Page 184 of Courting the Wrong Duke

“He stood beside you when your father would not.”

“Do not speak to me about what Eastmere did for me.”

“But he did do those things.”

Algernon crossed toward her, and William immediately stepped between them.

Rosalind touched his arm. She understood the instinct that had put him there, but she was not afraid to face Algernon. After a moment, William seemed to understand and remained close without blocking her from him.

Algernon noticed the exchange. His gaze dropped briefly to Rosalind’s hand before returning to her face.

“My father helped you,” Rosalind continued. “And because of that help, you became the man standing here now. Educated. Respected. Married to a woman who loves you. What happened in this house was terrible, but it did not take everything from you.”

“A life built upon a lie.”

The bitterness in his voice stopped her.

Algernon looked at her with an exhaustion that seemed older than the night around them. “Do you think surviving it means it ceased to matter?

That because I learned to speak properly, I should forget being locked here until I could satisfy him? That because I married Augusta, I should stop remembering what it was to watch the man I called Father look at me and wonder whether he had chosen the wrong son?”

Rosalind had no answer for that.

After a moment, Algernon turned away.

“I will not have children.”

William stared at him. “What?”

“I used to think perhaps I would. It is expected, after all. Every duke must produce an heir.” His mouth twisted around the word. “But I have no intention of bringing a child into the world only to spend the rest of my life wondering whether I will one day look at him the way Father looked at me.”

“You are not him,” William said softly.

Algernon closed his eyes. “You cannot know that.”

The words were so quiet that Rosalind’s throat tightened again.

For a moment, all the anger seemed to leave him. Then his eyes opened, and the hardness returned.

“And then I discovered that the one man I believed had saved me was no better.”

Edmund moved closer to the bars. “Algernon.”

“You knew.”

“I kept your secret.”

“You knew what I was, and you said nothing.”

“I told no one.”

“You were going to tell William.”

“No.”

Algernon turned on him. “Do not lie to me now.”

“I am not.”