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“Aidan.”
“She’s left her husband.”
That snapped Edward up straight. “When?”
“Not for me. I mean she moved back to England without him.”
“But she still has a husband,” he growled.
Aidan’s shoulders suddenly burned. He rolled his neck and closed his eyes before resting his head against the back of the chair. “I know that.”
“Then what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that she is mine again and I can hardly fathom it. I’m thinking that I haven’t felt this alive since I said good-bye to her ten years ago.”
When his brother didn’t answer, Aidan opened his eyes to find Edward frowning down at him. “You never told me what happened.”
He shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “I asked for her hand and her father refused me. You know that.”
“But there’s more. You said things sometimes, when you’d been drinking. . . .”
Aidan cleared his throat and crossed and uncrossed his feet. “We argued. There were ugly words between us. But it hardly matters now.”
“Aidan . . .”
He didn’t flinch. Didn’t turn his gaze away at the censure in his brother’s voice. Edward could call him foolish if he liked. Aidan would gladly play the fool for Kate.
In the end, Edward only shook his head. “Never mind. I’ll save my breath.”
“Clever fellow.”
Edward laughed, his face finally relaxing as he took the seat opposite Aidan. “You’ll do what you like, I suppose. You always have.”
“Ha. Do you remember when I told you I meant to marry her?”
“Yes. I told you quite emphatically that you were too young.”
“And I accused you of being a stiff old man who didn’t know a thing about love.”
“I was all of twenty-six.”
Aidan smiled. “Ancient. Nearly dead, by all accounts. But the next day, you gave your blessing.”
“Mother interceded on your behalf.”
That was something he’d never heard. Aidan drew his chin in. “She did?”
“She said I was torturing you. That you truly loved her. That our father had only been twenty-two when he’d proposed and they’d loved each other until the day he died.”
“Well.” Aidan uncrossed his ankles again, then put his feet to the floor and sat straighter. “She does adore a good melodrama.”
“She wanted you to be happy.”
Aidan ran a hand across the nape of his neck, digging his fingers in.
“And what happened afterward . . . She didn’t mean to cause more pain.”
“I know. I never thought it was intentional. It was only that her desire to titillate and thrill overcame any caring she had for me.”
