Pregnant on the Earl's Doorstep
Heather winced at that one—understandably.
‘No financial difficulties, not even a servant dismissed under suspicious circumstances. Even more recently there’s never been a photo of any Bryce falling out of a taxi, drunk at a nightclub, and no Bryce woman has ever worn the wrong thing to a royal wedding. Bryce men fought in all the wars like they were supposed to. Bryce women dutifully gave an heir and a spare to every generation. The family here at Lengroth Castle are purer than pure, whiter than white—the pinnacle of what the aristocracy should be. Looked up to throughout the land.’
‘And we need to keep it that way, son,’ his father had always told him.
Even now Cal knew he was living the Bryce legacy—keeping Heather here, where she couldn’t let on about what his brother had done. Keeping the scandal close so it couldn’t get out.
Although, now he knew about her mother, he knew for certain that she’d never tell. She’d never want to bring another scandal down on herself—or her father. And the illegitimate child of an earl who had died under what even Cal now had to admit were suspicious circumstances...that would definitely count as a scandal.
He looked over at her, another wave of guilt crashing over him as he thought about what Ross had done to her. If nothing else, he’d upended her life. And Cal hadn’t exactly helped with that, either, forcing her to stay here at Lengroth for the summer.
Heather, meanwhile, looked sympathetic but confused. ‘I can see how that level of perfection would be—’
‘No,’ he interrupted, anger flaring that she should believe it even for a moment. She’d met Ross, after all. She knew more of the truth than most. ‘The problem is that it’s all a pack of lies.’
‘Oh.’ Heather gave him a small smile. ‘I’ll admit I was wondering where Ross fitted into that picture.’
Cal ran his hands through his hair with a chuckle. ‘Ironically, Ross was the one I thought was different. I thought he’d broken the Bryce curse. That he had the perfect happy marriage and the perfect happy children. Then I came home after his death and found all of this.’
He cast his hands around him, hoping the movement would encompass both the castle, the kids, the debts, Heather’s baby—and that damn contract upstairs in his study.
‘How bad is it here?’ Heather asked. ‘Really? You mentioned that the finances aren’t as healthy as you’d like...’
Cal sighed. ‘That’s just part of it. The next logical step for the whole Bryce legacy, I suppose. Ross has run this place almost into the ground—huge gambling debts, obligations to people and companies he’d obviously made to try and buy himself some more time to get the money together. I can cover the financial stuff myself—one of the benefits of being the younger son has been spending the last decade getting out of the shadow of Lengroth and making my own way in the world. I’ve had enough success that the money isn’t too much of a problem.’
‘But you didn’t count on the scandal of an extra illegitimate child to throw into the mix,’ Heather murmured. ‘And we haven’t even talked about how we’re going to tell Daisy and Ryan the truth about that, when it’s time.’
‘Or if we are.’
That was his Bryce blood rising up again. The instinct to hide from scandal, to pretend none of it had ever happened, wish it away. But he couldn’t pretend Heather didn’t exist. And, heaven help him, he didn’t want to wish her away.
He shoved that thought down. As if the situation wasn’t bad enough as it was. The last thing he needed to do was develop feelings of any kind for the woman carrying his brother’s illegitimate child.
‘The thing I learned about scandal from my mother,’ Heather said softly, ‘is that it always comes out in the end. If she’d told my father the truth up front...managed the situation properly...maybe everything wouldn’t have been as awful as it was. But because she lied everything was a hundred times worse.’
It was hard to imagine a teacher and student relationship like that ever ending particularly well, but Cal didn’t mention it. He knew what she was really saying.