“Damn it, Leonora.” Some color returned to his cheeks, but not much. “What do you think you know?”
Leonora stared at his face, and for the first time, she saw more than the role of a brother he had assumed—a man more at a loss than she could have imagined. A man backed farther intoa corner she had ever envisioned. “I know you are my father. I’ve known for the past six years.”
“Christ, I need to sit.” He staggered to a chair and plopped down, burying his face in his hands. He glanced at her between his fingers. “How?”
“I overheard you questioning Mama and Papa one evening after dinner about the decision to keep the truth from me. Ironically, that question revealed it to me.”
A tense pause. “Why didn’t you confront us? Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
Leonora shrugged lightly. “Honestly, I cannot say. At first, for about a second or two, perhaps an hour or two, I felt betrayed. But even as I felt that betrayal, I understood that you all had made the decisions you’d made to protect me. To give me the best life.”
“Christ.” The heels of his palms pressed against his eyes. “This is too much.”
Her heart pinched. “Oh, it’s not that much. Simply a truth revealed.”
His head fell back, hands not leaving his face. “I thought you would hate me if you ever discovered the truth.”
Hate him. “I could never hate my family, Heart. I can grapple with what to call you, tease you, argue with you, but never hate you. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to hurt you.” She hadn’t wanted to open wounds which appeared to be tearing at him now. This was why she’d never felt confident enough to expose him.
“You should hate me. I was a blackguard. I didn’t do the right thing when it mattered.”
“You mean with my real mother. The Duchess of Crane.”
His hands fell away, and his red eyes stared back at her. “How...?”
“Honestly, it was Calstone.”
“The duke? How . . .”
His confusion brought a small smile to the corner of her lips. “He commented on my uncanny likeness to the duchess. So I suspected, and then you and Mama confirmed my suspicions. And any sliver of doubt I retained, you just dispelled.”
“Mother?”
Leonora bit her lip. “Yes, Mother.”
He stilled, then let out a loud curse. “Grapple with titles, you said. Understood. This is deuced uncomfortable.” He inhaled deeply. “Mother is not in Wales, I take it?”
“You didn’t know?” Leonora asked.
He shook his head. “You spotted her?”
“On my last morning ride.”
A scowl formed on his brow. “The one you had with that ruffian?”
“Let’s not divert from the topic at hand,father.”
“Christ, don’t call me that. My old heart can’t take it.”
Leonora stared at her father. Her brother. Heart. A man fraught with flaws, demons, mistakes. “I don’t blame you for the choices in the past.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I don’t even blame my birth mother.”
“Damn it.” His face fell back into his hands. “If I had done the right thing, none of this would have happened. She would not have been forced to give you up, forced into a marriage she didn’t want, forced to live a life...”
“Heart.”
His entire body clenched up before her eyes. She stepped up to him, lowered to her haunches, pulled his hands from his face.
His dewy eyes met hers.