The Ravenscar Dynasty (49 page)

‘
Illegitimate
. Grace Rose is illegitimate then.' Cecily frowned. ‘And what did the note reveal, Ned?'

‘The name of the father.'

‘And who is the father?'

‘Actually, Mother, I am.'

Cecily sat staring at him. She was perfectly still, her face devoid of all expression. And she did not say a word.

Finally, Edward spoke. ‘You don't appear to be surprised, Mother.'

‘I am, then, yet again, I am not. The moment I set eyes on that child walking behind the bridesmaids down the aisle in the chapel, I was struck at once by her extraordinary resemblance to you. At that moment I didn't actually know who she was. When I saw her with Vicky on the terrace, saw how you were so gentle and sweet with her, I assumed…' Cecily sighed, shook her head. ‘Forgive me, Ned, but I thought you and Vicky had had an affair, and that Grace Rose was the result.'

‘
Mother
. How could you think such a thing? Vicky's a married woman!'

‘When has that ever stopped you?'

‘My God!' Ned shook his head. ‘I must have the most dreadful reputation.'

‘Well, I don't know that I would use that word…
from what
I
hear, most men envy you, and most women would…well, let's leave it at that. The less said about women and their sex lives, the better.'

Edward couldn't help chuckling. After a moment, he said, ‘There's no one like
you
, Mama. No one at all.'

‘So who is, or was, the mother of Grace Rose? I'm assuming the child was correct when she said her mother was dead.'

‘She is dead, yes. At least so I believe. Fenella thinks so, too, but actually I'm jumping ahead. Let me explain something…Grace's mother was Tabitha James. She was the wife of the choirmaster at a church in Scarborough. I met her when—' Edward paused, compressed his mouth, then said vaguely, ‘when I was very young. We became…involved, but she was afraid we'd be caught out, and disappeared from my young life, but then I ran into her again one day. In Whitby. She was widowed by this time, and had gone to live there with her sister-in-law, her husband's spinster sister. Toby James had left her…destitute.'

‘And you picked up with her again, is that what you're about to tell me?'

Edward gave his mother a direct look, and nodded. ‘Yes, I did.'

Cecily frowned, shaking her head, and then said slowly. ‘But Ned, you must have been very
young
.'

He bit his lip, and didn't answer for a moment, then took a deep breath, blew out air. ‘When Tabitha lived in Scarborough, when I first met her, I was thirteen…
she
seduced
me
at the age of thirteen. Later, when I saw her in Whitby, I was fourteen.'

Although she was appalled to hear how young he had been when he had come to know a woman intimately, at the same time Cecily realized that her eldest son was not like most men. First of all he was tall and strapping, and had been extremely well developed as a boy of thirteen. And he had appeared much older than his true years, not only in his appearance but also in his demeanour. Ned had always been rather grown up for his age, more sophisticated than other boys of the same age.

Leaning forward, Cecily now put her hand on Edward's arm and her gaze was full of understanding. ‘How old were you when Grace Rose was born?' she asked softly.

‘I must have been fifteen, Mother. I did try to stand by Tabitha as best I could.' A faint smile flickered and he said in a subdued voice, ‘There wasn't too much I could do…about giving her money. I didn't have any. But I would ask Cook for a picnic every time I rode over to see Tabitha, which was often. So I did provide food for her during her pregnancy.'

Cecily closed her eyes again, asking herself why children never came to their parents when they had problems, whatever those problems were. But she knew the answer. They were afraid to confide. And rightly so. If Ned had come to them, told them of the predicament he was in, he would have been sent away to boarding school instead of being tutored at Ravenscar. So he had struggled on his own, done his best.

‘Are you all right, Mother?' Ned asked, looking at her worriedly.

‘Yes, Ned, I am,' she murmured, and opened her eyes.

He searched her face. ‘I tried to be responsible, you know.'

She nodded. ‘Then the baby was born…and what happened?'

‘If you remember, I had bronchitis when I was fifteen, and was really quite ill for some weeks. When I finally got better, I rode over to Whitby. Tabitha was gone. In fact, other people lived in the cottage. I made inquiries, and apparently the sister-in-law had died and Tabitha had gone to London. That was all I knew.'

‘I see. You must have been upset, weren't you?'

‘I was. Yes. But I told myself that Tabitha was in her twenties and capable. I thought she had probably gone to stay with a friend in London. She once told me she had a schoolfriend who lived in Chelsea.'

‘And so you got on with your life, I presume.' Cecily raised a brow quizzically.

‘There wasn't anything else I could do,' Ned replied.

‘And then one day you met your child. With Vicky. Am I correct?'

‘You are. I was struck at once by Grace Rose's looks, and so was Will. But we never actually discussed it. He never asked me if she was mine.'

‘Not even Vicky? Didn't she spot the curious resemblance?'

‘I think she did, Mother, but the circumstances were so strange. The way Finnister had found the child in a cart in Whitechapel threw everyone off. So
I
believe. How could that child be
mine
? Vicky thought Grace's colouring was just a peculiar coincidence. She told me that later.'

‘Once the birth certificate had been found, and the
note, of course everything was out in the open. Is that the way it was?' Cecily stared at her son again.

‘Let's just say six people knew…Vicky, Stephen, Fenella, Finnister, and Will. And me. You see, Tabitha had named me as the father in the note, asking that I be contacted. There was a lock of my hair inside the note.'

‘And your address? Was that not given?' Cecily wondered aloud.

‘Just Ravenscar, that's all.'

‘But no one ever did find the note to contact you, am I not correct? Because no one ever removed the brown paper from the photograph until Vicky did.'

‘You are correct, Mother. Actually, I didn't know much myself. I told Vicky that Tabitha had gone to London and disappeared from my life.'

‘You mentioned Fenella a short while ago. How did she come into it?'

‘Fenella knows Whitby rather well, as it turns out. Although she grew up in Tanfield, she and her brother were taken to Whitby every summer by their nanny when they were children. For their seaside holidays. She was going up to Yorkshire to stay with her father, just after the note was found, so she decided to do a bit of detective work in Whitby. She went over there, talked to Tabitha's former neighbours, as well as the local trades people, and she found out two things. That Tabitha James wasn't who she said she was—by that I mean her background was quite different than most people realized. She was seemingly the only daughter of a titled family, and had run off with her music teacher, Toby James. Fenella was also given a name. Sophie
Fox-Lannigan. This woman was seemingly the old schoolfriend of Tabitha's, who lived in Chelsea.'

‘Goodness me! Who would ever have thought that Fenella would be such a clever detective, and go to all that trouble.' Cecily was impressed, and showed it.

‘Actually, you don't
really
mean that, Mother, if you think about it. Of course Fenella would want to help. And just think of the way she runs Haddon House. That's who she is, you know, a very caring person.'

‘That's true. She's also very inquisitive. Fortunately.' Cecily threw Edward a knowing look, and continued, ‘And I suppose Fenella went to see this lady, Sophie Fox-Lannigan, to ascertain what
she
knew.'

‘She did indeed look up Mrs Fox-Lannigan. Tabitha's old friend still lived in Chelsea. Unfortunately, Sophie didn't know too much. She told Fenella that Tabitha had stayed with her and her husband for a few months, and had then gone off with a man she had met through friends of the Fox-Lannigans. He was a former guards officer, and a gambler, by the name of Cedric Crawford.'

‘And Fenella found him. Is that it?'

‘No. Mrs Fox-Lannigan told Fenella that Tabitha had ended up living with Crawford in Whitechapel, in a terrible hovel of a place. Mrs Fox-Lannigan had gone to see her a few times, taking money and food, and begging her to leave this man. But Tabitha seemed fearful of Crawford, and wouldn't budge. Sophie was so troubled she kept going back, and one day when she went to see Tabitha in Whitechapel, she had disappeared. All of them had.
Gone
. Just like that, without a trace.'

‘What a dreadful way for poor Tabitha to end up. She was never found, I suppose?'

‘No. And obviously Crawford had flown the coop, disappeared into oblivion. Probably after Tabitha died. The child originally said to Amos Finnister that the man had killed her mother. But we have no proof of that.'

‘This man Crawford pushed Grace Rose out onto the streets once her mother was gone, of that I'm positive.'

‘More than likely he did,' Ned agreed.

‘Who was she really? Tabitha?'

‘She was the daughter of the Earl of Brockhaven, and therefore had a title in her own right. Before she married Toby James she was Lady Tabitha Brockhaven.'

‘Has anyone been in contact with her family?'

‘There is no family left, Mother. The Earl and Countess had no sons, only Tabitha. She was the only child. Now the Earl and Countess are dead, the title is extinct. They were rather an impoverished family, according to Mrs Fox-Lannigan.'

‘I see. How sad…what terrible lives people do have.' Cecily shook her head sorrowfully. ‘We all of us suffer such hardships at times and in such different ways.'

Edward Deravenel, at this precise moment, thought of the word
catastrophe
, and instantly pushed it away. He looked off into the distance, and then, finally turning back to his mother, he murmured, ‘That's more or less the whole story…except for one thing. Sophie Fox-Lannigan had a small trunk belonging to Tabitha. Once Tabitha and Grace had disappeared she simply put it in the attic of her house, loth to throw it out. She mentioned this trunk to Fenella, who remembered a key in Grace's cloth bag.'

Cecily nodded. ‘I know what you're going to tell me…the key in the bag fit the trunk. It did, didn't it, Ned?'

‘It did.'

‘And what did the trunk contain?'

‘Notes from me to Tabitha. Letters from her father, begging her to come home, letters that said all was forgiven. A few bits of jewellery, not worth very much. Odds and ends that Vicky will give to Grace Rose when she's old enough to have them.'

‘And what does the child know, Ned? Does she know
you
are her real father?'

‘No, no, not at all! I would never do that to Stephen Forth and Vicky. They adore the child. We discussed it at length, and I was the one who asked them to allow things to remain exactly as they were. No big revelations. I did say I would like to be part of Grace Rose's life…but only as Uncle Ned. Also, you should know that now I am head of Deravenels, and have money, I have created a trust for Grace Rose. However, she mustn't know anything about my being her natural father. It's the best way, Mother, really it is. No one gets hurt.'

‘I absolutely agree with you, Ned. You have done the right thing…Despite what some people might think, you always do. In your own way.' Cecily gave him a loving smile that had a hint of pride in it. ‘And so Grace Rose is…
seven
years old. Am I right?'

‘Yes, you are. She was four when Finnister found her, but because she's tall, like I am, Fenella was always convinced that she was five, perhaps older. Naturally, the birth certificate confirms her age.'

‘Thank you for telling me the story of Grace Rose. Now, perhaps we should go and find some of our family members, take part in the wedding tea.' Rising, Cecily walked towards the stone steps, followed by her son. As they went down the steps together she told him, ‘I'd like to see Grace Rose again, Ned. A little later. Just to talk to her for a short while.'

‘I think that's a good idea, Mother. You should get to know her.'

They made their way to the larger terrace where the two families and guests were starting to gather, and were looking for their seats.

Neville came striding towards Ned and his mother, exclaiming, ‘There you both are! We wondered what had happened to you.'

‘Just catching up,' Cecily remarked, smiling at Neville, wondering suddenly how much her nephew knew.

‘You look perfectly beautiful, Aunt Cecily,' Neville said as he led his aunt toward her place at the family table. ‘This lovely delphinium blue suits you enormously.'

‘Why thank you, Neville, and I must congratulate you and Nan. You are giving the most beautiful wedding I have been to in a very, very long time. It's superb, and the idea of a garden party was inspired.'

A few minutes later Neville drew Edward aside, and said, in a low, confiding tone, ‘Are you sure you don't want to come with me on Monday, to Paris to meet Louis?'

Oh, so it's Louis now, Edward thought, but said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks, Neville. It's your deal, and I think you should be the one to follow it through. Close it.'

‘Very well. Consider it done,' Neville answered with a bright smile, placing a hand on Edward's shoulder. ‘We make the best team, you and I.'