Chapter 5 - The Heir Everyone Wanted Except Me
The news of Clara's possible pregnancy spread before she ever took a test.
That was the first thing she learned about aristocratic society.
Nothing remained private.
A servant noticed that she refused wine.
A cousin noticed that she was unusually tired.
A lady at church noticed that Clara had stopped wearing a corset as tightly as before.
By the following week, London was whispering.
The American Duchess might finally be with child.
Clara hated every word.
She had not even confirmed it.
Sebastian wanted to call a physician.
She refused.
“I am tired of physicians deciding what my body means.”
He accepted that.
Instead, he stayed close.
Not possessively.
Quietly.
He brought her breakfast.
He canceled dinners.
He walked with her through the gardens.
He read aloud beside the fire.
One evening, Clara finally looked at him.
“I think I may be pregnant.”
Sebastian went completely still.
“Are you certain?”
“No.”
“What makes you think so?”
“My mother was very sick when she conceived me.”
She placed a hand over her stomach.
“My body feels different.”
His eyes filled with something Clara had never seen there before.
Hope.
He reached for her hand.
Then stopped.
“May I?”
She nodded.
He placed his palm over hers.
Neither spoke.
The next morning, Dr. Bell confirmed the pregnancy.
Seven weeks.
Clara stared at the physician.
“I am pregnant.”
“Yes.”
She began to cry.
Dr. Bell smiled.
“Your body was never your enemy, Duchess.”
Clara covered her mouth.
Sebastian stood behind her, eyes closed.
He looked as though he had been struck.
But their happiness lasted less than one day.
A letter arrived.
Julian requested a private meeting.
Sebastian refused.
Julian sent another.
Then a third.
Finally, a courier delivered a sealed envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Clara and Sebastian walking through the garden.
The message beneath it was simple.
Congratulations.
Clara felt cold.
“He knows.”
Sebastian's expression hardened.
“Yes.”
That evening, the estate locks were changed.
Security doubled.
Servants were questioned.
The carriage routes were altered.
Clara felt trapped.
“I don't want to live like this.”
“I know.”
“Every person in this house is being watched.”
“Because someone wants our child.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“They want what the child represents.”
Sebastian knew she was right.
“The trust.”
“Yes.”
He sat beside her.
“If the baby is born, you control Blackmere.”
Clara stared.
“What happens to you?”
“I remain Duke.”
“Can they remove you?”
“Not easily.”
“But you could lose everything.”
“I already nearly lost the only thing I care about.”
She looked at him.
He touched her cheek.
“You.”
The tension between them softened.
Then a scream came from downstairs.
They ran.
A maid had found a servant unconscious near the kitchens.
There was a small vial beside him.
Dr. Bell examined it.
“Poison.”
Sebastian turned white.
“Who had access?”
The answer came within an hour.
The cook.
The head gardener.
A footman.
Three people.
All had been paid.
By Julian.
The police arrested them.
But Julian was gone.
The next morning, Sebastian received a note.
You cannot guard her forever.
Clara read it.
Then tore it apart.
“I am done being afraid.”
Sebastian stared.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I am going to fight.”
“With what?”
She smiled faintly.
“My mother's inheritance.”
She contacted her American trustees.
Within two weeks, Clara's legal representatives arrived from Boston.
For the first time, London society learned that the supposedly helpless American duchess controlled substantial voting interests in major shipping companies.
She was no longer merely Sebastian's wife.
She was a financier.
An owner.
A shareholder.
And a woman with influence.
Julian's allies began withdrawing.
His access to family accounts was restricted.
The trust was placed under independent oversight.
Lady Beatrice testified against him.
Everything began to collapse around him.
Then Clara received one final letter.
It contained no threat.
Only a confession.
Julian admitted he had been working with Dr. Harrington.
But he denied being responsible for the original false diagnosis.
He named another person.
Lady Wexham.
Clara remembered her.
An influential woman who had mocked Clara's fertility at nearly every dinner.
“What does she gain?”
Sebastian asked.
“The same thing everyone gains.”
Clara looked at the letter.
“Control.”
They traveled to London.
Lady Wexham greeted them with outrage.
“You cannot enter my house and accuse me.”
Clara stood calmly.
“I do not need to accuse you.”
She placed the evidence on the table.
“Your payments to Prescott.”
Lady Wexham went pale.
“The falsified medical report.”
Another document.
“Your communications with Julian.”
Another.
“You arranged the original deception.”
Lady Wexham looked at Sebastian.
“He was going to marry an American nobody.”
Clara's expression hardened.
“You didn't object to me because I was American.”
“No.”
“You objected because my independence frightened you.”
Lady Wexham laughed bitterly.
“Do you know what happens when women like you enter families like ours?”
Clara answered quietly.
“We change them.”
Lady Wexham said nothing.
By the end of the week, the truth was public.
The false diagnosis had been deliberate.
The payments had been traced.
The conspiracy was exposed.
Julian fled.
Lady Wexham was arrested.
Dr. Prescott agreed to testify.
And Clara finally had something she had never possessed before.
The truth about her own body.
She was not barren.
She had never been barren.
That label had been placed on her by people who wanted her afraid.
That night, she stood beside the nursery window.
Sebastian joined her.
“There will be a child here,” she whispered.
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“But not because anyone demanded one.”
“No.”
“Because we wanted one.”
He kissed her forehead.
“Exactly.”
For a moment, everything was peaceful.
Then Clara felt a sharp pain.
She gripped the window frame.
“Sebastian.”
His face changed.
“What is it?”
Another pain.
Stronger.
She looked down.
A small stain had appeared on her gown.
Sebastian shouted for help.
May you like
The house erupted.
And in that terrible instant, Clara wondered whether the people who wanted her child gone had finally won.
