Page 129 of Winterset
“You hated me much longer than that.” Damon frowned.
“It’s true,” I said. “I did hate you, but only because you hated me.”
“I haveneverhated you, Ollie.” Damon held my gaze.
“Then why did you act like it?”
“I distanced myself from you because I wanted to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
“Father.” Damon worked his jaw as if chewing over words he did not want to say. “Do you remember that day at the pianoforte?” he asked.
I looked down at my hands, remembering the bite of Father’s riding crop coming down on my knuckles.
“I see that you do,” Damon said. “Do you know why he did it?”
“To punish me for not practicing.”
“No. He did that to you to punishme, Ollie.”
I squinted at him, trying to make sense of his words.
“At first, Father’s favorite method of making me do what he wanted was whipping me.” He avoided eye contact. “But I got too good at bearing it. He quickly discovered that a more effective method of making me submissive was to hurt you instead. Father saw how much I loved you, and he used it against me. The only way I knew how to protect you was to distance myself from you.”
As I viewed my childhood from this new angle, I was horrified.
“It was around that time that I went away to school,” Damon said. “There I learned what the rest of my life would be like, how I was more Father’s heir than my own person.” Damon breathed. “And I was angry, Ollie. I was so angry all the time. About everything. When you came up to me in the schoolyard crying, I was worried word would get back to Father, and then he would somehow make you pay. That is why I gave you the cut direct.”
“I really believed you hated me,” I said.
Damon shook his head. “I hated Father. I hated being his heir. I hated myself. But not you, Ollie.Neveryou. And I am so sorry that I made you believe that. I’m sorry for how Father treated you because of me, for abandoning you when you needed a brother most.”
“I’m sorry too,” I said. “For everything you suffered. I didn’t know. I never saw how hard Father was on you or the weight you carried being the heir. I ... might have judged you too harshly.”
“Might have?” Damon raised a teasing brow at me.
Knowing the truth of his actions, I could now see that Ihadbeen a harsh judge. But even so, it was difficult to reconcile what I had lived with this revelation. Damon had not hated me, no matter how much it had felt like it at the time. “I have wanted and yearned for brotherly affection most of my life. Still, it will take me some time to fully be able to see you in this new light. Not as my adversary but as my protector. More than anything, though, I do wish for us to be reconciled.”
“Do you mean it?” Damon asked.
“I do.”
He closed his eyes as if savoring my words. “So do I, Ollie.” Standing, he pulled me up into a hug. He held me tightly, dispelling the distance that had existed between us for far too long.
But another matter still weighed heavily on my mind.
“I need your help,” I said, stepping back.
“Anything,” Damon said.
“I need your help selling Winterset so I might marry Kate.”
Damon stared at me for a long moment, then threw back his head and laughed.
I scowled at him.
“I’m sorry.” He struggled to regain his composure. “But do you not find it funny? You have hated me for two years for eventryingto remove the entail from Summerhaven so that I might sell the smallest portion in order to marry Hannah, and now you are asking me to help you sell the whole of your inheritance to marry the woman you love.”
