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Louiza glanced at Bethany before speaking. "A few days ago, a newspaper published an article about you, James. It was not merely gossip. It was an accusation."

Bethany reached for a folded newspaper lying upon a side table and handed it across to James. The headline was enormous, the black lettering impossible to miss:

THE DUKE OF GLENMORE ACCUSED OF FRAUDULENTLY PRESENTING AN ABANDONED INFANT AS HIS LEGITIMATE HEIR.

Olivia's stomach dropped as she read it. She had known the secret was out, but seeing the accusation printed for strangers to read made it suddenly real. Felix's little face flashed through her mind, and she felt an almost physical pain in her chest. He was only a baby. He had done nothing wrong, yet already the world seemed determined to make him the center of a scandal.

James took the newspaper and read the article carefully, his expression becoming colder with every line.

Louiza continued, her voice strained. "The article says that a claim has been filed in Chancery. It alleges that you have knowingly presented Felix as your legitimate son despite knowing that he was abandoned. It also claims there are testimonies from several of your tenants and from the wet nurse who cared for the baby."

Olivia stared at her sister in disbelief.

Tenants. Wet nurse.

The words struck her almost as hard as the accusation itself. She thought of the people James had visited, the families he had helped, the roofs he had ordered repaired, and the provisions he had sent.

"Why would any of them do this?" she said.

James lowered the newspaper slowly. "I wonder how a nurse could possibly have orchestrated such a complex revenge," he said, his brow furrowing. "And why would my tenants agree to testify against me?"

He looked genuinely perplexed, and Olivia could see the wheels turning in his mind as he searched for an explanation.

"The nurse alone could not have arranged this even if she was bitter about being moved," he continued, tapping the newspaper with one finger. "Someone else is behind it."

Olivia felt a chill run through her. She had been so desperate to blame the former nurse because it had seemed like the simplest answer. Now she realized that the truth might be far more frightening.

The threatening letters. Could this be the same perpetrator?

She remembered it suddenly but didn't want to say anything in front of her sisters about the private matter.

"No matter what we do now," Olivia said quietly, forcing herself to speak despite the tremble in her voice, "whether we find the wet nurse and try to convince her to withdraw her testimony, the secret is already out."

She looked from James to Louiza, her thoughts racing. The carefully constructed plan that had once seemed so clever now appeared terribly fragile. Their marriage, Felix's identity, the London wedding, everything could be dragged into public view.

"Everyone will know about him," she continued, her fingers tightening around the edge of her chair. "People will question where he came from, why we hid him and whether he truly belongs to us."

James's jaw tightened, and he looked down at the newspaper again. "I am concerned about Felix," he admitted, his voice quieter now. "That is what troubles me most." He folded the newspaper in his hands, but his eyes remained fixed upon it. "I can endure accusations against myself. I can defend my title. But I cannot bear the thought of Felix growing up knowing that he was abandoned. I wanted him to believe I was his father. I wanted him to grow up knowing that he belonged somewhere."

Olivia's heart broke at the vulnerability in his voice. She reached across the small space between them and placed her hand gently over his.

James looked at her, and for a moment Olivia saw not the Duke of Glenmore, nor the stern man who had spent years protecting himself from everyone around him, but the man she had come to know. The man who visited Felix every day, who had changed the wet nurse because Olivia wanted someone kinder, who worried about a child who was not biologically his and who had spent his entire life believing himself unworthy of tenderness.

"He belongs with us," Olivia said softly, squeezing his hand. "Whatever happens, James, that will not change."

Her words were simple, but she meant every one of them. She looked toward Louiza and Bethany, then back at the man beside her, and felt a strange certainty settle within her despite the fear. They had been thrown together by circumstance, bound by secrets and an abandoned child, but somewhere along the way they had become something more.

Perhaps they were not yet the family James had once imagined, and perhaps their future was nothing like the one Olivia had dreamed of, but Felix was theirs to protect.

Whatever enemy had arranged this accusation had made one grave mistake, they had not yet learned how fiercely Olivia Shirley Delves would fight for the people she loved.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ihave always prided myself on being able to see patterns where other men saw confusion, yet this time there seems to be none. Whoever has orchestrated this scheme has anticipated my movements with unnerving precision.

By the time James and Olivia arrived at Delves House in London, defeat sat heavily upon him. He had spent the entire journey attempting to construct some reasonable explanation for what had happened, but every possibility led to another question. The claim filed in Chancery, the newspaper article, the tenants who had apparently agreed to testify, and the former wet nurse who had somehow become a witness against him formed a picture that refused to make sense.

The carriage stopped before the imposing London residence, and James descended first before offering Olivia his hand. She looked exhausted, and the sight of her tired eyes stirred something uncomfortable in his chest.