Perhaps they could keep their relationship clandestine until they knew how much the child favored him. And if he favored him not at all, maybe in a few years, once she was out of mourning, once enough time had passed so no suspicions surfaced—

But if the child favored him, they wouldn’t be able to risk people seeing them together. She would not allow her child to doubt his parentage. The sins were hers. She wouldn’t pass them on to her child, would not risk his having to defend his birthright. Or his mother. Would he end up in a brawl, slashed by a knife, because someone called her a whore?

They would have to be secretive about his time with the child, his time with her. For the sake of their little one, whom they would need to protect from the truth at all costs.

He dreamed of removing her black-veiled hat and tossing it out the window, so shadows could no longer lurk over her face and keep her true feelings hidden from him. Of unclasping her pelisse and giving freedom to every button on her traveling frock. Of taking her on the well-padded cushions, holding her close afterward, and yelling up to the driver to never bring the carriage to a halt. To simply spend eternity traveling about within these confines where no one was present to judge them, where Society held no sway, where they were hidden away from censure, where his time with her wasn’t measured in hours but in years.

It was her hand nudging his knee that woke him. Opening his eyes to her tender smile was bittersweet. Why should he care if he gave her a child? He knew she would love it, would see that it had every advantage. Its status would be elevated, far above his.

But even knowing all this, he couldn’t get past the notion that he would be aping his father, creating a child only to cast it aside, to not be part and parcel of its life. In truth, not having his sire involved in his upbringing had been a blessing, but the man’s blatant disregard for his offspring, his foisting them off on others, still had a way of making Aiden feel worthless. His existence had been a mere inconvenience. He didn’t want his child to ever harbor the same sentiment, to believe he’d not been wanted.