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“It is not cruel to host a party and only invite those you wish to attend.”
“Yes, Matthew.Cruel was too harsh.You are petty.”
He smashed his fist against his desk.“I have given you everything you needed in your time of desperation, and you dare speak to me that way?About a family who is unworthy of mention, let alone support.You don’t know them like I do.”
“And how do you know them?Did the duke forget to pay an installment on a debt he owed you?Money doesn’t buy everything, Matthew.It doesn’t buy respect.”
“Well, it repays me great satisfaction.It repays me in a currency that is far more valuable than money.I will humiliate the house of Welliver until my dying breath.And it sounds like being cut by a lowly commoner is more meaningful than I had originally thought.I think I will do this annually.”
“Why?What did they ever do to you?”
“Nothing.Welliver did nothing for me or for my mother.”His anger reached a peak.He did not care that he was petty and cruel.Not when it came to the man who had set Matthew on the worst possible course for his life, all while they lived in luxury.“I was his first-born son.I was the rightful heir.I and my bastard half-brothers were cast aside to fend for ourselves.”
Rose sat back and gripped the wooden arm rests.
“Never did he see to our welfare.Never did he try to make our lives more comfortable.He let us be born in poverty.He let us struggle to find food and shelter and meaning in this hellish life.He let my mother prostitute herself to keep us safe, with food and shelter.I should have been the Duke of Welliver.Instead, I am relegated to bastard.Lowest of the low.Moneylender.You can’t be surprised that I would use any means necessary to find my rightful place?”
“Oh, Matthew.”When she glanced up at him, her cheeks were damp.“How could you not have told me this?How could you let me think the worst of you?”
“Because I expect you to trust me.To place your confidence in me, knowing I have the best intentions toward you and the girls.”
“And you must trust me when it comes to matters of theton.We don’t get to make mistakes.We cannot be common when we are reaching for the stars.We will only get one chance, Matthew.”
“I cannot have them here.”
Rose walked to him and placed her hand upon his face.“They don’t know who you are.”
“They are going to know someday.They are going to know I am something other than the bastard my father caused me to be.He made me what I am.But I’ve made myself into a man who moves other men like pieces on a chessboard.”
“I will never see you as that boy who should have been the duke, because I can only ever see you as a knight.The gallant knight who rode in to save me.Don’t be the man who rolls in the dirt with the true villains in society.Be the man I think you are.”
