A Lady and a Scholar: A Wholesome Regency Romance by Wendy May Andrews

Author:Wendy May Andrews [Andrews, Wendy May]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sparrow Ink
Published: 2024-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Sean knew he should have avoided the topic. Even more he should have known the others wouldn’t have been able to prevent themselves from ribbing him. And now he was going to have to tell this seemingly fragile woman about his scandalous childhood.

Could childhoods be scandalous? His certainly had been, but it ought to be a given that it wasn’t possible. Children obviously had no control over their pasts. It shouldn’t be possible for there to be scandal attached to it.

But there you had it. There was nothing just in the world. Especially not the world of the English aristocracy.

How his father had been able to divorce his mother and marry another with nary a breath of censure toward him never ceased to amaze Sean. The man appeared to be impossible to defeat or embarrass. Even as he persisted in trying to re-establish a relationship with Sean. Every time Sean rejected the man’s overtures it only seemed to disappoint him, but never made him give up.

But the man also had his blue-blooded little heirs that he had wanted. With his wealthy, blue-blooded wife. Not to say she was royalty, but as the daughter of a marquis, she was the next thing to it.

Of course, the old man wanted Sean’s forgiveness now that he was nearing his grave. Sean’s grandfather and father both thought he ought to forget how they had treated him and his mother. But no five-year-old boy should ever be treated like that. To have his rightful place snatched from him because a better opportunity presented itself was sinful.

Not that Sean had any interest in being a part of that man’s lineage.

Sean’s mum had been good enough for the younger son but as soon as Sean’s dad had become his father’s heir upon the death of his grandfather and brother, his entire bearing had changed. He had become mean, cruel, and filled with hate toward everything about their life in Scotland. Finally he had travelled back to his home in England and never returned, only sending a messenger to inform them that they were no longer his family. He had arranged an annulment.

Young Sean hadn’t known what that meant nor understood why he and his mother were suddenly outcasts. He also couldn’t understand how the seemingly perfectly binding marriage his parents had entered into could suddenly be dissolved without a by your leave. He still couldn’t understand that one. And it was one of the main reasons he hated the English. How could their system allow for illegitimating a child and his young mum who had never done anything wrong in her life?

That and the fact that his wicked father was English.

While the logical part of his brain told him he shouldn’t paint everyone with the same brush, the fact that his father and now his young half siblings were readily accepted everywhere in tonnish Society while he was still often treated as an outcast, told him all he needed to know about the English standards and morals.

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