“But I will, as long as you intend my daughter and my grandson harm, even if I must—”
“Your daughter, Cyrus?” Claudia said. “No. I think it is time to end that fiction.” She swept the group with her glance. “Tonight we are speaking the truth in our hearts. It is time for you to do the same, dear Brother.”
All eyes turned to him. “Papa?” Eden whispered.
He covered his face with his hands. “Claudia—”
“Tell her.”
Slowly, he dropped his hands. “Eden, my dear—I had prayed it would never come to this. I have deceived you, hoping to protect you. In that, too, I have failed.
“You see… Claudia is not your aunt. She is your mother.”
Chapter 22
Eden let the revelation sink into the calm, quiet center of her being, where it could neither hurt nor surprise her.
She supposed that she had always known in that same deep part of herself. She had simply never admitted it even to her innermost heart.
She met Aunt—Claudia’s gaze. Claudia had behaved like a deranged stranger ever since Eden’s arrival. Her obsession with Hartley was frightening in its power, and she posed a very real threat to Donal.
But now she looked at Eden and… waited. Did she expect her daughter to rush into her arms with a glad cry? Or did she find all this an entertaining pantomime that would somehow further her cause?
Half aware, Eden moved close to Hartley. He was the one person who had not changed beyond all recognition. He put his arm about her shoulder.
“I have been your father for four-and-twenty years,” Lord Bradwell said, bowing his head. “I loved you like a daughter. But I am your uncle, Eden. My wife was your aunt.” He faltered. “She loved you, too.”
“Do not stop there, Bradwell,” Claudia said. “Tell her the rest.”
He closed his eyes. “Your… Claudia was married a year before your birth, Eden. It was a love match. But a tragedy occurred, and she lost her husband in a terrible accident on the fells.”
Claudia laughed. “An accident, yes. That was what everyone believed. Do go on, Cyrus.”
“Claudia was very ill for a time after that, and we learned that she was… with child.” He flushed. “When the child… when you were born, Eden, she was still not in her right mind, and we feared for your safety. It was necessary that I and your aunt… care for you while my sister recovered from her grief.”
“Recovered?” Claudia’s eyes flashed with scorn. “Is that what you call sending me to an asylum for the mad?” She looked at Eden. “I was there for two years. Two endless years.”
“We could not help you, Claudia,” Lord Bradwell said. “Please, try to understand. You showed no memory of having given birth when you came back to us… and it was only much later that I suspected you did know. By then, she was our daughter, and you were content to be her aunt—”
“I was never content. You believed what you wished and neglected my child while you pursued your pleasures. I was a true mother to her when you all but abandoned her.”
“I know. I know that now, Claudia. But I will make it up to her.”
“As you have done so far? You would have served us all best if you had stayed away. Eden doesn’t need you, and I certainly do not. Perhaps you should run now, or I may allow your daughter’s suitor to take his revenge upon you before I take mine on him.”
“I seek no revenge,” Hartley said. He looked at Eden, gentle and sad and showing her everything she might have called love. “I hold no enmity against him. I… regret that I ever threatened to do him harm, as I regret the pain I caused you. I ask your forgiveness.”
“Yes,” Eden said. “Yes.”
“And I—” Lord Bradwell shook his head. “I am beginning to believe that I, too, was mistaken.” His glance was for Eden alone, and with it he asked a question and accepted Eden’s silent answer. “There are many things beyond mere human understanding, but I… hope to learn.”