In truth, Skye could still feel the heat of his lips now. She took another sip of wine, willing herself not to lose heart. Instead, she needed to focus on the fate of her beloved uncle.
She was glad, therefore, when Rachel’s acceptance of his proposal led to an intense discussion of their daughter, Daphne, and how to reveal her parentage to her. They couldn’t simply approach her with the harsh, unvarnished truth. It would be shock enough to discover that her mother was still alive without the blow of learning that William Farnwell was not her father.
Accordingly, in the past few weeks, Kate had made it a point to become better acquainted with Daphne.
“I particularly tried to probe her feelings about her family,” Kate divulged to the group. “Daphne sounded highly wistful when she said she wished she had known her late mother. So I believe she would be pleased to learn the truth.”
“I’ve given the question serious thought,” Skye interjected. “I think it would be kinder if we allow Mrs. Nibbs to tell Daphne. As midwife, she birthed Daphne and helped care for her when she was a motherless baby. And they still have a sincere fondness for each other.”
“Do you mean in a letter?” Rachel asked. “That seems so cold and callous.”
“Not a letter,” Skye agreed. “It would be best done in person.”
“But Daphne lives in London, not Kent.”
“Yes,” Kate replied. “She prefers town to Farnwell Manor, chiefly to avoid her brother, Edgar. But there is no justification for her to visit Kent now … unless we were to fabricate a reason—perhaps say that Mrs. Nibbs had taken gravely ill.”
&
nbsp; “No,” Rachel objected quietly. “There have been enough lies already.”
“Then we must take Mrs. Nibbs to London.”
Skye concurred. “Kate and I can travel to Brackstone and engage Mrs. Nibbs’s help. We could leave as early as tomorrow.”
Hawk spoke up. “We should courier a message to her first to prepare her for making a visit to London.”
After further discussion, it was settled that Skye and Kate would leave the day after next and persuade the midwife to make a journey to London with them.
They also discussed the importance of discretion. In addition to Horace Linch’s findings about both Barons Farnwell, Macky had recently sent Hawk a report. Hawk had also consulted his attorney regarding the rules of inheritance. If a nobleman remarried while his first wife was still living, the second marriage would be considered invalid and bigamous and any children illegitimate, and the title and entailed property would devolve according to the original patent of nobility. Therefore, Edgar would not be the legal heir to the Farnwell barony.
Presumably, Edgar wouldn’t want a horrific scandal to taint his or his late mother’s name, but undoubtedly he wouldn’t want his inheritance threatened. So they must continue to keep Rachel’s existence a close-held secret.
Moreover, there was no love lost between Daphne and Edgar, Kate explained with feeling. “Lord Farnwell dislikes that she achieved her financial independence from him. For years he and his solicitors controlled her purse strings and kept her under his thumb, until Daphne managed to acquire a wealthy patron who funds her research into various species of roses. She not only has won accolades for her scientific endeavors but has earned significant sums for her drawings and watercolors.”
Skye was glad that they were making headway in potentially reuniting Rachel with her daughter—and hopefully, sometime in the future, Daphne with Cornelius. But another event of note occurred that night that dimmed the glow of success for Skye: her courses came. They were a bit late, enough that she’d begun to wonder if she might be enceinte.
The loss she felt was foolish and inexplicable. She should have been relieved that she wasn’t carrying Hawk’s child outside of wedlock. She didn’t want him to be forced to marry her because of a sense of responsibility or a guilty conscience. But her failure to conceive could instantly end their future together.
Not surprisingly, her cousin immediately detected her despondency and demanded to know what was wrong, and Skye was forced to prevaricate.
“I am perfectly fine, dearest Kate. It is merely pain from my monthly time.”
Quite naturally, Kate was avidly curious about Skye’s romance with Hawk, but while they had always shared most confidences, this one matter seemed too intimate to discuss even with her closest friend.
The need to fib disturbed Skye yet confirmed what she had long suspected: She had fallen deeply in love with Hawk.
Madly, irrevocably in love.
He owned her heart, now and forever. Her yearning for him was a physical ache in her chest—as was her fear. In all likelihood, Hawk might never open his heart to her. He’d suffered the cruelest pain imaginable, and he would not overcome his loss easily, no matter how much she willed it.
For an instant, Skye considered holding off telling him about her condition in order to gain more time with him. But if she had learned anything at all in the past weeks, it was that Hawk wanted honesty from her. And if she ever hoped to win his love, she would have to employ honorable means, which meant abandoning her usual reliance on feminine wiles and giving him the unvarnished truth.
Therefore, she quietly asked for a private word with Hawk, and when they met in his study, Skye told him in very few words about her courses, searching his face all the while.
His expression remained as enigmatic as ever as he replied. “That is good then.”
And somehow his dispassionate response hurt more than she ever dreamed it would.