Page 143 of A Baby to Seal the Duke’s Fate

Honora stepped back again, watching with great interest. The prim, shrewd noblewoman Honora had known since her first days at Belgrave was suddenly transformed into a kind grandmotherly figure. Cecily pulled again, harder this time, and her grandmother let her.

“I did not expect to be permitted this,” the dowager said eventually, more quietly than before.

Honora nodded. “I was surprised that you wanted to hold her.”

The dowager met her gaze over Cecily’s head. The child had leaned in to get a better look at the necklace she was accosting.

“I meant what I told you,” the dowager said. “I intend to give Cecily all the love both she and her mother have always deserved from me.”

Honora smiled. “I think I am starting to believe that you do.”

***

The next morning, Mrs. Pritchard came to find her before breakfast.

“Her Grace asks to see you privately,” she said.

“About what?” Honora asked, frowning slightly.

“She did not say.”

Honora nodded and silently followed her downstairs. The drawing room door stood open, and she stepped inside without hesitating.

The dowager sat alone near the window with a letter resting in her lap. The paper had yellowed with age, and the small, careful handwriting on it was unmistakably her own.

Honora stopped moving just inside the doorway.

She looked up at her, and for a moment, neither woman spoke at all. Then Honora’s gaze dropped to the letter and found the single name written plainly across the front of it.

Celestine.

“Is that for Celestine?” Honora asked, looking back up.

“Yes. I wrote it for her thirty years ago,” the dowager said, handing it to Honora. “And since she will never get to read it, I would like for the person who loved her most to read it instead.”

Honora’s throat closed. That was the kindest thing the dowager duchess had ever said to her. She could hardly believe it was the same woman who had glared at her coldly and tried to send Cecily away right under Honora’s nose. With a shaking hand, she took the letter and began to read.

Chapter 29

Leopold was mulling over the latest gossip from the servants, about his mother going to the nursery on her own the night before and asking to hold Cecily, when Honora knocked on the open study door.

He straightened his posture, trying to hide his delight at seeing her. But his excitement was tempered as she stepped into the room. Her face was pale and her eyes were red. She was holding a yellowed piece of paper in her hand.

“Is everything all right?” he asked, rising to approach her.

Honora nodded quickly. “Yes. Your mother just seems to be full of surprises lately.”

Leopold frowned. “What do you mean?”

Honora held out the paper to him. “This.”

Leopold glanced at the page, noticing it was a long letter, and who she wrote it to. “A letter to Celestine?”

Honora nodded. “She gave it to me this morning.”

“Did you read it?” Leopold asked, glancing at the handwriting on the front, then back at her.

“Yes, I did. I assumed she meant for you to read it, as well.”