Broken Legacy (Secret Lives Series)

by Colleen Connally

  “You have come.” Suddenly, she paused. “What is wrong?”

  “So it seems you live in a quandary, my dear. What do you plan to do?”

  Nana Adele sat across from her in the tiny kitchen at the rickety table where the two had retreated to converse. Eloise leaned forward, pushing the glass of water away from her.

  “It is why I’m here, Nana Adele. I need advice and know of no other I can trust.”

  The old woman rubbed her tired eyes. “I told you before you began this venture that all would be more complicated than you believed.” She shook her head. “You should not have married the man, Eloise. All was within your grasp.”

  “Do not come back on me, Nana Adele. Do you not know I comprehend well my mistake? I had no time to plot or plan. I had to keep all quiet. There was no other way.”

  “Does he know?”

  “Some, I suspect. I’m not a fool, Nana Adele. I know he is playing me, but I’ve made up my mind.”

  “Because of his children. Because he loves his children, no matter if they’re illegitimate. You have let your emotions get the best of you and are liable to lose all you have.”

  Eloise wiped back a fallen tear. She said in a low voice, “It was not mine to begin with. For once, I’m going to do what is right in this craziness. I only wanted you to know before.”

  “What? Guilt? Over what, Eloise?” Nana Adele’s old hand gripped tightly to Eloise. “You have done nothing wrong. You have been insane in your attempts to right all the wrongs you felt you have been connected to for some reason. Marguerite was your mother, child. She wanted more for you than to be known as a bastard. You know all she did to align that you were legitimate. Is that not what your uncle told you? She did all to give you to you what you deserved.”

  “Deserve? Nana Adele, my father never wanted me. You told me he loved Mama dearly and couldn’t bear her loss. I played along after learning the truth about my birth because I thought he loved her, but I suspect it was just the opposite.” She choked up. “I feel I have been used as a pawn by one or another since I was born. Do you not think I cannot decipher that my father would not have left me in the midst of all the turmoil surrounding my birth if I was truly legitimate? I have suspected I am the bastard that all have whispered behind my back. I know…I know that there was some paper that said that my father married my mother…that suggested I was legitimate.

  “I believe it is what Uncle Orville used to get my father to save me. My father did so with only the greatest reluctance. To avoid a scandal. Heaven Forbid that an honorable gentleman would let his daughter die without lifting a hand to save her! But with the action, he had no choice but to say I was his legitimate daughter. I have no doubt that Uncle Orville held something over my father’s head. But it was not his love for my poor mother. Non, it was not love.”

  “If you are looking for me to beg forgiveness that I held back what I suspected, Eloise, don’t look long,” Nana Adele said forcibly. “What did you want me to do? I have always fought for what was best for you. You are my daughter. You.”

  “I know, Nana Adele. I know. And I love you dearly for all you have done. But all is catching up with me. I can’t do this. I care too much. Edmund and Susanna have shown me nothing but kindness. I can’t do this to them. I don’t need my inheritance now. My husband is rich. That I know is true. He won’t need my inheritance…”

  “Oh, child, child!” Nana Adele interrupted. “Do you not know the man knows? Do not blind yourself to the knowledge in front of your eyes. How quick did he marry you! No, he has to know. You have long been intelligent in your play. As soon as he has his children, his old mistress, do you not think for one moment he won’t have your marriage annulled due to fraud! And you will have nothing!”

  Eloise stared in silence at her Nana Adele. “Non, non, he wouldn’t do that. You don’t know him…”

  “Because he whispered loving words in your ears, made love to you. You, Eloise, are reaching out for the past. He is not Luc!”

  Eloise rose abruptly, pushing back her chair until it fell. She cried, “I know well he isn’t Luc!”

  Her hands went over her face. She backed up against the wall and slid down onto the floor. Nana Adele fell beside her and took Eloise in her arms.

  “Do not let Luc die in vain. He died protecting you. Remember that. You can’t go to Paris. If your husband has found information, others will question and then what if your association with the Victome de Colognac becomes known... You would be endangered in Paris.”

  “There is no proof.”

  “They need nothing more than someone to accuse. Did you not hear what they did to Princess de Lamballe?”

  Eloise shuddered. She had well heard. All of England had heard and been repulsed. She composed herself. “I could plead well for those children, Nana Adele. This you know. It is their only chance.”

  “Oh, Eloise. It’s too dangerous. You don’t know. One minute they would hail you a hero, the next Madame Guillotine is descending downward.”

  Eloise took the hand of the woman who raised her as her own in hers. “I’m not scared of death, Nana Adele. I haven’t been since the night I held Luc in my arms as the blood drained from his body. I haven’t lived since that night. That person died that night with Luc. I survived, yes, but lived, not until Gerard…

  “Yes, Nana Adele, I have fallen in love with a man I know does not love me, but he will not abandon me. That I do believe and if I can save his children for him, I will. I know that you would do the same, for this was how you raised me.”

  Tears burst forth from the woman to the point where Nana Adele barely uttered her words. “Eloise, Eloise, I beg you not to do this. You are the reason I live…”

  “And I will not run and hide, Nana Adele. I am who I am. Trust me. I will not dishonor you.”

  “It is not a matter of honor, Eloise. There is no honor left in France.”

  Chapter Six

  Eloise spent the best part of the afternoon in deep discussion with her Uncle Orville. She met with him at his tavern, Rai d'Or. He stood, pouring himself a drink and talking to one of the men who worked in the tavern. She had no doubt it concerned her husband. Lenister would have wasted no time in connecting with her uncle.

  “I did not come to debate with you, Uncle.” Eloise turned her head slightly, just enough so she could watch his reaction.

  Her Uncle Orville D’Arcy was not a handsome man. He had never been. Short, only a tad taller than Eloise herself, his dark hair had long turned white over the last few years. He walked with a limp, for one leg was shorter than the other. His eyes were set too close together, his face scarred by a sickness that had ravaged through him when he was a young lad. Yet, he had a charm, a skill, which set him above most others around him. He had mastered the art of talkery.

  A merchant by trade, Eloise marveled at the way that he had survived the Revolution unscathed. Eloise had been certain he would have been one of the first to have been arrested in Calais. Had he not worked closely with the Marquis de Mortiere?

  But when in the dead of night, with torches burning, calling for death to all connected to the aristocrats, Eloise heard that it was her Uncle Orville that led the hysterical masses up the path to the marquis’ castle in the neighboring province of Roulelay. Eloise often wondered if her uncle had betrayed the marquis, which led to his capture and his rapid accession among the ranks of the Republic, but that wasn’t what worried Eloise this day.

  Her uncle poured Eloise a glass of merlot and handed it to her. “You know my thoughts are for you, my dear. Have I not always cared for you, protected you? I know you have objected at times to my actions, but all has been done to protect our family. Remember, Eloise, we only have each other. We can’t trust anyone.”

  “He is my husband, uncle. He is not out to do me harm nor you,” she countered. “I found his request reasonable. He is trying to save his children.”

  Uncle Orville’s expression didn’t change. “And I’m telling you tha
t if all was as he outlined, he would have his children by his side now. Why would the Tribunal keep English bastards locked up?”

  “It is the question that weighs on my mind also,” she confessed. “But it is not Lord Lenister I question.”

  “Ssh! Eloise!” His voice lowered, but carried heavily within the air. “You know well that walls have ears and eyes. Be wary that even innocent words can carry harsh consequences and they may not only be to you, but your family also.”

  Her eyes met his with the same intensity. Years before, as a young child, she would never have raised her voice to him. She idolized the man in front of her. Nana Adele told her stories of all he had done to protect her and the family, but she wasn’t a child anymore.

  “I know well what I face, uncle…”

  He leaned down for her ears only. “Then you know well it’s better never to set foot in Paris, not if even a semblance of a rumor connected you to the Marquis de Mortiere."

  She said nothing for a time, composing herself with his associating her with that man...his family.

  “It is nonsense,” she returned his words sternly. “I abhorred the man and his son..."

  Uncle Orville grabbed hold of Eloise’s arms and pulled her to him. His breath on her face, he stated soundly, “It is not only your life you are playing with, my dear niece. I won’t allow this foolish venture,” he snarled under his breath. “And it is not only our lives you play with. Even if the foolhardy venture works, what if your loving husband hears tell that the woman he married, the Lady Granville, is nothing but a common bastard? How long do you think your marriage will last?”

  She jerked back her arm and stared coolly at her uncle. Never had she seen his temper flare as it just had, but never had she gone against him.

  “I am not a child anymore, uncle. My actions are my own that I will live with. How dare you question me? Have I not seen to your welfare, the family’s welfare? Have I not attempted to repay your kindness in my rearing? I have never forgotten you or my family. Never. Do not question me now!”

  Her uncle took a step back. “Quite right. I’m sorry, my dear. I’m afraid all our nerves have been played upon. You may think you know what you face in Paris, but you cannot know what it is like now. It worsens with every day that passes. I myself have just returned. You do not know.”

  When she had been younger, Uncle Orville had been the one who had stepped in and offered to care for her welfare, taking the burden from her aging Grandpapa. He had hidden her in the countryside, away from the eyes of the town, to keep her from the malevolent comments of her birth. For Eloise, her younger years were spent in almost complete isolation, even from her numerous cousins.

  Uncle Orville's house within the confines of Calais was large. Eloise, as a child, visited with awe when Uncle Orville allowed. From the outside, the house seemed as others on the narrow streets. The foyer gave little indication of the seemingly grand elegance of the interior. Nothing comparable to the grandeur she now lived in, but to her little eyes all seemed enormously rich.

  She had been raised in the house where she had just left Nana Adele. The house had served as her home. Uncle Orville had been left with the small motherless babe of his dead sister. He chose a woman who served in his household to become Eloise's wet nurse, Mame Adele Castel. At that time, Mame Castel served as a housekeeper for her Uncle Orville. With child herself and recently widowed, the whole of the scenario worked to all advantage, only the Nana Adel e ’s babe was stillborn. Nana Adele had always told Eloise that God finds a way to comfort and she, Eloise, was hers.

  Most families of any means in France had a wet nurse to care for an infant. Though, Eloise had no knowledge she had any connection to the D'Arcy family until she turned seven. Until that time, she had not thought of who she was. Though the two older boys in the house kidded her endlessly she had no family.

  She smiled upon the remembrance of the time when she had burst into tears when Luc teased her mercilessly. He had only wanted her to stop following him down to the shoreline. No sooner than her tears fell from her eyes did Luc stop dead in his tracks. He dropped down beside her and took her in his arms.

  "I meant no harm, Eloise. It matters not. Does it? Many have no family. You have us."

  “But you said I'm not one of you."

  "In blood. But you always have a home with us. Mama would be greatly pained if you ever left."

  "And you?" Eloise asked, looking up into Luc's large blue eyes.

  "Who would I tease if you were not here?" He leaned down and kissed her cheek. She remembered it well. She had been only six and Luc eleven, but she had loved him from that moment. She remembered the moment so well, even Marc Pierre rolling his eyes upon the utterance.

  Times changed. At seven, she had been summoned into town. She loved walking the streets of Calais. Nana Adele often stopped and bought hot loaves that came straight from the glowing oven. She loved the sweet smell of fresh baked bread, but this day Nana Adele did not stop at the bakery. No, Nana Adele squeezed tightly her small hand, almost dragging her through the streets.

  "Come, Eloise, we do not have time to dawdle."

  Then she stood before the entrance steps to her uncle's home. She had never visited anyone in such a home. For that matter, she had not visited many, only the ones from the church and they lived no better than she.

  The moment she entered, she became shy. Hands reached for her.

  "This is the girl. Eloise."

  Eloise looked up at Nana Adele. "Oui."

  The woman she would later call her aunt glanced over at her Uncle Orville.

  "You want me to perform a miracle. He will be upon our steps at any moment."

  "Do what you can, Janelle. We have not time to discuss this. Give her a bath. I will hold him back until she is ready. Give her a dress of Chanti's. She is almost the same size. He has not made an effort to see his daughter for years. I doubt he will want to see anything other than she breathes."

  "I think not, my husband. If you had not tried to trick him into thinking Chanti was Eloise, I would think perhaps. Now, he is angry. He will take her. You know."

  "Non! I will fix all. You will see. You will see."

  Never had Eloise been so frightened. She understood nothing of what was going on around her. She wanted to ask questions but was afraid. Nana Adele had disappeared. The people around her seemed upset and nervous. She said not a word when the lady garbed her in the most beautiful dress, so soft to the touch. Eloise could still see it in her mind, a flowing blue gown with a petticoat underneath. All seemed so strange, as if a dream.

  Not until she was led into a drawing room did a semblance of relief flood through her. She recognized the older lady who sat next to an elderly gentleman she had never seen. She was the nice lady that visited sometimes with Nana Adele. Later, Eloise learned it was her Grand'Mere.

  The nice lady smiled kindly to Eloise. Eloise would have rushed to her side, but the lady of the house held her hand firmly. Then she pushed her forward to a man sitting in the far corner of the room. She did not know why she hadn't noticed him when she entered. His appearance demanded attention.

  "Go, my little one. It is your Papa. Do not act scared."

  The lady pushed Eloise toward the large man dressed in the most elegant of clothes. She had never seen someone dressed in that manner, not even the gentlemen she saw riding down the streets of Calais. His hair was pulled back in a queue. His waistcoat and breeches were of the darkest blue; his shirt the whitest white. His black boots gleamed to the point where Eloise thought she might see her reflection.

  He did not smile, but glared at her. He leaned down and touched her face. He turned her around. Then he said words she did not understand. He said them again. Even in her youth, she realized he wanted an answer. She had known, but she didn't understand the words he spoke.

  Then a man whom stood behind her Papa said something. The man who had only just been introduced to her as her father turned for a moment. He spoke to the man a
nd then turned back to her. He spoke in French.

  "Eloise, I'm your father. I've come to check upon your care. I would like to take you back with me."

  His words mingled together. All she heard was the intent upon taking her from her home, the only home she had ever known. Words spewed back and forth until she was left alone with the man.

  Trembling with fright, she could only stare at the man. After a moment, he gave her a smile. "You look as your mother. She was a beautiful woman. I have no doubt you will be also."

  No one had spoken of her mother before to Eloise. She gave him a tentative smile. "I did not know my mama. She died giving birth to me."

  "I know," he returned. "Come. Sit beside me. I want to know of you."

  She did not know how long they talked, but the other man returned after a time.

  "Percy, leave her. You have seen she is cared for."

  "Cared for? She talks not a word of English. I do not think she knows anyone within this house. She acts as though she has never been here before."

  "Does it matter? She is cared for. If you want her speaking English, hire her a governess. I told you before you came this was a bad idea. What will you do with her across the Channel? Questions will arise. Do you want that?"

  "I can't abide the thought of my daughter here in this house with that deplorable man."

  Then, as if they realized they still spoke French, they talked again in their language.

  Nothing was the same after that day. Her life before consisted only of Nana Adele. She had never been taught in any manner. Now she visited in her uncle's home most days of the week except for Sunday. At times she slept within the home. Not with the family. No. She wasn't allowed. She slept in the servant's quarters.

  Now, though, she learned she had relatives. She learned the lady who saw to her care was her Grand'Mere, which made her extremely happy. Her Grandpapa she did not see much. Mostly only Uncle Orville's family.

  She had many cousins, but she mainly only interacted with Chanti, Yvette, and Andre, who later became Luc's best friend. Eloise learned quickly that most within the house hated the British and hated none more so than her own father.