Page 132 of The Scoundrel's Daughter

Gerald snorted. “I doubt it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen Mrs.Jennings’s son, and he is definitely not related to Uncle Thaddeus.”

“What are you saying? How could you have seen him?”

“It was when we were sorting out Uncle Thaddeus’s will.” He gave Alice an embarrassed look. “He’d made a number of bequests to her, you see. Papa got me to deal with it—dealing with a mistress being beneath his dignity. So I went to her home, and her butler answered the door. I also met a young man there, nineteen or twenty, who called herMother.” He paused for dramatic effect. “That young man was the spitting image of her butler.”

There was a short, shocked silence.

“That would explain why she never brought the boy to the city,” Alice said after a moment. “Thaddeus claimed it was too painful to meet the son who should have been his heir.”

“I wonder if he knew,” Gerald mused.

Alice thought about it, then shook her head. “No, he would never forgive infidelity, let alone being cuckolded by a butler. And if he’d known, he would never have left Mrs.Jennings a penny in his will.”

She thought about all the years of guilt and shame she’d endured for her apparent failure as a wife. And then dismissed them forever. She was no longer that woman. James’s arm slipped around her waist, and she smiled and leaned into him.

She had a new life now—a husband who told her daily he adored her, and demonstrated it in the most blissful ways. Three little girls who filled her days with joy and laughter—and cats—and a goddaughter who’d begun as an unwelcome imposition and became a beloved daughter and a friend. And soon—Alice laid a hand on her burgeoning belly—a baby.

Life was wonderful.

“Well, are you ready to go now?” Gerald asked Lucy. “The carriage is waiting, and everyone’s gathered downstairs to see us off.”

Lucy glanced around the room, checking that she’d left nothing behind, then kissed Alice and James goodbye, as well as Mary the maid. Then she turned to her brand-new husband. “I’m ready.”

Gerald bowed and gestured gracefully toward the door. “After you, Lady Thornbottle.”