Roger was dead. He and Fiona had told each other their darkest secrets and had admitted their love for each other, and they’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms.
Relief and hope swept through him, startling in its intensity. He didn’t know what the future held, but he knew without a doubt that Fiona would be at his side. That detail alone made the rest insignificant.
He snuggled deeper into the blankets, pressing himself against Fiona’s warmth, loving the silky softness of her bare skin against his own. He wanted this every night. Fiona... in his life. In his bed.
For another twenty minutes or so, he lay beside her, enjoying the scent and feel of her, but she slept on soundly, and he didn’t want to wake her. Besides, an idea had come to him, and he had much to do.
Yesterday’s aftermath needed to be addressed. Inspector O’Brien would no doubt arrive soon, and he had to be ready.
Returning to his room, he wrote notes summoning his brothers, handed them off to a footman to be delivered, then quickly dressed.
When he entered the morning room where breakfast was always served, he was surprised to find Allison waiting for him.
“Good morning,” he said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
She glanced up at him from her place at the dining table, her blue eyes rimmed with dark circles. She’d obviously been crying, and he realized with a pang that she might actually be grieving Roger. He’d been her brother as much as he, Luke, and Adrian were, after all. There had been a time, before Roger had abducted her, when she’d been closer to Roger than she’d been to three of them.
“I wanted to come and see how Fiona was doing,” she said softly, with none of her usual disdain. He took a moment to really look at her and was surprised to realize that she’d somehow grown up while he wasn’t paying attention. She was nineteen now, a woman. Perhaps he did her a disservice by still seeing her as the spoiled brat she’d once been.
Still, he wasn’t ready to trust her just yet. “Why do you care?”
She bit her lip and pushed her food around her plate. “I’m trying to do better, be a better person,” she said insistently. “And part of that is inquiring after people who’ve been hurt. Especially when it was my brother who hurt them.”
Morgan filled a plate and sat down beside her. “That’s commendable, Allison. I’m glad you’ve seen that there is a problem and are trying to fix it.”
She flushed, and he realized she was probably struggling to bite her tongue at this very moment.
“Fiona is fine. Or at least I think she will be eventually. How are you?”
With a sigh, she gave up all pretense of trying to eat. “I know that Roger deserved what happened to him. He hurt so many people. But he was my brother. I will miss him.” Her eyes welled up with tears, and she blinked them rapidly away. “Mother is distraught, of course. I will never understand why she favored him so greatly.”
“Neither will I,” Morgan said, the mere thought of his mother stealing what little appetite he’d had. “But I would never think less of you for grieving over your brother.”No matter what a monster he was.
She nodded distantly. “I don’t think I ever truly understood the kind of person Roger was, even after he took me to France, until Quinn told me all the horrible things he’d done.”
“Quinn?” Morgan asked, raising a brow. It disturbed him somewhat to hear that she was on a first-name basis with the inspector, but they had shared a long trip home from France together last year. The man was honorable as they came, and he didn’t think anything had happened, but he hoped Allison hadn’t gotten any ideas.
Allison flushed even more. “Inspector O’Brien, I mean. He told me about the brothels, the children... I understand now, why you all hated Roger.”
“He did a lot of bad things,” Morgan agreed. “Some people care more about money than they do about people’s lives.”
She nodded, her face troubled. “Mama told me that I will be the new owner of those places, that I am the beneficiary of all Roger’s unentailed property and money.”
It would be difficult for whatever distant relative became the new Earl of Winters to take on the title without any funds. “What will you do?”
She shrugged. “Mama wants me to continue to run them. She’s still furious that Lucien cut her off, and she thinks the money will help fund her lifestyle.”
His mother was exactly like Roger. She didn’t care who she hurt as long as it lined her pockets. He didn’t think it was necessary to tell Allison that, though. By the look on her face, she was well aware of that fact.
“It’s not up to Mother,” he said instead. “Don’t let her bully you.”
“I want to close them,” she suddenly said fiercely. “I’d burn them all to the ground if I could.”
He stifled a sudden need to laugh. Perhaps Allison had more of him and his brothers in her than he’d ever thought. Because he suddenly saw a bit of Adrian’s passion for social change in her expressive blue eyes.
“We’ll help you,” he promised. “We’ll find a way to shut them down. And you needn’t worry about the money. Lucien will take care of you. Your dowry is immense. Soon, you’ll find a husband and this will all be a bad dream.”
She bit her lip, her passion suddenly fading. “What if I don’t want to marry?”
