“I would have done it for you,” he said stoutly. But would he really have? In all those years, he had changed a great deal. Lily hadn’t been his idea of the perfect wife for a long time.
For better or for worse, Giselle now held that position.
“I know you would have,” Lily said, “but … well, your parents didn’t approve. And my parents didn’t wish to go against them. Besides, you were in France. How could I have known you would inherit and come back and be rich? I thought you might die over there, and by then I would have been too old to marry anybody.”
“Too old. Likeme, you mean,” Giselle said pointedly.
“Exactly,” Lily said, completely oblivious to the insult she gave Giselle.
Oh, for God’s sake, how had he ever convinced himself to elope with this chit? He really had been stupid at sixteen. “Where were Evan and Kit during all this?”
“Here at Longmead. I was told that your parents always went toLondon for the Season and left the boys at home with their tutor and the servants, anyway.”
“Yes, they did.” That had been before they were old enough to attend Eton. He’d forgotten all about that. He paced in front of the ladies. “So, Evan and Kit don’t know the truth about Zack?”
“Of course not,” Lily said. “Your mother came home with their ‘little brother,’ and they were none the wiser. Still are, as far as I know.”
“And Heath’s father?” Giselle put in. “Did he know the truth?”
“Oh, yes,” Lily said. “Lady Heathbrook wrote to inform him of what she was doing, and he wrote back, giving his approval.”
“Of course he did,” Heathbrook spat. “God forbid he should tell me I had a son.” Then again, his father had tried on his deathbed to tell Heathbrook something but had been too ill to manage it. Could that have been what he’d been trying to say?
“Honestly,” Lily went on, “until you returned in April, I had put that part of my life out of my mind completely. Although I truly did think you already knew. I was only concerned that now that you were marrying, you might wish to claim Zachary as your son publicly. But I don’t want anyone to know I’m his mother. I have my own children, and my husband wouldn’t—”
Something crashed to the floor in the hall behind Heath. He whirled to see Zack picking up a tin box, his expression haunted.
Oh, bloody hell.
“You arenotmy mother!” Zack shouted tearfully at Lily. “It’s a lie! My mother is …wasthe Countess of Heathbrook, and my father—” He looked up at Heathbrook, gave a little cry, and ran back down the hall.
“Zack!” Heath bellowed. “Zachary Oakden, come back here!” He glanced at Giselle, not wanting to leave her alone with Lily, but also not wanting to abandon his brother in the lad’s time of need.
Not his brother—hisson,for Christ’s sake. He had a son.
“Go,” Giselle said with concern on her face. “I shall be fine.”
That was all the encouragement he needed to run after Zack.
But by the time he reached Zack’s room, the lad had locked the door. “Zack, let me in!” he shouted, pounding on the door.
“Go away!” the boy yelled. “I don’t want to talk to you!”
“I didn’t know about you, lad,” he said through the door. “I swear.”
“I don’t believe you! Go away!”
“I don’t want to go away.” Heathbrook dragged in a heavy breath. “We need to talk.”
“Th-There’s n-nothing to t-talk about,” Zack sputtered.
Then Heathbrook heard what he was almost certain was crying coming from the other side of the door. It tore his heart in two. Even when he’d thought Zack was his brother, he couldn’t have borne the lad’s tears, but now that he knew the boy was his son?
God curse his parents for never telling him!
He laid his head against the door. “Zack, please let me in.”
But all he could hear was sobbing.