Page 85 of Rules for Heiresses
“He’s no—” He cut off, lips pursed, as though he’d swallowed a bug, both Courtland and Ravenna watching in bemused silence as he snapped his mouth shut. His face turned dull red.
Bronwyn gave an approving nod. “Now the rest, Stinson.”
Stinson glared at her high-handedness, but met Courtland’s eyes, shame lurking in them. “Sommers approached me at my club and expressed interest in Bronwyn. If I were to arrange an agreement, in exchange, I’d be rid of you.”
Bronwyn sniffed. “As if I would ever look at that overgrown toad.”
“What did Sommers offer you?” Courtland asked, alert and eyes narrowed.
“He said if I agreed to the match as her guardian, he would give me Bronwyn’s dowry as he had no need of it.”
“That woman is the mother of your child, you imbecile,” Bronwyn said, blue eyes rolling upward. “A baby is your responsibility. Good Lord, you’d think that we women shoulder all the burden for men’s complete lack of brains. If you didn’t want your ladybird to get pregnant, you should have worn a French letter.”
“Bronwyn!” he snapped.
“What? I’m a modern woman. I have to know these things. How else will I protect myself from unscrupulous gentlemen? This body is the only one I have.”
Courtland was sure that Ravenna’s dumbfounded expression mirrored his. He’d never been prouder to call anyone family than he was at that moment. Underneath all the layers of feminine politesse, Bronwyn’s spine was made of pure steel.
He cleared his throat, motioning for Stinson to continue. “Go on.”
“As you can guess, the stubborn chit refused to even see the man, and had the audacity to say that as duke, you were the only one who could approve her marriage.”
“I didn’t lie,” she pointed out.
“I called her names I’m not proud of.” Stinson swallowed hard, lines of misery and shame making his face droop. “I begged her to reconsider, telling her that it would solve all our problems. If she would only agree to Sommers’s suit, you wouldn’t be a problem anymore—that he knew how to get rid of you for good. She told me that she’d never thought of you as a problem, but as a long-lost sibling, and that she wanted to get to know you.”
Stinson let out a shuddering breath as though all the fight and anger had been leached out of him. With a groan that came from the lowest depths of his body, he sat heavily in the nearest chair. “I was so angry, and I was well in my cups when I went to Sommers and told him everything. He paid for the exposé in that gossip rag. He told me not to worry, that he had a plan to deal with you, and I could have back my life, if I told the world what my mother has always told me—that you were illegitimate and that you were of mixed blood. I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t think twice. I wanted you gone.”
“Why?”
His brother gave a hollow laugh. “You were always so…good at everything. Even Grandfather wasCordy thisandCordy that.Why can’t you be more like that Cordy lad?” Courtland’s eyes widened as Stinson dropped his head into his hands. “It drove me insane how sodding perfect you were. You were the brilliant heir and I was the nothing spare. Mama was the one who told me your mother was nothing but an island commoner. It’s no excuse, but it was one I latched onto that you didn’t deserve what you had. By default of my bloodline, I was better.”
Courtland felt all his muscles lock as years and years of anger and bitterness descended on him. He’d always felt unworthy because of the way his own brother and stepmother had treated him. No child deserved that.No onedeserved that.
“But I’m not better,” Stinson whispered. “I’m worse. I blamed you for my shortcomings then, just as I blamed you for everything now. I convinced myself that if you went away again, it would all be better.”
“You and your mother gave me no choice but to leave England,” Courtland bit out.
“I know,” Stinson said with the first genuine and repentant look that Courtland had ever seen on his brother’s face. “Iknow. It only took my little sister to inform me of that fact. That I was angry at the wrong person. That I should be angry atme.” He drew a shuddering breath. “When I saw the newssheets and heard about the false arrest, I never expected to feel so bleak at what I’d done. I thought I would be happy, but I wasn’t. I was miserable.”
“Because deep down, you knew it was wrong, Stinson,” Ravenna murmured from her perch. “I won’t lie. That was a prick of a move.”
Courtland’s lips twitched at his wife’s candor even as his brother’s face crumpled. “You have no idea how much I regret it.”
She eyeballed him. “Well, I suppose that’s a start, and you’re here now, even if it was forced, and that counts for something. A veryminusculesomething.”
Courtland exchanged a look with her, one that led her to rise from her seat near the bookcase and came over to stand near him behind the table. It was as if she could sense that he needed her before he knew it himself. Her hand drifted to the top of his shoulder and squeezed, letting him know she was there, no matter what he decided: hear his brother out or have him hauled from the room.
He stared at Stinson and saw the face of the boy who had relished his pain, one who had destroyed any hope of brotherhood. An image of him expecting his younger brother to back him up at Harrow and watching Stinson laugh instead as he was nearly pummeled to death by his classmates filled his brain. He swallowed at the memory that had yet to heal. Those childhood wounds still festered and burned.
Hurt and resentment boiled like acid through his veins. His fingers clenched into fists. This latest betrayal was layered upon so many others from a decade ago, tangling and twisting into something that threatened to demolish the fortress he’d built around himself. But something new battled to be heard, too, tempering that ruthless, unfeeling,distantman he’d been for so many years: his wife’s compassion. Her fierce devotion.
Herlove.
Ravenna squeezed her fingers again as if she could sense the chaos of his thoughts and sought to soothe the raging, wounded beast inside. At the heart of it, Stinson was a spoiled and overindulged man, but a part of Courtland understood that Ravenna was right. His brother wasn’t completely rotten if he was feeling any remorse at all. If he was here and the apology was sincere—still to be seen—that was something. It was the only redeemable thing saving his skin.
“You hated me that much?”
