“Is that not a bit harsh,” the Duke of Dentonshire asked Maximilian.
“No,” he replied shortly. “It is what she deserves.”
Feeling someone beside her, Eugenia was startled to find the Duchess of Dentonshire beside her. “Your gown is torn, my dear,” she said, her voice oddly thick.
“Oh. So sorry.” Eugenia tried to pull the neck of her dress back together.
But Duchess Beatrice stopped her and pulled the cloth away from her shoulder, exposing part of her shoulder and the small star-shaped mark upon it. Eugenia gaped as the woman stared at her flesh, tears filling the Duchess’s eyes. “That birthmark.”
Her hands lifted the pendant Eugenia never went without from her gown. “This necklace.”
“What is it?” Dentonshire said, still standing behind the Dowager Duchess.
The Duchess of Dentonshire raised her moist eyes to her husband. A shaky smile crossed her face as joy filled it. “We have found her. We have our daughter back.”
Chapter 37
Still stunned an hour later, Eugenia sat in the drawing room with Maximilian and her parents; she still could not believe what had just happened. Duchess Augusta and Lord Wilmot had been taken to the castle’s dungeon, exposed for being the conspirators to kill Maximilian and herself. And in the confrontation, she discovered the Duke and Duchess of Dentonshire were, in truth, her parents. “I cannot believe it,” she muttered for the fifth, or was it the sixth? time.
“Believe it, Eugenia,” the Duchess replied, smiling. “We would know that mark anywhere. And we hung that pendant over your cradle. The nursemaid who stole you from us must have put it in your swaddling clothes when she abandoned you.”
“Any idea why that woman took Eugenia from you?” Maximilian asked. “I mean it makes so little sense to steal a baby.”
Dentonshire nodded. “We went over it and over it for years. The only reason we can think of is that she could not have her own child, so she took ours.”
“Then why abandon her?”
“Guilt perhaps? She could not bring her back to us, or we would have her hanged. Or, we have often speculated, she had a grievance we were not aware of and took Eugenia out of revenge.”
Maximilian nodded thoughtfully. “I can see that as a motive.”
“It is so hard to adjust to this,” Eugenia said. She gazed at her parents in awe. “Can I call you – Mother? Father?”
“I should hope so,” Dentonshire said, smiling broadly. “You are our daughter, and we love you. And to think how close we came to losing you forever without knowing it.”
“My stepmother and brother will pay for their crimes,” Maximilian said. “I sent a messenger to York for the crown authorities to come get them.”
The Duke, Eugenia still had difficulty in thinking of him as ‘Father’, said, “While I wish I could say it is hard to believe they were behind it all, I did tell you to think of greed as a motive.”
“I will admit Wilmot crossed my mind as a suspect,” Maximilian confessed. “But I could not bear it, so I dismissed the idea immediately. My own brother? I just could not.”
“Then it is a good thing our little girl was here to save everything.”
Near tears, Eugenia gazed at her parents smiling at her. “I know it is not proper to be – emotional, but can I hug you right now?”
Her mother stood up and opened her arms. “Come here.”
Now weeping openly, Eugenia stepped into them, holding her mother close. Beatrice also wept, her arms wrapped tightly around Eugenia’s shoulders. “We even look alike,” she said, her voice heavy with emotion. “There is no doubt you are our child.”
“Mother,” Eugenia sobbed. “I have missed you every day of my life.”
“And we have missed you, my darling, my sweet Eugenia.”
Her father’s hand on her shoulder, her father spoke gruffly. “I think I need some of that.”
Weeping fresh sobs, Eugenia clenched her arms around her father’s waist, resting her head against his chest. “Father,” she gasped. “Oh, Father, I really found you.”
“You did, girl.” His chest rumbled as he chuckled. “And of all the places, we find you in the household of our friends, the Whitingtons.”
