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“You have to listen to me,” she said, and he felt so was every bit as labored as his “I knoas mad to come here so late”

“By yourself,” he saw fit to add

“Bypeevishly “But I swear to you, I wouldn’t have done soht away”

His mouth tilted wryly “A note wouldn’t have done?”

She shook her head “Gareth,” she said, and her face was so serious it took his breath away, “I knoho your father is”

It was as if the floor were slipping away, and yet at the same time, he could not tear his eyes off of hers H

e clutched her shoulders, his fingers surely digging too hard into her skin, but he couldn’t move For years to come, if anyone had asked him about thathiht

“Who is it?” he asked, al her reply His entire adult life he’d wanted this answer, and now that it was here, he could feel nothing but terror

“It was your father’s brother,” Hyacinth whispered

It was as if so had slammed into his chest “Uncle Edward?”

“Yes,” Hyacinth said, her eyes searching his face with a randmother’s diary She didn’t know at first No one did They only knew it couldn’t be your fath—er, the baron He was in London all spring and summer And your mother…wasn’t”

“How did she find out?” he whispered “And was she certain?”

“Isabella figured it out after you were born,” Hyacinth said softly “She said you looked too much like a St Clair to be a bastard, and Edward had been in residence at Clair House When your father was gone”

Gareth shook his head, desperately trying to comprehend this “Did he know?”

“Your father? Or your uncle?”