“The mothers. I know that a child of yours was born to a gentlewoman, Lady Caroline Killigrew. And that you refused to marry her.”
“In fact,” he said, “that particular girl is not mine.”
“You mean she doesn’t count as one of the six?”
“She does, but merely because she is in my care. I told you there were complications.”
“Of course the girl is yours. Lady Caroline told everyone. And her father told my Uncle Edmund that you admitted to bedding her and then refused to marry her. Everyone was so sympathetic and—” She met his eyes and caught herself. “My God. So who was the father?”
Villiers shrugged. “I have no idea. I certainly never bedded her. I think she must have been desperate. It seemed to me that as a gentleman I had to play my part in the script she had written.”
“Perhaps she hoped you would be forced to marry her.”
“I don’t think so. If she wanted to acquire a husband, she would have accused someone of lower rank, someone who would be glad of the large dowry her father would offer.”
“Saved by your dukedom,” Jemma said. “And yet you played the hero.”
“Hardly,” he said dryly. “I refused to marry her. I merely restrained myself from pointing out the fact that I hardly knew her. She, for her part, did a wonderful job of lurking at the side of ballrooms and staring at me tragically, until her father whisked her off to Canada. The child was sent back to England a few months later with a quite disagreeable note about my role in its upbringing. What on earth could I do except accept her as my own?”
“You don’t know where the mother is now?”
“Why should I?”
“Good point.”
“So her child is one of my six.”
“Who are the five remaining mothers? Nightwalkers, all?”
He waved a hand. “Play your piece, Jemma. I intend to win. And no, there are no nightwalkers among them. I have a great deal of respect for myself, and the risk of disease in those encounters is appalling.”
“You’re splitting hairs,” Jemma said, moving her king. “Call them courtesans, if you wish.”
“Their station in life is irrelevant,” he said with emphasis. Just as she hoped, he was focused on the conversation and didn’t appear to notice that her remaining bishop would soon have his queen.
“I wouldn’t agree, given that they are rearing your children. And I imagine they aren’t teaching the children chess. Just imagine all the useful lessons the girls are learning.”
“In fact, only one child is being reared by her mother,” he said.
“Oh? Then who cares for the others?”
“My solicitor makes sure that the children are well cared for.”
“You don’t know.”
“Why would I? Do you—”
“If I had a child, I would know where he was!”
“So far, we have two items on the fathering list,” he said, sighing. He was being surprisingly calm. The old Villiers, the pre-nearly-dead Villiers, would have stalked from the room long ago. “Ascertain who is raising them, and teach them chess.”
“I do believe you ought to take them in yourself, as we discussed a few weeks ago,” Jemma said, baiting him. “Although I must admit that I thought we were talking of two children at that point.” She moved a pawn, calculating the number of moves remaining before she seized his queen.
He looked up. “You were joking then, and I trust you are now as well.”
“Absolutely not! Is your hand on that pawn because you intend to move it?”
He looked down with a slight frown and moved the piece.
“Children ought to live with their parents. It’s part of the duties of parenthood.”
“Don’t be a fool. I have no wife.”
“Didn’t the Earl of Ballston take in at least twelve illegitimate children?”
“He had a wife.”
“A couple of the illegitimate children were hers, by all accounts. So, what we need to do is find you a wife…just the right kind of wife.”
“The kind who won’t object to my children, you mean, because she has some illegitimate offspring of her own?”
“It would serve you right,” she said, breaking into a laugh at the look on his face.
“You think I should live with these children?”
“Well…no.” She moved her bishop. “Check and mate.”
He stared down at the trap she’d set. “Christ! You distracted me!”
“But it was so delicious to see your face when I suggested that you move the children into your house. Delicious!”
He blinked at the board and looked at her. “I might take in one child.”