Page 191 of Courting the Wrong Duke

“You poisoned Father?”

“He took years from me,” Algernon said. “I took what remained of his.”

William recoiled before he could stop himself. “No.”

“He deserved it.”

“You killed him.”

“He would have destroyed me.”

“So you murdered him?”

Algernon’s jaw tightened. “I gave him the death he deserved.”

The words struck harder than any blow Algernon had landed during their fight.

William had spent the past hour learning things about his father that sickened him. He no longer knew what to do with the memories of the man who had raised him with affection while tormenting another little boy beneath the same roof. There were cruelties William might never be able to forgive now that he knew of them.

But Algernon had looked at that cruelty and chosen more of it.

William had stood before him only moments ago, crying and begging him to let it end. Instead, his brother had already carried the violence further than William could have imagined.

“You are a monster.”

The words were out before he could stop them.

Algernon flinched.

William saw it and hated that some part of him still wanted to take the words back. This was his brother. The boy who had grown up beside him. The man William had loved all his life without ever understanding how much pain he carried.

But he could not reconcile that brother with the man who had just calmly admitted to murdering their father.

“I do not know you,” William whispered.

Something moved near the stairs.

William’s attention shifted instinctively, and his heart nearly stopped for a second time.

Isabella.

She stood half concealed by the darkness, very much alive.

Relief surged through him, but Isabella immediately pressed a finger to her lips. Her other hand pointed toward the floor behind Algernon, where something glinted faintly in the candlelight.

Keys.

They must have fallen from Algernon’s coat during the fight.

William dragged his gaze back to his brother before Algernon could notice where his attention had gone.

“You do not know me?” Algernon repeated bitterly. “No. You never did.”

William kept his attention on him while Isabella slipped away from the stairs at the edge of his vision. She moved with extraordinary care, watching Algernon as she crossed the cellar toward the keys.

“I wanted to know you,” William said, hoping the words would keep his brother focused upon him. “I tried.”

“You pitied me.”