The Shocking Secret of a Guest at the Wedding (Millworth Manor) (4 page)

She was right. The very idea was absurd.

“I’m not asking you to stay forever, to take up permanent residence. Nor am I asking you for a decision as to your future. Not at the moment. You might not even like England after all.” His father’s tone was matter-of-fact, as if he didn’t care if Jack decided to accompany him or not. But the look in his eyes told an entirely different story. “However, it does seem that this is the perfect opportunity to meet my—
your
—family.”

“Perhaps another time.” Mother stood, her posture as always straight and perfect, and clasped her hands in front of her.

Jack wasn’t the type of man to act on impulse. A trip to England would involve planning and a great deal of due consideration. Arrangements would have to be made.

“I would have to take a leave of absence,” Jack said thoughtfully.

“It would also give us the chance to get to know one another. The voyage is nearly a week,” his father added in an offhand manner.

Still, now that he had discovered he had a father, it wouldn’t be at all ill-advised to spend time with him. One might say it would be impolite to do otherwise.

“A week there and a week back,” Mother began. “Why you’d be gone at least a month. And doesn’t that place poor Lucinda in an awkward position.”

“Oh, don’t bother yourselves about me.” Lucy rose to her feet, excitement glittering in her eyes. “I think it’s a splendid idea, simply splendid.”

Mother’s eyes narrowed. “But weren’t you planning on announcing your engagement soon?”

“Don’t be silly, that can wait.” Lucy waved off the objection. “It’s not as if we haven’t put off our engagement before and for far less important reasons than this.”

“You’re not getting any younger, dear,” Mother said pointedly.

Jack raised a brow. “You wouldn’t mind postponing it again?”

“Not at all,” Lucy said staunchly. “I think you should go. I think it would be a mistake for you not to go. One you might well regret.”

“Do you really?”

“Without question.” She nodded. “Goodness, Jackson, it isn’t often that a man discovers his father has come back from the grave.” She leaned toward him in a confidential manner and lowered her voice. “Although I do think you should ask how it happened that your father and his brother were both believed to be dead by their children. It’s a rather startling coincidence, don’t you think?”

Jack glanced at his mother. “Not if my aunt is anything like my mother.”

“There is that.” Lucy stepped closer and rested her hand on his arm. “Don’t forget, Jackson, I know you as well as I know myself. You already feel a certain amount of foolish guilt because you accepted everything your mother and grandfather said, or didn’t say, about your father.” She met his gaze firmly. “Besides, it would be terribly selfish of me to think only of myself. This is the perfect opportunity to meet your family and find out exactly, oh I don’t know, who you are, I suppose. To find the answers to all those questions you’ve had all these years and I think you should take it.”

Certainly the bank could get along without him.

“One thing I should warn you about.” Father chose his words with care. “No one knows of your existence. I should have taken the time to inform my brother but it did seem to me that time was of the essence.” He shrugged. “I was eager to get here, you see. For all I knew, you had no interest in meeting me. But I had to find out.”

Jack smiled. “I’m glad you did.”

“As am I.” The older man chuckled. “This is going to be quite a surprise for the rest of the family. I suspect Nigel will be quite pleased but I have no idea what the girls will think. The women in our family can be most headstrong and stubborn.”

“Then Jackson will feel right at home,” Lucy said under her breath.

“I can’t believe you’re even considering this.” Shock sounded in Mother’s voice. “At some point perhaps but now, well, it’s ridiculous and I absolutely forbid it.”

Lucy winced.

Jack stared at his mother. He couldn’t recall ever having been at odds with her before. They were usually in agreement over important matters, of one mind as it were.

In that moment, his entire life, all thirty years, came into focus with crystal clarity. Without warning it struck him that he had spent his life trying to make up for the fact that his father wasn’t around, trying to make his mother’s life better, out of some sort of misplaced sense of guilt. As if it was his responsibility. As if his father’s absence was somehow his fault. It was silly of course, as he had believed his father was dead.

The anger that had simmered within him from the moment he realized his mother had lied to him his entire life, indeed that much of his life was little more than a lie, blazed into flames.

“Do you?” Jack said coolly.

“Forbid might be the wrong word,” Mother said quickly. “But you haven’t thought this through.”

“Didn’t you say that I was more than capable of making my own decisions about my life?”

“Yes, of course, but this particular decision is . . . well . . .” Mother squared her shoulders. “It’s ill-advised, Jackson. That’s what it is. I have never known you to make poor decisions before. Obviously, it’s his influence.” She aimed a furious look at her husband who grinned back at her.

“Perhaps then I should stay here.” Jack’s gaze narrowed and he considered his mother. “As you and I have a great deal to sort out.”

“Well, yes,” she said weakly.

“You should know, Mother, that I have never been as furious with anyone as I am with you. Never imagined I could be.” His gaze bored into his mother’s. “Lucy was right. You have stolen something from me and from my father as well. The idea of putting an ocean between us has a great deal of appeal especially since, at the moment, I don’t know that I can forgive you.”

“Regardless.” She pulled a deep breath. “I don’t think you should go.”

Lucy raised her chin in a defiant manner. “And I think you should.”

“As do I.” His grandfather stepped into the library and closed the doors behind him.

“Do you?” Jack’s tone was harsher than he had intended but he didn’t care. “And what part did you play in all this, Grandfather?”

“Channing.” Grandfather nodded at the colonel. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

“No doubt,” Lucy said under her breath.

Mother shot her a sharp look.

“Life is full of surprises, Mr. Graham,” his father said in a clipped tone. “But you haven’t answered my son’s question.”

“It’s not an easy question to answer. Odd, as it used to be.” Grandfather turned toward Jack. “I did what I thought was best at the time.”

“Are you talking about separating my parents or the decision not to tell me my father was very much alive?” Jack asked.

“Both.” He glanced at his daughter. “Your mother had made what I had considered to be the sort of mistake that could ruin a life. She was entirely too young and rather foolish.”

Mother’s jaw tightened. “Thank you, Father.”

“You’ve grown out of it,” Grandfather said coolly and turned to Jack. “As for not telling you, I wouldn’t say that was a deliberate decision. More of an, oh . . .” Grandfather’s brow furrowed in thought. “An evolution, if you will. As the years went on, it really didn’t seem necessary. You were perfectly content without a father.” Grandfather paused. “It might not have been right in the strictly moral sense of the word but I think it turned out quite well. Given the same circumstances I would probably do it again. And I have no intention of defending decisions made decades ago.”

Jack stared. “You have no regrets about denying me the chance to know my father all these years? About allowing me to believe he was dead?”

“Regrets are pointless, Jackson. One never knows how the end result of one’s actions will play out. One does what one believes to be the proper course of action at the time and then moves on. Do I now think that it might have been a mistake?” Grandfather shrugged. “Possibly. But, as I said, I would probably do it again.”

Jack struggled to keep his temper in check. He could not remember ever having to do so before, at least not with his family. Indeed, he considered himself every bit as even-tempered as he was rational. But then there was nothing the least bit rational about this evening.

“At least you are willing to admit that you were wrong.” Anger sharpened Jack’s voice.

“I admitted no such thing,” Grandfather said. “I simply allowed for the possibility that I might have made an error in judgment. One’s decisions are always easier to evaluate in hindsight. However, one’s perspective on life does change as one grows older.” He paused for a moment, then drew a deep breath. “I suspect I would be most irate to discover after thirty years that I had a son, or a father for that matter.”

Jack stared at the elderly man. “Did you ever intend to tell me?”

Grandfather met his gaze firmly. “I don’t know.”

Again a knock sounded at the door and it opened without pause. Uncle Daniel popped his head in the door. “I hate to interrupt whatever is going on here but the rest of us are wondering if we’ve been abandoned. If there was some sort of crisis or worse.”

“Definitely worse,” Lucy murmured.

Daniel stepped into the library and surveyed the gathering. “From the looks on your faces, I’d say a crisis was fairly accurate.”

Daniel Lockwood’s father had become a partner in the banking and trust some forty years ago. Jack had called him Uncle Daniel for as long as he could remember and he was as much a part of the family as if he was a blood relation. In many ways, Daniel had taken the place of Jack’s father for both Jack and his mother. He had long been Elizabeth’s escort for various social functions and it was obvious to everyone, except perhaps Elizabeth herself, that Daniel was in love with her. Jack had always wondered why they hadn’t married although the answer to that was now clear.

Daniel nodded at Lucy. “You might want to join your parents. They’re getting restless.”

“Yes, of course,” Lucy said, but made no move to leave.

Daniel’s questioning gaze settled on Jack’s father. “Isn’t anyone going to introduce us?”

“No,” Mother snapped, then sighed. “Yes, well I suppose someone should.”

Jack drew a deep breath. “Uncle Daniel, this is Colonel Basil Channing.”

“Channing?” Daniel’s brow arched upward. “Are you related to Elizabeth’s late husband?”

His father nodded. “One could say that.”

“Oh, my,” Lucy said under her breath, her gaze shifting between Jack’s mother and Daniel. “The plot does thicken now.”

Mother slanted her a scathing look.

“Elizabeth?” Daniel said. “Wasn’t your late husband’s name Basil?”

“Yes, well . . .” Mother wrung her hands together and straightened her shoulders. “He’s not quite as late as one had hoped.”

“Thank you, Elizabeth,” Father said and took a sip of his brandy.

“Daniel.” Jack met the older man’s gaze. “This is my father.”

“Your father?” Shock followed by realization washed across Daniel’s face. “And your
husband?
”

Mother winced. “I’m afraid so.”

Daniel studied the Englishman. “Not dead then?”

Father chuckled. “Not yet.”

“I see.” Daniel nodded slowly. “That explains quite a lot.”

“Brandy, Mr. Lockwood?” Lucy headed for the brandy decanter without waiting for a response. Grandfather joined her, poured two glasses, and handed them to Lucy. She promptly crossed the room and gave one to Daniel.

“Thank you,” Daniel said absently and tossed back half the glass.

“The poor man’s had quite a shock, you know,” Lucy said quietly for Jack’s ears alone, handing him the second brandy on her way back to her seat. Brandy did seem like an excellent idea although good Scottish whisky might be better.

“Haven’t we all,” Jack murmured and gratefully sipped the liquor. Lucy would make an excellent hostess one day.

“Daniel.” A placating note sounded in his mother’s voice and she stepped toward the other man. “I’m sure you have a great many questions.”

Daniel stared at her. “I most certainly do.”

Mother nodded. “Yes, I did think that you—”

“At the top of that list . . .” Daniel’s brow furrowed in anger and he directed his words toward Jack’s father. “What kind of man abandons his wife and child?”

Mother winced. Lucy choked. Grandfather poured a brandy of his own.

“I’m afraid you’re jumping to conclusions, old man.” Father swirled the brandy in his glass.

“It’s not what you think,” Jack said quickly. “You have it all wrong.”

“It’s seems pretty obvious to me. In fact, it clears up a lot of discrepancies I’ve noticed through the years.” Righteous indignation sounded in Daniel’s voice. “Answer my question, Channing.”

“I’m afraid I can’t.” Father shrugged in an offhand manner. “I don’t know the answer to that particular question.”

“Oh, come now. What kind of a fool—”

“He didn’t know,” Mother blurted, then heaved a resigned sigh. “Basil had no idea he was a father. Nor did he know that our marriage was not annulled.”

“Annulled?” Daniel shook his head in confusion. “I thought he was dead.”

“Not yet,” Father said again and raised his glass in a toast.

“I don’t understand this.” Daniel rubbed his forehead. “Any of this.” He paused and stared at Mother. “You’re not a widow?”

“Not in the strictest definition of the word,” Mother said. “But I do feel—”

“All these years and you were still married?” Shock shone in Daniel’s eyes, betrayal sounded in his voice. “All that nonsense about waiting until Jackson was settled and married before you and I—”

“Really, Daniel.” Mother huffed. “That’s quite enough. I’ll explain everything later and we can discuss all of it. At the moment we have more important issues to deal with.”

“More important?” Disbelief rang in Daniel’s voice. Grandfather appeared beside him and refilled his glass. “What could possibly be more important than a dead husband coming back from the grave?”