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12
“Where is he?” Dane demanded the moment the door closed behind Lillian. “Where is your father?”
“Myfather.” Malcolm’s voice was low and filled with derision. “I take no responsibility for that bloody devil.”
Dane stalked toward the other man. He hadn’t changed much these past ten years. He looked more like the old earl than ever, with the sharp chin and the thick brows. He was a spitting image, and that alone made Dane contemplate killing the arse. But it was the fact that Malcolm hadn’t protected Lillian from his father that had Dane’s fists curling. “Where is he, Malcolm? Don’t make me ask again.”
“I don’t know,” Malcolm said. His gray eyes were calm. Cold. “I sent him away once I heard that Lillian had left. I thought he’d…” He drew a deep breath. “He’d told me he’d had her killed.”
Dane blinked. “What?”
“I thought she was dead.”
“Why…?” Dane shook his head. “Why would he tell you that?”
Malcolm’s huff of laughter held no amusement. “Because he’s a sick old devil, if you don’t remember. He lived to torture me.” He eyed Dane as if reconsidering. “To torture us.”
Dane rocked back on his heels and Malcolm’s lips twitched with that humorless laughter. “What, you thought I was spared his cruelty because I was the heir?”
Dane didn’t respond. He had thought that. Or that at the very least, Malcolm hadn’t suffered the worst of it. But it occurred to him now that the earl might have had more cruelty in him than any of them had ever realized.
“He raped her,” Dane said.
The words filled the silence and the horror in Malcolm’s eyes matched his own. His half-brother turned with a low curse and a string of epithets as he ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve had my men looking for her, but I thought we were searching for a body. I thought…” He cursed again. It was clear what he’d thought.
“Malcolm.” Dane’s voice caught the other man’s attention and he turned. “Where is he?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I ran him off and told him I’d kill him if he ever showed his face around here again.” He cursed under his breath. “I should have killed him right then and there.”
Dane couldn’t argue. They’d all be better off with that man dead and gone. Just the knowledge that he was out there made Dane see red. “You think he’s really gone?”
Malcolm gave a scoff. “Last I saw him he was in his cups, miserable and angry and looking for a fight. No doubt he’s trying to rally his friends or gather the troops before coming back for me.”
A silence fell between them and Dane eyed the man he’d thought he’d known. The man he’d thought had gotten off easy as the heir.
Malcolm caught his wary gaze and laughed without humor again. The sound was bitter and hollow. “He would have killed me years ago if he’d thought he could get himself another heir. But after your mother died without ever getting pregnant, I think he gave up on the idea.” He ran a hand over his face. “He knows he’s stuck with me with no other legitimate heir.”
A chill ran through Dane, leaving him cold to the bone. Malcolm’s words seemed to register belatedly, the phrases clicking into place like pieces of a puzzle.
The earl was desperate for another heir.
His gaze snapped to Malcolm’s and his half-brother tensed at whatever it was he saw there. “What is it?”
“Lillian.” He was already moving, following where she and her father had gone. “He’ll be after Lillian.”
He saw her father, and all it took was one look at that weak chin and the soft, pleading eyes to know. “You’re too late,” the old man called out.
Dane rushed past him, Malcolm on his heels.
“He’ll make an honest woman of her.” Her father was still shouting but Dane ignored him as he caught sight of a door slightly ajar at the end of the hall. “He’ll make Lillian a countess, which is more than you could ever give her.”
The door slammed shut behind Malcolm, who kept pace with Dane as they watched one of Lillian’s father’s carriages take off down a back lane.
“I’ll bring horses round,” Malcolm said.
Dane called for his servants, ordering them to follow as he and Malcolm set off at a breakneck pace. Malcolm didn’t ask any questions, and it wasn’t long before they had the carriage in their sights.
“He’ll pay for this,” Dane promised, though his words were lost in the wind.
