Page 98 of The Summer Country

“Did he?”

“Not that I know of, but what if he had? What if that child—that Portuguese child—were to be sent to be raised at Peverills?” Charles’s blue eyes were intent on hers. “No one would question such an arrangement. I was Hal’s closest and oldest friend. It isn’t beyond reason that he would entrust his natural child to me. If he should be dark skinned . . . well, everyone knows the Portuguese are dark. The child could be raised at Peverills, with every honor and advantage.”

“And where would I be in this?”

She saw Charles’s eyes flicker away and knew she’d hit the problem. “With us, as soon as we can win your freedom.”

“But not as his mother. His mother would be an unknown Portuguese woman.”

“I wouldn’t be able to claim him as his father either. Only as his guardian.”

Jenny wanted to shake him and shout that it wasn’t the same. But she suspected he knew that already. “What of the midwife who delivers the child? Even if we pay her off, there’s no guaranteeing she’ll hold her tongue. Where’s the child to live until your friend’s child arrives from Portugal?”

“I hadn’t thought of the former, I confess. But I do have some thoughts on the latter. I know it’s not perfect. But it would be a way to keep our child with us, free.” Sensing her resistance, he said, “It’s a damnable coil. If I could think of a better way, I would. We could smuggle the child abroad—”

“No!” To transport a child so young would be a death sentence.

Charles held up a hand. “Or all go away together. Or we could let fate take its course and you can have your baby at Beckles, with Nanny Bell, and we can pray that Parliament will do what they ought and free you both.”

Jenny’s throat felt very dry. “I have more faith in warming pans than prayers.”

“It will happen, eventually. But I find I can’t risk our child on eventually.”

“What if the deception were to be discovered?”

“How would they prove it? It would be Robert’s word against mine. He’d sound mad for forcing the point. The truth would be nearly impossible to trace. I have friends in England who would help create a false trail for us if need be. . . .”

Bringing more and more people into the conspiracy, more danger of discovery. Jenny put her hands protectively over her stomach. “And where will our child live when he’s meant to be traveling from Portugal? Who will nurse him?”

Charles sat a little straighter. “Jonathan Fenty has a sister with a new baby.” His lips twisted in a half smile. “I know because I had our housekeeper give Jonathan a rattle and some old dresses for the baby. They live in St. Andrew, in an area so remote that many never even get so far as Speightstown. If a child were to be fostered there, just for a year, there would be no tattling tongues to bear word back to Beckles.”

Jenny thought of Fenty, with his hair clubbed back in a queue, his hard face, his watchful eyes. “Do you trust him so far?”

“Absolutely,” said Charles, without hesitation. “What reason would he have to betray us?”

What reason did anyone have to betray anyone else? And yet people did so all the time, for money or love or sheer ill temper.

“How do we know his sister would care for our child?”

“Because I would pay her,” said Charles. “And we’d have Jonathan to keep an eye for us. No one could find it strange that he wanted to visit his family once a fortnight.”

“Have you broached this with him yet?”

“No. I wouldn’t without speaking to you first. If you mislike it . . . we’ll think of something else.”

He’d already said he could think of no other way.

“I mislike everything,” said Jenny, letting herself lean against him. She was so tired, so very tired, their growing child sapping her strength, weakening her resolve.

Charles smoothed the hair back from her forehead. “We could still go away together.”

Jenny shook her head. “It’s too late for that. I’d as lief not have our child born with fins.”

“We’d be on a ship, not in the water,” pointed out Charles, but he didn’t argue the point.

Jenny lowered her face so he couldn’t see her expression. It wasn’t fair to resent him for not wanting to throw everything away for her and their child. He had offered, after all. It was more than most would have done. What did she expect? She was lucky he was standing by her so far, she knew that.

But it stung a bit, all the same.