The Duke Chose My Impostor

Five years ago Veronica pulled a dying duke back from the edge and stayed at his side until he recovered. Neither of them told anyone what had passed between them, and he came to think of her as the only woman he had ever loved. His household later took in her stepsister, Elena, who found the letters and tokens Veronica had kept from that time. Elena presented herself to the duke as the woman who had saved him. He believed her. He announced their engagement in front of his court. Veronica was already carrying his child by then. She said nothing about the letters, the tokens, or the child, and she left the duchy before the wedding could be set. She gave birth somewhere outside his reach and raised the child without contacting him. Elena kept up the deception for five years. The duke ruled beside her, planned a coronation with her, and referred to her in public as the woman who had once nursed him through fever. Records from that period, correspondence, a physician's notes, and a servant who had waited on Veronica during her recovery, eventually surfaced and did not match Elena's account. The duke had them checked. He confirmed that Elena had never set foot in the sickroom and that Veronica had. He broke the engagement and went looking for Veronica and for the child he now knew existed. In doing so he put his title, his succession, and his standing with the crown at risk, since breaking a public betrothal to expose a fraud inside his own household was not something the kingdom's council was prepared to overlook quietly.