AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Listen to yourself! What happened to you? You were a boy with hopes and dreams when I met you. You wanted things from life that had nothing to do with Ceylon. But you can have any life you want now, don’t you see that? You are free too. As free as I am.”
“I am not free,” he snapped.
She reached out to grab at his sleeve. “Sell the plantation. You can go anywhere. Be anyone.”
His hand closed over her arm with brutal speed. “He paid a fortune for you.”
She tried to pull away and failed. “What?”
“He paid my fortune for you. All that money he sent your father just to shut up that blasted governor . . . he mortgaged the plantation to the hilt. But he didn’t give a damn because he had his beloved Iniya. So don’t tell me I’m free. I’ll be buried in that cursed place as surely as my father was.”
She’d had no idea. David had never said a word. “I’m sorry, Gerard. I truly am. I would never have wanted that for you.”
Gerard cursed and his hand fell away. He ducked his head, fists on his hips, and glared hard at his boots.
“I need to tell you something,” she finally said, hating the words that were about to come out of her mouth.
“What?” he asked, sounding exhausted already.
“About your father.”
His head rose. “What?”
“Your father. He . . . he did die from poisoning.”
“I knew it.” For a moment his face twisted with rage.
Kate raised her hands. “But I did not give it to him.”
That caught him back from his anger. He pulled his chin in. “What do you mean?” Then his eyes widened. “Good God, it was Iniya, wasn’t it? I can’t believe that never occurred to me.”
“No, it wasn’t. . . . That is . . . she didn’t kill him, Gerard.”
“Well, somebody damn sure did, and you seem to know a lot about it.”
She said a silent prayer. An apology to David for revealing the truth. “Gerard . . . he did it himself.”
Gerard frowned at her, clearly not understanding what she’d said. She felt a sharp stab of grief for him. Despite all their differences, Gerard had loved his father.
“What the hell are you saying?”
“For a long while, he thought he was getting better, regaining strength. But for those last few years, he left the bed less and less often. He could no longer ride. He asked me to bring him poison, and I refused. For weeks. But someone must have brought him some.”
“Iniya.”
“I don’t know. It could’ve been one of the servants. Any of them. He took it, and called me up to him. He’d already said good-bye to Iniya. He wanted to say good-bye to me.”
“But not to me?” Gerard roared.
“You were his heir. He felt he’d done what he could for you. But he had money for me. Enough so that I could leave. And Iniya, of course. He wanted to see her settled. And . . .” She swallowed hard. “And he didn’t want you to know that he’d taken his own life. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t believe you,” he said simply.
“He didn’t want his son to think he was weak—”
“I don’t believe that he committed suicide!”
“Oh, Gerard. He was tired. I tried to talk him out of it, I swear. So did Iniya.”
