Belladonna (Belladonna #1)(93)

“Know what?” Signa pressed fingers to her temples. She thought her head might explode if she didn’t get answers soon. Fortunately, the Hawthorne men took pity on her.

“Marjorie didn’t remain at Thorn Grove because she loved me.” Though they were alone in the room, Elijah spoke so quietly that Signa strained to hear him. “She stayed because she had a child.”

The puzzle snapped together.

In the eyes of society, I was already ruined. Marjorie had warned Signa to be careful with men. She’d had a child out of wedlock, and because of it, society brushed their hands of her.

Blythe looked so much like Lillian. They had the same sunburst hair, the same small features. Yet with two blond parents, Percy’s harvest-orange hair and freckled skin had always seemed out of place. How had she not seen it sooner?

“Percy is your and Marjorie’s son,” Signa said, head in her hands, “isn’t he?”

Elijah didn’t hesitate. “We kept it quiet, as much for Marjorie’s sake as Percy’s. I’d just gotten engaged when she found out, and I had no idea she was pregnant until she appeared on our doorstep with him one day. Marjorie had been disowned by her family and left with nothing. No money, no prospects, and no one who would so much as look at her twice if they knew she’d birthed a child out of wedlock. So she asked Lillian and me to raise Percy as our own, and I said yes. Of course I said yes. He’s my son, and I wanted him to have the world, not a life on the streets.”

“And Lillian was fine with that?”

“Lillian never treated Percy as anything other than her own son,” Byron said with startling conviction.

Elijah nodded. “We struggled to have a child of our own for some time, and while explaining to my new wife that there was a child I had known nothing about is not an experience I wish to ever relive, I think she viewed Percy as a blessing. From the moment she saw Percy, she loved him.”

It was as though someone had dumped an entirely new puzzle across the table. Signa pressed a hand to her temples again, sorting the pieces. “And what about Marjorie?” she asked. “Was she fine with this arrangement?”

“As fine as she could be, I suppose.” Elijah stirred his tea, recalling the memories. “I gave her a respectable job, a home to live in, and the chance to watch her son grow up. But Percy couldn’t know the truth of his lineage. There was too much I wanted for him, too much that he’d not be able to get, were it discovered that he was born a bastard. Marjorie and Lillian, too, would have been gossiped about wherever they went.”

“He’d be no more ridiculed than he is now,” Byron interrupted with a scowl. “You’re making a mockery of him and the entire Hawthorne family by ruining his prospects.”

Never had she seen such a snarl as the one Elijah flashed at his brother. “I’m not trying to make a mockery of my son; I’m trying to protect him. Just as I’m trying to protect you, you fool. For years we gave ourselves to our jobs, missing sleep, missing birthdays, missing memories. And for what? To miss my wife’s final days so that overly entitled men might spend their days gambling and drinking? For the money to afford me a lonely house that grows quieter with each passing day? My son deserves to be better than I was.

“You are not married, Byron, because you put too much of yourself into a job that means nothing, just as I did. I had to learn that lesson the hard way, brother. I believed the doctors would make my wife better, and so I continued to spend day after day at the club. I could’ve been there to help her. I could have made things easier for her, and yet I chose my work. I won’t have my son making the same choice. He will not inherit Grey’s, nor will I sell it to you and damn you for the rest of your existence. Let some other poor soul have it. We’ll keep a percentage, and we will need for nothing.”

Signa wished Percy were awake to hear his father. She hoped he’d be relieved to know that it wasn’t Elijah’s hate or mistrust keeping him away from the family business. It was love. And perhaps if Percy knew that, they could begin to repair the fraying seam between them.

If Byron was any indicator, however, there was far more to repair.

“Don’t you understand what this will do to your reputation?” Byron asked. “The moment you sign those papers, it disappears.”

“Then call me a magician.” Elijah waved away the worry. “I have all I need. The rest is a game I wish to play no longer.”

Byron slid listless fingers through his hair and tugged at the strands. “Perhaps you no longer wish to play, but that is not a choice you get to make for all of us. I’m set enough in my life that I know what I want, and it’s Grey’s.”

They would, undoubtedly, argue their point until both were blue in the face, but Signa was distracted by her memories of Marjorie’s tenderness toward Percy. Of the adoration and fondness in her eyes, and how easily she gave in to him.

She could understand Marjorie wanting Lillian out of the picture. Blythe’s poisoning, too, she could understand, for the girl likely didn’t fit with Marjorie’s idea of the family she was meant to have. But why had Percy fallen ill?

There was still one piece missing. One final piece, and the puzzle would finally be solved.

Signa. The brush of cold against her skin was so sudden she gasped, though in their bickering, neither of the Hawthorne men noticed. Come quick. Something’s happening with Percy.