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His brother sat in awooden chair lined with red velvetby the right window, his legs crossed and lounging straight out in front of him, the heels of his boots resting on the sill of the window. He’d lost his coat and waistcoat, the sleeves of his lawn shirt rolled up to his elbows.
A drink in his left hand, he’d already drained half of the decanter that sat on the chest of drawers by the lantern.
“Brother.” Evan stopped in the middle of the room.
Gilroy didn’t turn his head, his stare angled to the night sky. “Ye betrayed me.”
“I didn’t know it was coming, Gil. Walking into the solarium and seeing that was just as much a shock to me as it was to you. I never would have let grandfather concoct it.”
Gilroy’s face swung to him, his eyes narrowing as he sliced Evan in two with his glare. “Except you got what you wanted since the moment you showed up here with that whore. I saw it in ye. I saw it from the start, what you were planning.”
Evan seethed a silent breath. “She’s not a whore.”
“Says you.” He shook his head, taking a swallow of his drink. “You could have refused. You didn’t have to marry her. You don’t have to do every damn thing the mad old curmudgeon says.”
“Grandfather isn’t mad. He’s wicked canny, yes, but not mad, not yet.” Evan ran his hand over his eyes. “You dinnae ken—”
“Oh, I do ken.” Gilroy jumped to his feet, advancing toward Evan. “I ken your oath—your honor—means nothing.”
“Gil, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“I’ve heard that story my whole damn life—you never mean for things to happen, do you?” He stopped, his toes shoving into Evan’s boots and he glared up at him. “You made me into this—a puny weakling—so you get to suffer the burden of it, just as I do. You ate me, brother. You ate away at me in the womb. You never meant for that to happen, yet look at ye. Look at me.” His palm slammed against Evan’s chest.
Evan caught his wrist, wrenching it away from him. “Gil, you cannot—”
“I cannot what?” He twisted his wrist out of Evan’s hold and spun away, his arm swinging wide. “Remind you of the truth? Remind you of why ye made the oath in the first place?”
He gulped a swallow of his drink and twisted back to Evan. “Tell me, brother, what is a man without his word? Without his honor?” His voice dipped into a vicious snarl. “What would father say?”
Evan heaved a breath, unclenching both of his fists that had instinctively curled.Ignore the words. Ignore them.
He took a step toward his brother. Gilroy was beyond furious, so it wasn’t a loss if Evan said what he came up here to tell him. “I’ll not lie to you now, Gil. I want her. I want her as my wife.”
He held his brother’s stare for long, excruciating seconds. Watched the betrayal playing out across his brother’s face and he was no force to stop it.
His words low, menacing, Gilroy backed away from Evan. “You do this—you stay with her—and I have no choice.” He turned and jumped up onto the sill of the window, his right hand grabbing the stone lining the side of the opening. His left hand holding his drink swung out, waving into the night air.
Evan’s hands lifted, palms to his brother to calm as his feet crept forward. “There is always a choice, Gil.”
“No. You don’t live in this body. You don’t live in this life, so ye don’t know. There is nothing left for me if you stay with her. If you get her with child.”
“You’re needed here at Whetland—you always will be.”
“There’s nothing I do that any one of our cousins can’t do in my stead. You don’t need me, brother, and that’s the hard truth of it. You tried to get rid of me when we were babes, and now you’ll have your wish.” He leaned farther out of the window, only two of his fingers holding him from falling, straining against the stone.
Evan could take no more and grabbed Gilroy’s wrist, yanking him back into the room. “Except I do need you. I need my brother.”
Gilroy stumbled a few steps across the room, but managed to keep his drink upright, not spilling a drop. His balance back about him, he stood straight and looked at Evan as his shoulders lifted and he drained the rest of his glass. “You don’t, for if ye did need me, you never would have married that whore. You would already be working on getting rid of her instead of coming up here and telling me how much you want her. Instead of taking her into your bed and making her scream. You don’t need me and you’ve just been biding your time to break your oath. To take the only thing I had from me. Just remember that when you’re shoveling dirt onto my grave. Remember the type of man you are. No honor.”
Gilroy dropped the tumbler onto the floor, the glass shattering into thousands of shards. With a sneer on his face, he turned and left the room.
Evan stared at the open door for long seconds, his breath heaving.
There was nothing for it. He’d let this happen. Let all of it happen and now Gilroy was paying for it.
Gilroy. Juliet. There was no choosing one over the other, for he was a bastard with either choice. A man with no honor.
And that had been the only thing he’d always had. Honor.
