“That’s what he thought I was. Anyway, it was quite a shock. The staff had to go, and we hardly had enough to live on from my mother’s savings. It wasn’t long after that, that Mother grew ill. Very ill. The doctor gave her only a few months.” Alexis’s voice cracked with emotion.

Katie lifted her hand and kissed the knuckles. “I’m so sorry, Alexis.”

Alexis wanted to bury her head in Katie’s neck and sob away all her pain and guilt, but she couldn’t.

“Thank you. But I was able to pay back my brother James with a little shame of his own. When my mother was in her last few days, she asked me to fetch a pile of letters from her safe. They were between my mother and father, and some were from his wife, Lady Branwick. James wasn’t my half-brother, he was my full brother. My father had two children with my mother, but his wife was unable to have children. Thus the title and the lands belonging to my father’s family would go to some distant cousin. To stop this happening, my mother agreed to allow James to be brought up as Lady Branwick’s son. He would then be the legitimate heir and carry on the family title and lands.”

Katie gasped. “That must have been devastating for your mum.”

“Yes, it hurt her so badly to watch another woman bring up her son, especially when he got older and looked down on us as my father’s shame, when he was part of it.”

“So what did you do?” Katie asked.

“When my mother passed away, I took the evidence to James. He was terrified of the consequences of losing his dukedom and agreed to pay me a proper inheritance. I made him sign a letter at his lawyer’s so he wouldn’t weasel out of it. I was then able to buy a commission in the army and live the life I wanted. Of course I had to pretend to be a man, and I passed successfully and made the rank of captain during the Napoleonic Wars.”

“You’re so brave,” Katie said.

“I’m anything but, believe me.”

“Did you ever see him again?”

“On his deathbed. I had been turned by Victorija decades before then, and when I heard he was dying, I felt I had to see him.”

“How did explain your appearance?” Katie asked.

“I told him the truth. He was pretty out of it on drugs at the end, and no one would have taken his words seriously. I was glad I went. He apologized for what he had done and said that the guilt had eaten away at him over the years. That gave me an ending to that chapter of my life.”

“Ready for the next chapter of your immortal life?” Katie’s smiled.

“Yes, quite so,” Alexis said.

* * *