Sinful Duty (The Bentons and Northcutts 1) ✅

Chapter Eleven

December 16th, 1665

"You're going to go live with your Uncle William for the foreseeable future."

Gavin's head snapped up and he looked at Thomas in shock. They were seated in an unused study in Northcutt Castle. It was late at night, nearly the next morning. No one else was awake. "...What?"

"I'm sending you away, Gavin," Thomas said abruptly. "You need a change of scenery, and my brother's property is further away than even my cousin Francis. You'll leave tomorrow and you will be spending the Yuletide with them."

"Father, what are you getting at?" Gavin demanded, standing up. "Why are you sending me away?"

Thomas's eyes narrowed and he frowned deeply. "You disappeared for half a candle mark last night. Where did you go inside the castle?"

Gavin flinched involuntarily. "I-I needed fresh air—"

"You needed fresh air not long after Lady Diana retired for the night," Thomas interjected. "That is not a coincidence, Gavin."

Gavin did not get embarrassed. Rather, he got angry. "I don't know what you accuse me of Father, but—"

"You are going to your Uncle William's and you are going to make something of yourself," Thomas pressed on. "Perhaps enlist in the Royal Navy and aid in the stalemate we currently have against the Make yourself useful to our family name, Gavin."

Gavin laughed sarcastically. "Haven't I already, Father?"

"That is not your babe," Thomas snapped. Gavin sucked in a breath but Thomas's voice rose. "That is not your babe, Gavin! It will never be your babe! That babe is the child of Uncle Edmund, and is his heir! Do I need to remind you yet again how important this is?! If there is any doubt to the parentage of that babe, then George will be back in line as heir! It is already bad enough that he is second in line for the Earl title! He must not become the Earl, or he will destroy this family! I will die, your uncle will die—and you will probably die because George will see any and all men of this family as a threat to him!

"You will go William," Thomas continued harshly. "You'll enlist or we'll find an arranged marriage for you! But you will NOT put this family at risk with your selfish desires!"

Gavin gritted his teeth. It took considerable amount of self-control to speak in a level voice. "I have been putting this family first. Or have you forgotten that none of this was my idea?"

Thomas looked surprised. "I am not a prop in your life, Father. I am not a burden. I am a twenty-year-old man, and I understand what is at stake. I will not do anything that would endanger Lady Diana or my child—my child," he added harshly before Thomas tried to correct him. "I understand that in public the child is Uncle Edmund's. But it will always be my child. That is something that you cannot change. And you cannot change how I feel for either of them.

"You are not sending me away. I will choose to leave of my own volition for their sake. Whether or not I join the Royal Navy will be of my own volition. However, Father..." he clenched his fists and squared his shoulders. "Don't expect me to keep my distance once the child is born. That baby is a greater threat to George than you or I. That is my child, and I will protect the baby and his mother with my life if I have to."

Gavin left his father and stormed back to his room. When he arrive he lit and candle, pulled out his bags and began packing himself. He wasn't neat about it nor did he wait for the servants. He was too angry to care.

I shouldn't have gone to see her. I should have maintained self-control and kept myself in check. But...But I could not help myself.

He couldn't help himself. He had been kept from Diana, and the news of her being with child had filled him with so much joy. It hadn't seemed real that he was going to be a father, though for Diana and the baby's safety he could not claim the child publicly. Publicly the babe was Edmund's, and was thus officially his second cousin.