They actually found her father downstairs in his study. “You can walk!” Julia exclaimed.

Gerald said at nearly the same time, “What are you doing back so soon?” They chuckled at each other. Gerald explained first. “Arthur found a stretcher to use to get me downstairs easily. I"ve missed this old chair. And it just felt wrong, taking care of business from a bed.”

“So you"re back to work?”

“Only as much as Arthur will allow,” Gerald grumbled.

Arthur tsked from his seat by the door. “Most of the day still has to be devoted to exercise.

Doctor"s suggestion. But we"re doing it down here now. He"s bloody well tired of that bedroom.”

“Don"t blame him a"tall.” Julia grinned. “As for our timing, we"d barely got to sea when a storm overtook us. We"re only back for repairs, though we do have good news.” She was beaming, so Gerald guessed, “Of the permanent sort?” She chuckled at her father. “I know what Richard told you the night before we sailed. He confessed. But why didn"t you tell me, Papa?”

“That he loves you? I almost did. But he was so sure he needed time on that voyage to convince you of it. And you"ve worked so hard these last years, Julia. You never should have had to shoulder all this responsibility as young as you are. I thought the trip would do you good, give you time to relax and enjoy yourself as you should be doing at your age. And …

well, I hoped it would end up being a real wedding trip for you.” She held up her hand to show him the beautiful silver wedding ring Richard had bought for her the day before they"d sailed out of London. This morning before they"d docked, he"d taken the ugly ring Milton had supplied for their wedding and tossed it into the Thames River before he"d slipped the new band on her finger, telling her, “You"ll only have to remove this once, the day we have a wedding worth remembering. Either on a beautiful beach in the islands, or in an old cathedral here in England—you decide.”

“When we come back next time,” she"d told him as she hugged him to her heart. “I want my father to be strong enough to walk me down the aisle.”

Gerald raised a brow at Richard now. “Didn"t take long at all, did it?”

“No, sir.”

Gerald laughed. “I never thought I was going to get to say this—welcome to the family, Son.”

They spent the rest of the day with her father. She infected him with her own excitement, about expanding the Miller holdings to include raw materials and products from the tropics.

“One of these days you"re going to have to open your own banks, just so you"ll have a place to store all your wealth,” Richard joked.

“That"s not a bad idea!” Julia agreed. “And a good project for you, actually.” Richard rolled his eyes. “From pirate to banker? Somehow that just doesn"t sound right.” The ride through the countryside the next day was solemn. Richard had agreed to go to Willow Woods because he wanted to let his brother know of their changed circumstances. That night in an inn along the way, while Richard was holding her so tenderly in bed, Julia broached the last subject she hoped to see resolved. She was still so sure that Milton Allen wasn"t Richard"s real father. The way the earl had treated him smacked of a man abusing a bastard that had been foisted on him. Richard had scoffed at the notion before, but if she was right, that knowledge was bound to make him happy. Wouldn"t it?

Richard just hugged her tightly when she mentioned it and said, “I know you think that would resolve issues for me, but honestly, Jewels, it doesn"t matter to me one way or the other.

As far as I"m concerned, he"s no relation of mine and hasn"t been for most of my life. But if it will make you happy, I"ll ask him.”

 Now she had doubts. If Richard really didn"t care, maybe she should leave the matter alone.

But she didn"t get around to saying that. He had other ideas about how they would spend the rest of that night. Nice distracting ideas indeed.

Chapter Fifty-two

AT WILLOW WOODS THEY were met at the door by an exuberant Mathew, who had apparently decided during their absence that he liked having an uncle around after all. Richard was delighted that the boy was no longer shy in his presence. Julia was already thinking about inviting Charles to visit them in the Caribbean. Mathew would love it, she was sure.

Ruffling the boy"s hair, Richard asked where the earl could be found, then sent him off to let his father know they were there. Milton was in the small library reading. He didn"t stand up when they entered. He didn"t look surprised to see them, either. In fact, he looked as if he was still gloating, exactly as he"d been the last time they"d seen him. Which didn"t make much sense.

The house looked the same, too. Julia"s workers, who had been told to leave when she did, had at least cleaned up, but nothing had actually been refurbished yet. Of course, they"d only been gone for a week. But the dowry had been delivered, along with Gerald"s promise that no more money would be forthcoming. You"d think the earl would be furious over that.

“You left in such a hurry,” Milton said, setting his book aside. “Forget something?” Richard obviously didn"t care for Milton"s smirk and got right to the point. “Didn"t Julia"s father tell you that you wouldn"t get anything more from the Millers?” Milton scoffed. “Gerald will change his mind after you give him a few grandchildren.” What an amazing delusion. Richard"s tone was incredulous as he pointed out, “We could be getting a divorce. Did that never occur to you?”

“You won"t,” the earl said confidently. “Divorce causes the worst sort of scandal in our—”

“You really didn"t think divorce was a possibility?”

“Of course not.”

“When I don"t give a damn about scandal?”

“That scandal would have touched your brother and your nephew. You give a damn about them, don"t you?”

Richard suddenly laughed. “They"re protected.”

Milton didn"t like Richard"s humor, even asked suspiciously, “What"s different about you?”

“I"m in love,” Richard replied.

“You said that before.”

Richard nodded. “Before I hadn"t realized the depth of my feelings for Julia. Now I have.

Before we were putting on a charade for you—”

“I knew it!”

“Now we"re not,” Richard finished. “So, no, there won"t be a divorce.”

“I thought you"d see it my—,” Milton began to gloat again.

Richard interrupted this time. “But that"s no benefit to you. Like Gerald, I"ve made it legal.

Nothing of mine will ever come to you in my lifetime, or beyond. I have, in fact, disowned you, which effectively removes you from my new family.”

Milton"s eyes flared. “You can"t do that.”

“It"s already done.”

Milton shot out of his chair, furious. “How dare you ruin years of planning?”

“What planning?” Richard asked curiously. Julia had slipped her hand into his for support, but she realized he was quite calm in the face of his father"s fury. “I"m an adult. What"s hers is mine, not yours.”

“We were to be one family, and families take care of their own. I expected to never want for anything again.”

“The Millers offered you a fortune to release Julia from that marriage contract,” Richard reminded him. “Why didn"t you take it when you had the chance?”

“It wasn"t enough.”

“It would have been more"n enough if you sold that collection you have upstairs in your closet.”

Milton nearly screeched, “Are you mad? I"ve been collecting those vases since I was a young man. It"s the only real passion I have!”

Julia suddenly guessed, “My God, you"ve already spent the dowry on more vases, haven"t you?”

“Of course I did. Do you know how long I"ve had to wait to buy the pieces I wanted? What little was left of our family wealth ran out long before my wife died, thanks to her parents. I was fine before then, able to buy the occasional vase I coveted. But then the prices started getting too steep and that infuriated me. You have no idea what it"s like to love something so much and be unable to obtain it. It"s important to have things of beauty in your life that you can value and love. But I couldn"t afford them anymore! Year after year my suppliers would show up with a vase they knew I would want, and I had to turn them away, again and again.”

“Do you realize how pathetic that sounds?” Richard said. “And what a fool it makes of you, that you"d place more value on hard, cold objects than you do on the people in your life?”

“Don"t you judge me, boy,” Milton snarled. “It was your mother"s fault! Her debts, her parents" debts. And on top of that, she saddled me with you! But you were going to tip the scales and correct the injustice. You were going to make this family prosperous again. And now look what you"ve done, you ungrateful whelp.”

“Are you even my real sire?”

“I raised you, didn"t I?” Milton said defensively.

“That doesn"t answer the question. But you call life with you being raised? If I"m not yours, I would rather you had given me away, even to the poorest dirt farmer. Any other life would have been preferable to the one I had here with you.”

“It"s what I should have done! Of course you"re not mine. She couldn"t wait to throw that in my face as soon as she got back from London, or tell me what a whore she"d been to assure it.

She laughed when she confessed there were so many men, she had no idea who your father was. You can"t imagine how much I hated her.”

“And me,” Richard said.

“Yes! And you.”

“I"m afraid that"s not all of it,” Charles said from the doorway behind them.

“Charles, get out of here,” Milton ordered. “This is no concern of yours.”

“Actually, it is,” Charles said as he came farther into the room. “And it"s high time I spoke up. Mother told me everything, you know. I was her only confidant. It was to be our secret. I was barely old enough to understand, and her rage more often than not frightened me. She hated you so much. I tried to hate you, too, but I couldn"t. Richard is only my half brother, but I"m the bastard she produced from cuckolding you. Richard is your real son.” Milton fell back into his chair, his complexion gone white. “You"re lying.”

“No, I"m finally telling the truth. She craved revenge and hers was twofold. She wanted you to love your bastard and hate your son. My father is the man she loved, the one she wanted to marry. She"d known him all her life. But his family wasn"t rich enough to suit them, so her parents gave her to you instead.”

“You"re lying!” Milton said again.

Charles shook his head sadly. “She loved my father till the day she died. They trysted daily in the woods near here until an emergency called him home. Then he died—suspiciously. She blamed you. She really thought you"d found out about them and arranged his death. So she devised the ultimate revenge. She wanted you to think your real son was her bastard. She was already pregnant with Richard when she went to London. But she knew she was having her lover"s child soon after your marriage. Did you never wonder why she came to your bed, begging for a child, even though she hated you?”

Milton was too shocked to reply as he stared at Richard with new eyes. Julia was speechless, too. This wasn"t a real family, being so filled with hate, lies, and revenge. That her husband had risen beyond this legacy to become the tender, caring man he was, was a marvel.

Ironically, Richard seemed unaffected by what he"d just learned.

“Well, that was certainly short-lived relief,” he remarked drily.

“I"m sorry, Richard,” Charles said, shamefaced. “I was supposed to tell him at an appropriate time, and you. There were so many appropriate times, but—I never had the guts to do it.”

“It"s all right.” Richard said, and he even smiled at his brother. “As I told my wife, whether he is or isn"t my sire changes nothing. I would have liked to think he wasn"t. I can"t deny that.

But all these years I"ve never doubted he was, which accounted for such a rotten feeling inside me, that I couldn"t love him. That seems to be gone now and I have you to thank for that. It"s a relief knowing he had his reasons, however selfish and wrongheaded, for treating me as he did.”

Milton found his voice. “Richard—?”

“Don"t,” Richard said, cutting off what sounded like a conciliatory tone coming from his father. “You know it"s too late. You let hate govern your life, and because of it, you made it govern mine, too. That"s the only legacy I have from you. But I"m cutting myself off from the source for good.”

“But this changes everything.”

“My God, how delusional you are. All bridges have been burned here. You can"t change what you"ve wrought, old man. There"s no going back. As far as I"m concerned, you don"t even exist anymore.”

The room fell silent. No one there other than Milton might have thought Richard"s statement was harsh. Milton had sundered his own family, deliberately, obsessively. There was no room for pity for someone like him.

“Let"s get out of here,” Charles suggested. “Mathew and I are leaving, too. I was misguided in thinking he needed to know both of his grandfathers, when he only really has one.”