of young Chloe’s dreams, as well as his slightly gruff, everyday self to make it all real and possible.
‘You don’t mind that I’ll never be able to turn myself into a meek and biddable little wife if you marry me, then?’
‘I’d be deeply disappointed if you did, my fiery, short-tempered love. Does that mean you’re thinking of saying yes to me at long last?’
‘I