60. Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Jethro closed his eyes tight, his head spinning as he processed the man’s words. What could Mr Wade hope to achieve by claiming to be his father?

Despite the fierce beating of his heart, he needed to employ the logic that served him so well in his business. There were only two options. Either Mr Wade was telling the truth—or he was not.

Jethro forced himself to take several deep breaths. He had to weigh the new information with what he already knew—and it didn’t fit together.

Mr Wade must be lying, unless…

Jethro’s chest constricted as the only other alternative presented itself. Could his mother—his loving, God-fearing mother—have lied to him all these years?

He dismissed the thought at once. Why should he trust a stranger rather than the only parent he’d ever known?

He reopened his eyes and glared at Mr Wade, his normal confidence reasserting itself. “You are talking nonsense. I cannot be your son. My father is dead.”

Without waiting for the man to respond, he tucked Cassandra’s arm within his own and turned to her brother, who silently watched the drama unfold whilst battling to stay awake.

“Forgive me, Alexander. You look ready for your bed. Come. It is time we went home. ”

That was an understatement. Jethro could not wait to get out of the room—away from Mr Wade and his rash claims.

“Please don’t leave yet. Give me the chance to explain. I appreciate it is hard for you to take in, but I am your father.”

Jethro’s body tensed again. Why did Mr Wade have to keep saying that?

“My brother-in-law is almost asleep,” he said, helping him struggle to his feet. “We’ve stayed too long already.”

With Cassandra on his arm, he marched out of the room, Alexander trailing behind them, leaning on his stick.

Just outside the door, his wife pulled him to an abrupt stop.

“Jethro, wait. I think you should stay and listen to Mr Wade. Remember the miniature I found in your mother’s desk? I’m sure it’s him. He might be telling the truth. You owe it to yourself to hear what he has to say. Xander and I will take the carriage and send it back for you.”

He gave her a curt nod. If his wife thought he should give the man a chance to speak, he would, but that was the only reason he was staying.

She tilted her face up to his. “I’ll be waiting for you when you return.” And then she kissed his cheek.

Jethro swayed in his place, the soft feel of her lips on his skin rocking his balance in a way that not even Mr Wade’s shocking claim had done.

He squeezed her hand, and then she and Alexander were gone.

Jethro strode back into the room and retook his seat.

“I will listen to you, Mr Wade, because my wife thinks I should, not because I believe there is any truth in your outrageous assertion. You have ten minutes, and then I’m leaving. If you are who you say you are, why did my mother tell me you were dead?”

“Just like me—straight to the point.”

Jethro sneered, and Mr Wade rushed on. “Because I was dead to her after I left.”

“Why did you leave her?”

“Because I had to. It was the hardest decision of my life, and one that I’ve always regretted. I couldn’t have a successful business and your mother.”

“You can regret a choice you’ve made without being sorry for it. Would you make the same choice again?”

Mr Wade hesitated and then dropped his eyes. “No…maybe…I don’t know.”

“Then you chose money over love, and your only regret is that you couldn’t have both. ”

“It is no excuse, but it was my wealth that provided a comfortable life for your mother and an education for you.”

“Pshaw!” He didn’t want to listen. If what Mr Wade said was true, the man had invested in his business because of his relationship with Jethro’s mother, and it had nothing to do with his own merit, as he’d always believed.

This man’s claims swept away the confidence on which Jethro had built his life.

“And you?” Mr Wade asked. “Which have you chosen?”

“Love.”

“And yet I swear it was not a love match.”

A dreamy smile settled on Jethro’s face as he thought of Cassandra and the kiss she had bestowed on his cheek just a short while before. A kiss full of promise. He wanted to get this conversation over and done with so he could go to her.

“No, it wasn’t, but I vowed to love and cherish my wife, and I discovered that caring for her was only one step away from falling deeply in love with her.”

A scowl replaced Jethro’s smile. “ If what you say is true, and you are my father, your marriage vows can have meant nothing to you. If they had, you wouldn’t have left us.”

The sheen of unshed tears in the older man’s eyes took Jethro by surprise. “You’ve got it all wrong. It was your mother who made sure I kept my marriage vows.”

“I don’t understand. If you loved her so much, why didn’t you come back again?”

“I couldn’t. Your mother banished me after I married Margaret.”

“You divorced my mother? On what grounds? How could you treat her like that?”

Mr Wade shook his head sadly. “I didn’t divorce her. We never married.”

The foundations of Jethro’s world trembled and seemed in danger of collapse. Please, Lord. This can’t be happening. Tell me it’s not true.

“I’m sorry, Jethro. I loved your mother, but my father threatened to disown me if I married the chambermaid. He forced me to wed the bride of his choice instead.”

“Wait—my mother was a chambermaid?”

“Yes. In my father’s house. She had rebuffed my advances before, but one night, I caught her alone in my room and I kissed her. ”

Jethro leaned back in his chair, staring into space, as pieces of his past slotted into place.

No wonder his mother had got so cross with him for stealing a single kiss from a chambermaid. Why she had always urged him to respect those dependent on him.

It made so much sense that Jethro was forced to believe that Mr Wade was telling the truth. He had ruined his mother. But that didn’t mean Jethro had to accept he was the man’s son.

Mr Wade fetched a box from a side-table and rested it on Jethro’s lap. “I hoped you would take my word for it, but I brought this in case you needed convincing. It contains the letters your mother wrote to me, to keep me appraised of your progress.”

Jethro opened the lid and picked up the top letter, recognising his mother’s simple handwriting at a glance. It began “Dear Granville” and was written just six months before her death.

He could hear his mother speaking as he read her words on the page, telling this man about him. Jethro’s expression hardened as he realised she never once referred to him as your son—always Jethro or my son.

He looked at the next letter and the wording was the same.

“So, my mother knew you, and by your own confession, you took advantage of her. By my reckoning, you owed her something. You acted out of guilt. That doesn’t make you my father. There’s nothing in here that so much as hints of a closer relationship between us.”

Mr Wade grimaced. “After my marriage, your mother made me return all her letters. The only ones I still have are those that she agreed to send me each year, advising me of your progress. After her death, I hired Legg to keep an eye on you. I’m sorry that didn’t work out too well, but I was desperate for information about you. I couldn’t ask the solicitor too many questions without raising suspicion.”

“How did you know she’d died?”

“She failed to come to London to see me as planned. It was part of our agreement. One letter and one visit a year.”

“On the supposed anniversary of my father’s death,” Jethro said through gritted teeth. “It all makes sense now. Why she always discouraged me from going with her. Why she was so downcast when she returned. I thought she mourned for a dead man, but she didn’t. She was grieving over your betrayal.”

“You can stop looking as if you’d like to kill me, son.”

“Don’t call me that. ”

“I swear your mother never treated me as anything but a friend after my marriage.”

“A friend? The man who seduced her and left her for another?”

“I have nothing to say in my defence, except that I loved her, and I provided for you both, as well as I could. Do you believe me now?”

Emotion choked Jethro like never before. Every fibre of his being revolted at the notion that he could be Mr Wade’s natural son.

The man was lying. He must be. There had to be another answer.

Mr Wade seemed to take his silence as acquiescence.

“Excellent. I have no other children—probably God’s judgement on me for the way I treated your mother—and plan to make you my heir. I’d like you to come to town with me, you and your lovely wife, so I can introduce you to my associates as my son—”

“No!”

Mr Wade’s words filled Jethro with revulsion. All the shame and hurt this man had caused welled up inside him. Cassandra didn’t deserve this disgrace, and he would do whatever he had to in order to protect her. Even if he lost his business.

He would refute Mr Wade’s claims, and no one need ever know. Cut all ties with the man and bury his past so deep that it would be impossible for anyone to find it.

“You may claim to be my father, but I refuse to accept that I am your son, however much it might benefit me. You have no right to blast into my life and make demands of me. I’m grateful you didn’t leave us to starve, and provided for my education. For investing in my business when I was starting out.

“But you abandoned my mother, and I can’t forget that. Keep your money. I want nothing more to do with you.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Jethro. I’m not the first man to have a bye-blow. If I acknowledge you as my son and put my wealth behind you, no one will care if you’re legitimate or not.”

He paused at the doorway and looked back at Mr Wade.

“Don’t you understand? I would care.”

“You’ll get over it—”

“For once in your life, think of someone other than yourself,” Jethro said. “Ask God to forgive you for the way you treated my mother—and me. Then, maybe, we can talk again.”

The stricken look on Mr Wade’s face tweaked Jethro’s conscience, but anger and humiliation had obliterated the gratitude he had previously felt for him .

The man didn’t deserve his sympathy. He had made his choices, and now he had to abide by the consequences.

“Goodbye, Mr Wade.”

Jethro turned his back on him without offering his hand and stormed out of the room.