Page 76 of Her Magnificent Mistake
Shut up, shut up, Hawk wanted to whisper.Stop drawing his attention.Leave him to me.
Judging from theshushingsounds Allie was making, she agreed.
Artrip acknowledged the question with a polite tip of his head. “Stephen was truly a despicable man. He would loudly proclaim to anyone and everyone that if he ever inherited Tostinham, he would turn Pook’s Glen into an…attraction.” The butler sneered that word. “Inviting anyone and everyone to tromp all over, ruining what beauty existed. It could not be allowed to happen!”
“So ye killed him,” Hawk rasped. He remembered how they’d found his older brother face down in the water at the base of the burn. Artrip had likely thought it a fitting end.
“However,” continued the butler blithely, “I cannot take credit for the death of young Willy, your uncle’s son. He died in London over fifteen years ago, far from myself…but it was convenient, I admit.”
Convenient? “The lad was barely a bairn!” Hawk growled. “Uncle William was devastated!”
“But he was still your grandfather’s spawn, and thus deserved to pay for what the old bastard did. Are you not going to askbut why?”
“Butwhy, Artrip?” blurted Allie’s unnaturally high voice. “Why?”
“Yes, thank you my dear.” The older man favored her with a proud nod. “You really are bright, and it is rather a shame that you will have to die.”
“Never,” snarled Hawk, yanking his shirt from his niece’s hold and stepping closer to Artrip.
Who clucked his tongue and rolled his eyes slightly. “Fine, I will kill you first, my lord, to make things easier. I suppose you have not the stomach to see your ward killed.”
Hawk heard the desperation in Allie’s voice when she exclaimed, “But—but you have not finished monologuing! You need to explainwhy! We cannot die until we know why!”
“Oh, yes, good point my dear.” Artrip straightened his shoulders, the gun remaining steady as his gaze flicked lightning-quick between the three of them. “Always nice when a lady does as she is expected. Well, it is quite simple. You are all paying the price for your grandfather’s sin. Your great-grandfather, my dear,” he said to Allie.
“Sin? What sin?” Hawk shook his head, edging away from the younger couple, hoping to draw Artrip’s fire.Do not think about Marcia. Do not think about how she’s about to walk into this danger.“He was an auld man!”
“He was notalwaysan old man, was he?” Taking the bait, Artrip turned just enough to keep Hawk under the barrel of the gun. “And he never hid his sin, he practically demanded worship for it! He wasproudof the way he bottled up the burn! Hebraggedabout how he hadtamed Pook’s Glen! How he had ripped down centuries of natural formations in order to make the burn accessible to everyone! Oh, he had sent men and metal and stoneinto the wilderness to make it atamed beauty!” Artrip spat this last, as if it were a curse.
His eyes had turned wild, his hair flapping about as he whipped his head in agitation, and two bright spots appeared on his cheeks. “As if this was something tobragabout? Killing a natural wonder, taming a wild place,killing a spirit.”
Hawk had only been half listening, his focus on the gun which had remained remarkably steady, despite Artrip’s ire. “Killing…a spirit?” he now repeated, hoping to keep the man talking.
Talking utter bollocks, but still talking.
The butler obliged, gesturing with his free hand at the beauty around them. “Can you imagine what this place used to look like? Wild and free from human encroachment? Beforeyourgrandfathermade it accessible to anyone? Old one-legged washerwomen can now just pop up to the top of the burn for an outing on a Sunday afternoon!”
Hawk didn’t understand. “Aye, that was his point. To make this natural beauty accessible to anyone.”
“Hekilled the land,” Artrip spat. Then he paused, took a deep breath, and used his free hand to smooth down his wayward hair. “The burn used to be the home of the spirits, my lord. Not just Pook but others, wild and free. By taming the burn, your grandfather killed them, chased them away. And that is the greatest sin of all.”
Hawk’s brows had rose. Artrip was…what? A nature-worshipper? “Ye killed my grandfather forthat?”
The gun pointed at Hawk’s chest. “I vowed to wipe out his entire family. Any of his blood who saw this place the same way he did.”
This was ridiculous. “The land will still be here, the damage done.”
“Your cousin Marianne will inherit,” Artrip announced smugly. “She has already promised me she will allow the burn to return to nature. Perhaps the spirits will return, as was meant to be. It is a long shot, true…but one I am more than willing to kill for.”
“Holy shite,” Rupert whispered again, behind Hawk and a little off to one side.
Artrip nodded firmly. “You must all pay—all of you, pay for this crime against the natural world.”
Pook’s Glen was beautiful, and now anyone could share in it. That had been Grandda’s vision, his dream. How could this possibly be a bad thing?
Rupert hummed thoughtfully. “In Exodus, the Lord punishes the children and their children for the sins of their parents, into the third and fourth generation.”
“Did you just compare Artrip to God?” Allie murmured.
