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“But why?” Even as she asked the question, Drake saw that she’d guessed the answer. “The title … Allonshire …”
Drake nodded. “With me presumably dead, only Father stood between Sebastian and his damned, wretched title.” He felt ill all over again.
“Did he admit to the attempts on your life as well?” she demanded.
“He didn’t have to. The hatred was there, in the way he looked at me. How could I have been so blind?” he asked, tormented. “There must have been something … some hint of his sickness.”
“None of us saw it, Drake,” she whispered back. “Tell me what else he said.”
Drake related the details of the confrontation, omitting the gruesome threat that Sebastian had made regarding Alex just before he disappeared. That would never come to pass. Not after tomorrow.
“I called him out,” Drake told Alex softly, stroking her face.
She gasped. “Oh, Drake, no … please, no.” Her eyes filled with tears at the thought of Sebastian killing her beloved husband.
“Sweetheart, I must.”
“There must be another way … any other way.” But she knew there was not. Drake’s honor and integrity were at stake. And she could not blame him for wanting to avenge his father’s death.
Drake cupped her face gently between his big hands. “Just trust me, love. All will be well. I swear.”
Alex nodded, pressing her face against his chest.
Dawn was but a few hours away.
Chapter 31
“DRAKE, PLEASE … DON’T DO this.” Alex clutched his arm, tugging him to a stop in the sheltered cluster of trees that marked the most isolated section of Allonshire.
With the first rays of dawn all reason had fled, and she was left with only the stark terror of losing Drake to his brother’s treachery. Now, standing at the edge of the clearing in which the duel would be fought, Alex was gripped by a bleak premonition that wrapped itself around her heart like a thick, suffocating blanket. She would do anything, resort to any measures, to persuade Drake to call off this insane duel.
Drake looked down into Alex’s frightened face, and love swelled inside him, softening the cold fury that had dominated his senses since last night.
“I must do this, sweetheart,” he told her gently, taking her hand from his arm and pressing it to his lips. “Why don’t you go back to the house and wait for me there?”
Alex looked at him as if he had lost his mind. “I am going nowhere,” she informed him, raising her chin in the familiar defiant gesture that Drake had come to know. “If you insist on going through with this lunacy, I shall be here with you.” Her brave facade slipped as she gazed up at Drake’s strong features. “Think of our child,” she whispered. “We need you.”
“And you shall have me.” He drew her against him, wrapping his arms around her and offering her his strength and his promise. “I swear to you, Alex, that our child will know his father.”
She turned tear-filled trusting eyes up to him. “His father?” she asked in a trembling voice, striving for control.
Drake smiled, kissed her forehead tenderly. “Or hers,” he murmured softly. “I shall be delighted to have a beautiful little tyrant who is just like her mother.”
“How touching.” Sebastian’s cold voice washed over them like an icy spray. “Saying your good-byes, Alexandria?”
Alex turned rigidly to face Sebastian’s mocking sneer.
“You are beneath contempt,” she replied venomously, her expression filled with hatred.
His eyes glittered unnaturally. “Careful, little lady,” he cautioned. “In but a few moments your fate will be in my hands. I would suggest you address me with the proper respect if you expect me to show you any mercy.”
“I suggest you go straight to hell.” Alex lunged forward, fully intending to claw him to death with her nails. Only Drake’s restraining hand kept her from fulfilling her goal.
Sebastian swaggered over, confidence oozing from every pore of his body. He stopped ten feet from where they stood. “It is your esteemed husband who is destined to die.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “But fear not. I am a generous man. I have every intention of taking excellent care of you … in every way.”
“I would sooner be dead.” Alex spat out, seeing the rage blaze on his face at her words. But when Sebastian took a menacing step closer, Drake acted instantly, pulling Alex behind him, shielding her from Sebastian’s approach.
“Take one step closer to my wife and I will kill you with my bare hands,” Drake warned him in a deadly tone.
