Page 81 of The Duke and the Wrong Bride

“You’re wrong,” Graham said, trying his best to appear brave. “And I don’t know who you have been talking to, but you’re wrong. Misled, is what. In fact, I have half a mind to go north myself and speak to whoever it was that told you such vicious lies. My honor is at stake here, Henry.”

“So, you deny it?”

“Of course I do.” He met Henry’s eyes across the desk, brow hardened, face set. “I did not do this. I would never—we are family, Henry. Do you really think I could do such a thing to my own blood?”

“Honestly? Yes, I do.”

Graham’s lip curled into a snarl. “Forget this.” He pushed his chair back and rose. “I don’t have to listen to?—”

“Sit down!” Henry bellowed suddenly, the anger flying from him like steam from a volcano. “You will leave when I tell you. Not a second before.”

Half-standing, Graham froze. His face paled, as if only just now realizing the situation he was in. “I… there is no truth to what you heard, Cousin. I promise you, this was not me?—”

“Liar!” Henry snarled at him. “It was you. It’s not a question of maybe. It has been proven. Signed off on. You, the rat that you are, have spent the last two months trying to bring me down. Admit it!”

“I didn’t…” Graham’s chin trembled.

“But you’ve been caught, as rats always are.”

“No…”

“I didn’t invite you here for a confession,Cousin. I ordered you here so you might hear your punishment.” Henry widened his eyes at Graham, who gasped. “Your tenants in the north now pay rent to me.”

“You can’t!”

“I can,” he growled. “It’s done. They have my assurances that they will not be kicked off the land they rent. And when you fail to pay your taxes, which will be soon, seeing as you won’t have an income, I will buy the land out from under you, at which point you will be free to rent it from me.” He gave an arrogant smile. “At a reasonable price, I assure you.”

“You… you can’t do that! I won’t let you!”

“And what do you mean to do to stop me?” His glare was so sharp that it might cut. “I never wanted this title, Cousin. You know I did not. But now that I have it…” He chuckled coldly. “It comes with a rather large amount of power, or so I am learning. You may fight me on this, but you will lose. You know you will.”

Graham was standing now. Shaking. Not as scared-looking as Henry might have hoped. Fury was what poured from him. “You think I am beaten?”

“I know you are.”

“No. You are the one who is beaten!” Graham pointed a long finger at Henry’s face. “If you go through with this, do not think I will stand by idly. Yes, some of what I told your tenants were lies. Rumors as you claim. But there is plenty more that I did not share. Truths that, if they were to come out, might ruin your already weak standing among our peers.”

Henry’s glare turned cold as he grabbed the armrests of his chair, as if he meant to tear them off. “I would be careful what I say next.”

Graham cackled. “Would you be? Lucky that you and I are not the same person. For if we were, I would have never married a woman who cross-dresses in her spare time! And then hangs in bars with men of the lowest character. What she does with these men, who can say?” He shrugged and cackled again. “But I am sure we can think of something.”

Henry saw red. Anger the likes of which he had never known. Such rage flowing through him that the fire burning in the hearth was ice-cold by comparison. At the mention of his wife… her honor being questioned… he did not think, for that was impossible to do. Rather, he acted.

He leaped from his chair and lunged at Graham. Graham let out a yelp, but that was all he could do before Henry was on him. Henry grabbed his cousin by the scruff of the neck and dragged him across the study, where he threw him against the cold stone wall, drove a forearm into his neck, pinned him there, then lifted him off the ground so that his feet dangled inches above.

“Say that again,” Henry growled, leaning in so close that the spittle flying from his mouth coated Graham’s face.

“I’m sorry!” Graham squawked.

“Sorry about what?” Henry pressed his forearm harder.

“I did not mean…” Graham coughed and choked as Henry’s forearm pressed against his neck. “I would never…. you wife?—”

“What about her?”

“I didn’t see a thing!” Graham managed, his face turning red and then purple. “I did not… I misspoke… I won’t say a word…”

Henry growled again, meeting his cousin’s beady eyes, so he might see the animal hidden behind them. His cousin gasped and choked, could barely breathe as he pawed uselessly at Henry’s forearm. A moment longer, just enough so that Graham might consider the real possibility that Henry, if he wished, could end him now…

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