Love Only Once by Johanna Lindsey Page A

year the way Uncle Edward does.” Derek chuckled. “The old man finally gave in because she wanted it, too, and there isn’t much she wants that he doesn’t give her.”
    Nicholas grunted. Regina was going to be impossibly spoiled. “Why is it I never met her at Haverston?”
    “She was always with Uncle Edward or Uncle Anthony when you came. They each had her for four months of the year by the time you started visiting me.” Derek laughed. “But you did meet her once, that first time I brought you home. She was the little hoyden who spilled the bowl of pudding in your lap when you teased her.”
    “But you called the child Reggie!” Nicholas cried.
    “We all call Regina Reggie, and she’s grown now. Do you remember her?”
    He groaned. “How could I forget? She stuck her tongue out at me when I threatened to blister her bottom.”
    “Yes, well, she didn’t like you at all after that. She was at the house once more, I believe, when you came to visit, but she stayed out of your way.”
    “She told me that, when you told her about me, she loved me,” Nicholas said dryly.
    “Oh, she did love you then, I’m sure,” Derek chuckled. “But that was before she met you. She was especially fond of me, you see, and she was pleased with anyone who befriended me.”

    “Bloody hell. Next you’ll tell me she was your playmate.”
    “Shouldn’t surprise you, old chap. After all, I was only six when she came to Haverston. I admit I led her astray, there being only the two of us. Dragged her everywhere with me. ’Course the old man had a bloody fit when he finally realized she was fishing and hunting instead of sewing, out climbing trees and building forts in the woods instead of tending to her music. Did you know he married just to give us a mother? Hoped it would have a steadying influence. Poor choice though. Love the old girl, but sickly, you know. Spent more time at Bath getting the cure than she did at Haverston.”
    “Are you telling me I’m marrying a tomboy?”
    “Heavens no! Remember, she’s spent part of every year with Uncle Edward’s family for the past thirteen years, and Edward’s got three girls near her age. When she was here with them, she was brilliant at her studies, an angel of decorum and all that. Of course, we still had our fun when she was at Haverston. I can’t even count all the times we got called on the carpet by the old man. And she never got the worst of it, I did. By the time she was fourteen, she had lost her hoydenish ways, though. She was even running the household by then, for our mum was hardly ever there.”
    “So she was running one household, studying at another, and what, I’d like to know, did she learn at the third?”
    Derek chuckled at his vicious tone. “Nowdon’t eat me. Actually, her time with Uncle Anthony was like a holiday. He did his best to see she enjoyed herself. And he prob’ly taught her how to deal with chaps like us.” Then he said seriously, “They all love her, Nick. You won’t get around that, no matter what.”
    “Am I then to be burdened with interfering in-laws the rest of my life?” Nicholas asked coldly.
    “I doubt it will be so bad. After all, you’ll have her to yourself out at Silverley.”
    The thought was worth relishing, but it would never come to that. Nicholas had given in to their bullying, but he actually had no intention of marrying Regina Ashton. Somehow he had to make her break their engagement. She might have a cousin who was a bastard, but she wouldn’t have a husband for one as well.
    Derek was luckier than Nicholas, for he had lived his twenty-three years knowing what he was and not letting it bother him. But Nicholas hadn’t found out about his birth until the age of ten. And before the revelation, the woman he’d thought was his mother had made his life miserable simply because he did believe her to be his mother. He had never understood why she hated him, treated him worse than a servant, continually belittling