Free Masked Love (A Christmas Regency Novella) by Nicole Zoltack Page A

approached. Adrian’s parents moved aside, and the Haywoods approached him.
    “Who are you?” Lord Haywood demanded.
    “Lord Lionel York.”
    “And where do you hail from? What spell have you placed my daughter under?”
    Adrian snorted. He had thought Isabelle had cast a spell on him. Now he knew it had been the first stirrings of love.
    “What is so funny?” his father barked.
    Time to come completely clean. Adrian reentered the hall and held out his hand to Isabelle. “Do you trust me?” he whispered.
    She nodded, her brown eyes shining.
    He squeezed her hand, and together they walked into the room. Before he could command everyone’s attention, he saw his mother collapse on the ground. Adrian ran to her side, shoving his father out of the way.
    “Mother, Mother, are you all right?” He brushed her brown hair from her forehead, kneeling beside her, placing her half onto his lap.
    “I-I’m fine.”
    He glanced around the room for help. The Haywoods and his father were on the other side of the room, conversing. Arguing and yelling might be more apt. His mother was prone to fainting spells; his father had long ago stopped fretting over her when she had one. Isabelle flicked her fingers toward him and ducked out of the room once he nodded. She would fetch a physician.
    “That girl … the servant … she is the one you love?” Her voice was so faint he had to have his ears against her lips to hear her.
    “Yes.”
    “The heart can be fickle. Are you certain?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you know what that means?”
    “I do.”
    “And you’re prepared for the consequences?”
    “I am.”
    Her smile and the sudden happiness in her eyes had Adrian relieved and then suspicious.
    “Mother, you didn’t faint.”
    “No, I am fine. Your father … ” She sighed. “I should have told you this long ago. I never loved your father. A week before we were married, I had relations with another man—the one I truly loved.”
    Shock rendered him incapable of speech.
    “He wasn’t a lord, but he was a good man, a noble man. He would have loved you, but he died shortly after the wedding. I never had a chance to tell him you were his, for I never saw him again after that night.”
    “Why couldn’t you have been with him?”
    She touched his cheek. “You know the answer already.”
    Adrian was stunned. His father had been a servant. Or a butler. “What are you saying, Mother?”
    She knew what he was asking. “Your father may not know and will not grant his blessing, but I do.”
    “But your promise … ”
    “Is rooted in money.” Her features hardened with bitterness. “Your father is a gambler. Time and again, he’s lost most of our assets. He’d always managed to win some back, but he owes so much now. He was hoping one last game would turn his fortune around. That’s why we stayed behind. Instead, we have lost all but the house. Your marriage to Lady Theodosia would keep us afloat.”
    Adrian leaned back. He had known their fortune had waxed and waned over the years. Their status as viscount would have been plenty of reason for the richer Haywoods to agree to their daughter marrying the poorer Wingrave heir. “You deserve more than him.”
    “I know. But I had to marry someone. If it had come out that I was pregnant … it was easier to pretend you were his. I had to accept the first marriage proposal I received.”
    “But it was only a week. Did you know you were already with child?”
    “Sometimes, you just know.” She smiled again. “You have his eyes.”
    His true father’s eyes.
    The eyes Isabelle loved.

 
     
     
     

     
    Adrian helped his mother to her feet. “He will destroy you.”
    “Better me than you.”
    “He will disown me.”
    His mother’s face turned serious. “That may be for the best. I fear there won’t be anything left for an inheritance.”
    “Leave him,” he said, desperate to convince her, to save her from her misery.
    “You know I cannot.”
    The door opened, and