Page 97 of Courting the Wrong Duke

But certainty, once cracked, was difficult to mend.

William suddenly realized he no longer understood the man he had trusted without question.

Before his brother could answer, the library door opened once more.

The dowager stepped inside wrapped in a dark blue dressing gown, a single candle casting soft shadows across her lined face. She looked from one member of the family to the next before releasing a weary sigh.

“I should very much appreciate it,” she said dryly, “if heartbreak and family arguments might wait until daylight.”

William blinked.

She lifted the candle slightly.

“I was first awakened by Mr. Frost wandering the gardens declaring himself doomed to eternal misery.” The faintest smile threatened, though it vanished almost immediately. “No sooner had I persuaded myself to ignore that spectacle than I heard voices carrying through the west wing.”

Her gaze settled upon the three of them. “What has happened?”

No one answered.

The silence seemed to deepen until even the fire crackling quietly in the grate sounded unnaturally loud.

The dowager looked first to Augusta. “My dear?”

Augusta lowered her head. Then she turned to Algernon.

Still nothing.

Finally, her eyes rested upon William.

His expression must have betrayed more than he realized, for the concern in her face deepened immediately. “William?”

He scarcely noticed her speaking. His attention never left his brother.

The questions that had unsettled him only moments before had become something darker now, something far more difficult to dismiss.

Algernon had lied.

He had hidden something for three years.

And whatever that something was, even Augusta believed it had grown beyond his ability to manage alone.

William drew a slow, unsteady breath, struggling to make sense of everything he had heard beyond the library door.

“No.”

The single word escaped almost under his breath, more disbelief than accusation.

At last Algernon looked at him. “William—”

“No,” William repeated, this time more firmly, shaking his head before his brother could continue. He searched Algernon's face, willing him to offer some explanation that would make the knot tightening in his chest disappear.

“You are lying to me. You told me you were leaving London. You let me defend you when Lady Rosalind said she had seen you tonight.” He took another step forward, scarcely aware of the dowager watching him in growing alarm. “You have stood here saying almost nothing while your wife begs you to ask for help.”

William’s jaw tightened.

“Something is wrong.”

The room fell silent once more.