Adelaide crossed her arms, her anger abating as she reached a decision that had, if she were honest, always been at the back of her mind. ‘I’m not the fool you take me for. Right from the beginning your actions have been driven by the very basest motives and I see you now for what you are: a shallow, lying, manipulative man. No, worse than that, you are a seducer who preyed on a young girl with no other thought than for the fortune that would be coming to her future husband.’

He opened his mouth to speak but she held up her hand. ‘I will not marry you.’

She set the ring he had given her on the table.

He looked down at the ring for a long moment before snatching it up and placing it in his pocket. When he met her eyes, she saw only scorn and anger. His lip curled as he said, ‘I’m sorry that you should feel that way, Adelaide—or should I say Mrs Greaves—but who is the greater liar?’

Her hand tightened on the table. ‘I have sent a telegram today to the solicitor in London, confirming receipt of his letter. As for you, Richard, your business with me is now concluded and I suggest you leave Maiden’s Creek on tomorrow’s coach.’

Colour flooded back into Richard’s pale cheeks. ‘Leave? You can’t make me leave, not without my son. The boy needs his father. He can’t go on being mollycoddled by women. He is an English gentleman and he needs to be brought up as such.’

‘English gentleman? Like you?’ She snatched up Danny’s notebook, which lay on one of the chairs, and thrust it at Richard. ‘That’s the man Danny believes his father to be, not an opportunist, a seducer, like you.’

Richard flicked through the pages of the imaginary exploits of Danny’s father. ‘I see,’ he said. ‘You have encouraged this nonsense?’

‘The child is a dreamer, Richard. I will not have his dreams shattered by reality.’

Richard’s lip drew back in an unlovely sneer and she wondered how she could have even contemplated marriage to this man.

‘Let us view this from a different angle, Adelaide. What proof is there that Daniel is my son? You spread your legs fast enough for me. For all I know, you were sharing your favours with the first footman and the stableboy who looked your way. Gossip travels fast in a town like this. Do you want to be painted as a whore? Worse than that, a whore by night who plays the respectable widow by day? Who have you taken to your bed in this town? That oaf of a coachman or maybe the American?’

Her face must have betrayed her.

His eyes widened and he nodded. ‘It is the American.’ The triumph in his voice was palapable.