Page 9 of The Odyssean Duke

“No,” he said. “I have been away from London for the past ten years.”

“I assume you have returned to take your title,” she mused.

Stephan inclined his head, acknowledging Evelina’s words. “And I suppose you are trying to avoid an unwanted marriage.”

She blinked. “What would give you that impression?”

“Your desire to ruin your maidenhood and reputation,” he said. “That is the easiest way for a woman to evade a repulsive suitor.”

A flush of pink spread across the woman’s face. “I am offended.”

“Am I wrong?”

“Entirely,” she said. “You have turned my meticulous plan to achieve my greatest wish in life into a cheap trick to evade responsibility. That is rather presumptuous of you.”

Stephan could not withhold a bark of startled laughter. “Pray tell, my lady, what did you expect me to think? I am waiting with bated breath to learn how having a congress with a man in a tavern is yourgreatest wish in life. How noble!”

Evelina crossed her arms. Stephan suspected that she was trying to look fierce, but the expression was somewhat ruined by her delicate face. “No,” she said haltingly. “Men mean nothing to me.”

Stephan raised a brow. “Do they?”

Something subtle changed in her expression. She no longer looked fierce and angry; if anything, he would have thought she seemed forlorn. He had the sense that there was something to Evelina that he had missed, something he did not understand. “I only need one for a single night,” Evelina said. “I just want to conceive and have a baby.”

Stephan paused, considering her. “Just a baby?”

She nodded. “I want to be a mother more than anything.”

Stephan frowned and tried to think of a kind way to voice what he thought about that, which was that Evelina couldsimply adopt a baby if she wanted one so badly. “Are there no orphanages?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“Adoption is not the same,” Evelina said. “Not for me. I want to feel a baby growing inside me. I want to know that I have brought life into the world. That is all I have ever wanted, and I—I am nearly out of time.”.

Her face was so desperate and distraught that Stephan softened just a little. “Suppose that you do not succeed on that single night. You would need to repeat the act.” Stephan paused, recalling uncomfortably all that he had heard of the French pox. “You do not mean that you will conceive a child out of wedlock.”

“Why not?” Evelina asked. “It is better to have a child out of wedlock than with a philandering husband, who will share his bed with everyone except me.”

A chill swept over Stephan’s shoulders. He suspected that Evelina spoke from her own experiences. Was she married, then? Widowed? Maybe his initial assumption had some merit, but Stephan suspected that there was something more, a tiny detail that he was missing.

“I have everything I need. Money, a house, and the means to raise a…” Evelina trailed off, as if embarrassed to finish the sentence.

“A bastard,” Stephan concluded.

Evelina winced but nodded. “I have thought it through. I do not—I am prepared to leave London if necessary. I have friends who live in the countryside, and I—I am willing to leave polite society entirely if that is what I must do. It will be best for the baby to be away from prying eyes.”

Evelina clasped her hands over the table and fixed him with a somber look. Her plan was utterly ridiculous. How did Evelina expect it to work? Did she imagine that she would spend one night in a man’s bed and achieve conception on the first try? It was an absurd plan, all of it, but Stephan could not bring himself to say so. Evelina clearly believed in her plan. She was still a lady, though. He did not believe for a moment that she was prepared to carry through her plan, but the difficulty would be in convincing her of that.

“Besides, I can—I can return with a child, and it is my word,” Evelina said. “Once my child is grown, I will tell the truth, but…but that will not be for some time.”

If Evelina pursued this plan, she was bound to get hurt. Stephan had seen how rough men could be in taverns, how careless they were. Evelina was playing with fire, and Stephan could not bear it if she was hurt because he refused to be involved. Fortunately, he had something of a plan.

Stephan smirked, and Evelina’s expression hardened, as if she anticipated that he might do something undesirable. “Very well,” Stephan said, slowly standing. “I see that you are resolute in your aims.”

She tipped up her chin, her eyes fixed defiantly on his face. “That is right.”

Evelina rose, too. Stephan stalked toward her, noting the color that rose to her face and the subtle, quickened rise and fall of her chest. Long dormant passions stirred to life inside him, and he was acutely reminded of how much time he had spent at sea. When Evelina’s back collided with the wall, he pressed his weight against her slight, quivering form.

“I am willing to oblige you,” he said. “You wanted that, no?”

Evelina did not answer, save to breathe unevenly.