Page 187 of Courting the Wrong Duke

“He did not!”

The shout tore from William so loudly that his throat hurt.

Algernon stared up at him, and for the first time William saw his brother shout back with equal fury.

“You know nothing about it!”

“I know he helped Father change.”

The words came between ragged breaths as Algernon struggled beneath him. William barely recognized his own voice anymore.

“He made Father kinder. He made him listen to you. He spent years trying to repair damage he did not cause, and this is how you repay him? You take him from his daughter? You lock him beneath this house and leave his family believing he abandoned them?”

“He knew what would happen.”

“What would happen?” William demanded. “What terrible thing were you so frightened of? That I might learn the truth?”

“Yes!”

Algernon threw his weight sideways, and suddenly William was the one striking the floor. Pain shot through his shoulder as Algernon came over him, fist drawn back.

William blocked the blow.

“I did not know!” he shouted. “I knew nothing about your birth. Nothing about what Father did to you. Nothing about what Eastmere knew.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Yes!”

William drove Algernon backward and scrambled to his feet. His brother rose almost as quickly, breathing hard, blood darkening the corner of his mouth. For several seconds, neither of them moved.

William stared at him and struggled to reconcile the man standing across from him with the brother he had known all his life. An entire childhood had existed beyond William’s sight, filled with cruelty and fear while he remained safely protected from it.

“You hurt everyone because you were afraid,” William said, still struggling to catch his breath. “Eastmere. Rosalind. Mother. Even Augusta.”

“Do not speak about my wife.”

“You think this has not hurt her too?”

“Augusta is the only person who understands.”

The answer struck somewhere William had not expected.

“And what about me?”

Algernon faltered, and some of William’s own anger faltered with him.

“What about me, Algernon?” His voice was quieter now. “I am your brother.”

“You are his son.”

“So were you.”

“No.” Algernon’s face twisted. “Apparently I was not.”

William took a step toward him. “You were to me.”

Algernon shook his head, but William could no longer stop the words that had begun to come.