Page 39 of Her Magnificent Mistake
Oh yes. Marcia shuddered. “That is even worse than lobsters.”
“Agreed.”
What had he said about the timing? Allison had been sent away when she was almost ten, and Marcia knew she was nineteen now. “So your brother died shortly after…” No, that wasn’t the correct question to ask. “When precisely did your brother die?”
Hawk straightened slowly, still looking down at the water as if he couldn’t bear to meet her eyes. “Six months after…after I hurt ye.”
Her brows rose. So he was finally admitting it? “So his death—the worry of having to care for Allison—that was not why you told me we had no future together?” Her volume was climbing as she worked out the timing, mind whirling. This had happenedaftertheir affair? “Why you broke my heart?”
Calm down. Surely knowing this answer is not as important as discovering if he is a murderer?
Marcia blinked, realizing she’d stood here and listened to him recount his older brother’s death—which would have been necessary for him to gain access to the Tostinham title—without considering it might have beenhisdoing.
Another murder to add to the list.
If he murdered his brother ten years ago, it showed he was planning the deaths of the rest of the barons as well, which is remarkably forward thinking…and it would mean you fell in love with an evil man, not a man who became evil.
“Nay,” he said finally, abruptly smacking his hands down on the railing. “That’s no’ why I broke things off with ye.”
With that, he turned and marched off the bridge, heading up the path.
Marcia stared after him, her mind taking a moment to figure out what they’d been speaking about. The way he’d broken her heart, aye.Nothis family’s deaths.
And he was just going to walk away from her?
“Why then?” she blurted, trotting after him.
Hawk didn’t slow; he continued to hike at a pace faster than she was used to.
“Hawk!” she called, her breath coming harder. “You owe me that much!”
He stumbled, his right shoulder ramming into the boulder at his side, before he reached out to grab it. He slumped against it, as if it were holding him upright. “We’re almost to the top,” he mumbled. “The cottage is at the top of those stairs.”
Panting, Marcia reached his side and grabbed his forearm. “Hawk, tell me.”
He didn’t look at her, but tipped his head back to blink up at the Douglas firs along the rim of the canyon above, anguish in his expression. “What we were doing…it waswrong, Marcia. Dishonorable.”
She reeled back, the pain sharp and sudden. “What? How was it any different from what Allison and Rupert—what a thousand couples do each day? We werecourting.”
She remembered their plans—for a future together, in which they made the world a better place. Perhaps they were silly plans, but they’d been madetogether. They’d spoken of future adventures and homes and perhaps, one day down the road, children.
Together. If that wasn’t courting, what was?
“Marcia,” he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “We shouldnae have this discussion here.”
“Why not?” she snapped back, temper rising.
“Because ye dinnae want to hear my answers, and we are a way from the horses, and the trail is slippery!”
“And you do not want me angry, is that it?” Tossing his arm away, she marched to stand in front of him, hands on her hips. “Well I am a big girl, Hawk. I have lived with heartache for a decade, and finding out the truth is not going to send me inconsolably sobbing down this mountain, even if you may wish it. Why did you break my heart?”
“Because I was no’ good enough for ye!” Hawk roared, then shook his head. “Fook, Marcia, I told ye…”
While she stared at him in shock, he took a deep breath, staring at the rock over her head. “Ikennedthere was nae future for us, aye? I kenned that. And yet I fell in love with ye. I took advantage of ye, I took yeto bed, like a villain, and Ikenned it was wrong.” His gaze finally dropped to hers. “I kenned it was wrong, and I couldnae make myself stop.”
“Why?” she managed to whisper, her heart in her throat. “Why was it wrong?”
“Because ye’re Bull’s sister! And a Duke’s daughter!” The words burst from his lips as if pulled by hot tongs, the anguish in his tone obvious. “Bull was my best friend, do ye understand? He kenned ye deserved the kind of life I couldnae give ye. I should never have touched ye, never have allowed myself to fall so deeply in love with ye!”
