Chapter 79

“Well, heran off. Back to England with the money. Leaving Anne and…oh.” Matthias stared hard at the name at the beginning of the next letter before skimming it with a feeling of dread. By the end, it wasn’t as bad as he feared, but it certainly raised all the questions he never wanted to face.

“Matthias?”

“Anne went to my father, desperate for help, and in the course of consoling her…” Matthias released a breath that seemed to have been building for years. “Let us say only that when Lady Anne and her babe died in childbirth, there were two candidates for fatherhood, neither of which was General Morrow. General Morrow, poor soul, appears to have asked my father to hold the letters to until after Esmond was apprehended, to at least save his wife from some of the scandal.”

“Poor man, but he must have known that avoiding scandal would be impossible once Esmond was caught.”