and anger inside her. “Why? Why did he do that? Why couldn’t he have left the matter alone?” She turned to me. “I didn’t ask him to interfere. I found out about Helmswick’s bigamy months ago.”
“Did you tell your brother?”
“No! I didn’t know he knew about it until this morning.” When she’d raged at him.
“He told you what he’d done.”
She nodded.
“What about your mother?” I asked, curious how much the duchess had known. “Was she aware of Helmswick’s bigamy?”
“No. I told no one,” she emphasized, but then tilted her head. “Except Wesley. And I know he’s kept my secret. He understood what an impossible situation I’d found myself in.”
“Because of your son.”
“Yes. And my daughter. If Helmswick’s bigamy should be made public, then our marriage will be invalid, and my Georgie will lose everything. The title, the estates, his entire inheritance. They will be illegitimate.”
Georgie. She’d named her son after the older brother she’d never met.
“But you would be free,” I said evenly.
She stared to the side, her face contorted in agony as she wrung the handkerchief in her lap, her words emerging as barely a whisper. “How can I sacrifice their futures for my own happiness?”
“Was your childhood so awful?”
She turned to blink at me in confusion. “What? No, I had a lovely childhood.”
“And yet you were illegitimate.”
“That was different. The duke claimed us.”
“And yet everyone still knew the truth.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but she couldn’t.
“The truth is it was not the nature of your birth that marked your life, but the fact that those gathered closest around you loved you. Even the duke. He loved you, did he not?”
“Yes, like his own.”
“And your children will still be loved no matter the truth of your marriage to Helmswick, will they not?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then that is what is most important. I know we are reared to revere the titles and wealth of our ancestors, but whether he is a future earl or not, Georgie will never go without.”
Her brow furrowed as she contemplated this.
“I know I am oversimplifying the matter. I know this is not an easy decision. But I do not think it is quite so hopeless.”
“But it is,” she gasped. “For the proof is destroyed. John saw to that.” She shook her head at the futility of it all. “I know Helmswick. He will only use this to force me to do as he wishes. And when he discovers Renton is dead, he’ll immediately realize the truth about what happened.” She sank her head in her hands. “Now he holds even more power.”
“Perhaps the written proof is destroyed. But that does not mean there are not witnesses. Two, in fact. And I do believe the weight that your father as a duke can bring to bear on the matter is greater than that of an earl.”
She looked up, her eyes staring blindly at the spare altar at the front of the chapel.
“But only should you choose to invalidate the marriage. If you choose to stay, then you know better than I what you will face from Helmswick.” I sighed, tipping my head back to gaze at the ceiling high above. “Of course, if Lord John kills him then I suppose this discussion has been for naught.”
Her head whipped toward me in astonishment. “What?!”
I’d forgotten she wasn’t in the guardroom earlier when nearly everyone else had been gathered there. “Lord John stopped Helmswick’s carriage on the drive and forced him into the woods. The men are searching for them now. Your brother Henry said there was a trail leading through those woods to the abbey ruins, so we think perhaps Lord John plans to take him to the crypt where he killed Renton.”
Her eyes were wide and her mouth slack with shock, as if she couldn’t believe what I was saying. Then she sat forward suddenly, her hand pressed to her chest as it heaved in and out.
I clutched her arm. “You know something,” I guessed. “What is it? Is he taking him somewhere else? Where? What do you know?” I shook her, but she still didn’t respond. “Eleanor, if your brother kills Helmswick . . .” I pleaded.
She inhaled a shuddering breath, and I knew I didn’t need to finish that sentence. “Why would he take him to the crypt?” she muttered in confusion. “Isn’t that too obvious? If he didn’t want to be caught until the deed was done, wouldn’t he take him somewhere else?”
She was right. I should have recognized it sooner, but the