Leatrice turned to look at Claire, saw the way Claire’s eyes were wide. “I think my mother’s mind was affected by all that had happened. Between losing her lover and her mobility, then learning that the man she’d loved all those years might have been the scoundrel her father said he was, her mind was unhinged. She divided her hate and her love into two parts: she hated anything and anyone that had to do with the MacArran name, and she gave all her love to her pretty blond son.”
Leatrice stopped there while Claire absorbed what she had been told. “If Harry isn’t your father’s son, then he has no right to the title,” Claire said softly.
“None.” Leatrice’s eyes were so intense that they again reminded Claire of Trevelyan’s.
“Did your father disown Harry in his will?”
“My father was a good man and he would never have done that. He liked Harry. He liked all of us children, but his favorite was his eldest son, Alex. I think he made an error in spending so much time with Alex, because his second son and I were left too much alone. Alex had Father, and Harry had Mother, while—” She paused and stared at Claire. “Vellie and I had each other.”
Claire gave Leatrice a look of astonishment, started to speak, then stopped. Suddenly everything made sense. She understood all of it. She understood Trevelyan’s hostility toward the duchess, the woman who was his mother. She understood the crofters’ attitude toward Trevelyan. “Do all the people in this house know that Trevelyan is the duke?”
“Most of them. When he was a child he was sent away to live with my mother’s father.” Leatrice swallowed. “Vellie was not treated well as a child.”
There were too many thoughts running through Claire’s head. She knew that he had told her very little about himself, but she had not realized the depth of his deception. He had said that he loved her, but he hadn’t loved her enough to tell her anything about himself. If he had told her he was the duke then her parents would have approved their marriage. Claire would have been given control of her grandfather’s money and all their problems would have been solved.
But he hadn’t done that. He had shared nothing of himself with her.
Claire stood up and went back to her packing.
“You have nothing to say?” Leatrice said. “I’ve just told you that the man you love is the duke and that the man you plan to marry isn’t related to the Montgomery family, but you say nothing.”
“What is his name? What is Trevelyan’s name?”
“John Richmond Montgomery. His childhood title was the Earl of Trevelyan and Trevelyan seemed to fit him. I was the one who started calling him Vellie, since I couldn’t pronounce Trevelyan.”
Claire continued packing.
Leatrice clutched Claire’s arm. “Is that all?”
When Claire looked at Leatrice, her eyes were blazing. “He didn’t even tell me his name. Such a simple thing. He asked that I love him, that I spend my life with him, yet he couldn’t so much as tell me his name.” She looked back at the trunk.
“You don’t understand. Vellie is—”
“A cold man,” Claire said, and when she looked at Leatrice, there was rage on her face. “I loved him. I fell in love with him in spite of his bad temper, in spite of his pessimistic outlook on life. I forgave him for not telling me he was Captain Baker. I forgave him for laughing at me, for using me as one of his subjects. I forgave him and I loved him, but he doesn’t know how to give love in return.”
Leatrice opened her mouth but Claire continued. “He stood by and watched Nyssa die without even attempting to stop her. He always stands on the outside of the world and watches it. He said he loved me, but he doesn’t. He confuses sexual pleasure with love. They aren’t the same thing. He has ‘loved’ thousands of women all over the world, and I was fool enough to think that I was different.”
“You are different,” Leatrice said. “Vellie has never told a woman he loved her.”
/> “Would you stop calling him that absurd name? He’s a grown man. No, he’s not a man, he’s a…a machine. He’s an observing machine. A machine that goes around the world watching and writing about it. I doubt if he’s ever really felt anything in his life.”
Leatrice was silent for a moment. “I want you to read his letters,” she said softly.
“No,” Claire answered. “I must leave. Quite suddenly I can’t bear the sight of this house.”
Leatrice put her hand on Claire’s arm. “I know we haven’t been fair to you. Mother sent Harry to London to get you. You were brought here because of your money, but Claire, you’ve given all of us more than money can buy. Because of you I have James and at last Harry has seen what his mother is like.”
Leatrice’s voice lowered. “It was Mother who had Vellie shot at.”
Claire’s hands stopped their movement.
“I told you her mind was affected. She wanted the dukedom for her precious Harry, and when she heard that her second son had come back from the dead, she assumed he was going to take the title. She hired someone to try to kill him.”
Claire looked at Leatrice with a mixture of horror and disbelief.
“My family is not like yours. My mother’s hatred has distorted us all. But I think her hold on us is broken now. Someone wrote to Harry in Edinburgh and told him what Mother was trying to do to Trevelyan. Mother knew that you were spending a great deal of time with Vellie and she was afraid that you and your money would marry Trevelyan. She was afraid that Vellie would have second thoughts about claiming the title. Harry returned to try to persuade you to marry him because he was afraid for his brother’s life.”
Leatrice smiled. “Harry has always adored his older brother. Harry was always much too lazy to do anything himself so he’s lived vicariously through Vellie’s exploits. I think Harry might lay down his life for his older brother.”