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Anymore than that and I will
barge in on you.”
    Her Ladyship herded the others out of
the room and shut the door.
    “What is it, Colonel?”
    “I suspect you have guessed my secret.”
    “You are the duke’s son?”
    “Yes, but I would be grateful if you
could keep that to yourself and do not even tell your step-mother and
step-sister.”
    “But surely others know. I think Mr.
Purbeck does. He seemed to look at you strangely.”
    “No, Purbeck has other reasons to
dislike me. I was once romantically attached to his elder sister. Unfortunately
I found out that she was had already made a promise of marriage to another man.
She told her family that I abandoned her, and I did not dispute the fact. If it
salvaged her pride to think so, I was not about to deny her that small
victory.”
    “What I mean is that surely others know
who you are anyway?”
    “Great Aunt Agatha does, of course. But
I took my mother’s family name as soon as I was old enough. People know that my
father has a son, but they do not know my birth name, and he has never
acknowledged me publicly. I have seen my father twice in my life. Once when I
was a baby, which naturally I do not remember. Apparently he came to see me at
our relative’s house, took one look at me and walked away. And once again when
I called him out.”
    “Would it be rude of me to ask why you
did that?”
    “My father may be a gentleman by birth
but he is not a gentleman by deed. My late mother was sixteen when they
married. It was arranged by the families so there were no illusions about it
being a love match.  However, from the very beginning my father treated
her abominably, both physically and mentally. He was violent, and he paraded
his mistresses in front of her in her own home. When she was seventeen years
old and expecting me, she fled my father’s house and went back to her family,
fearing for her life after my father had flown into a drunken rage, egged on by
his current mistress.” The colonel’s eyes became dark and brooding, as if the
pain of thinking of his mother’s suffering were too much for him. “They
protected her, of course, but she never spoke out against my father publicly.
You are aware, I am sure, of the double standards that exist in society, Miss
Haywood. A man, especially a nobleman, may behave as he pleases, but his wife
must always be above reproach and is expected to put up with ill treatment in
silence. She has no recourse in a court of law, and my father would not divorce
her.” The Colonel’s eyes became sad. “My mother died when I was five years old,
but her family, perhaps mindful of the way she was treated, refused to let me return
to my father for fear he may treat me just as badly. As it stands, they paid me
a very great favour in doing so. I did go to my father when I was twenty-one,
hoping to find him changed. It was a foolish notion.” He fell silent for a
while, as if he was seeing the scene in his mind’s eye. Calista, transfixed by
the tragic story he told, said nothing. “I suppose I thought that as he had
come to see me when I was born, he had some interest in me. He denounced me on
the spot. He said that my mother was a …” He drew in his breath sharply. “I
shall not share that word with you. I will only assure you that my mother was
everything that was good and pure in this world. That is not a son’s delusion.
That is the opinion of everyone who knew her. My father denied that I was his
son. I was furious. Not for me, but for the insult he paid my dear, gentle
mother. So I challenged him to a duel. It was illegal to do so, and still is,
but I felt that I owed it to my mother who had been so badly treated to protect
her good name. I was a better shot than my father, but still I only winged him,
simply to make my point.  That was when he disowned me completely, saying
that if I ever tried for the dukedom he would leave word with his lawyers that
I was not his true heir. He claimed he had proof that my mother