The Heart of a Duke(110)

Daniel shook his head as the full picture became clear. “Shaw drew up the petition to the Prince Regent. That is what Shaw held over you? What you have been searching for and what Shaw’s son mailed to me care of Theo?”

“Yes,” Edmund snapped. “Father kept talking those last days. Would not keep quiet. Nattering on about moral obligations, protecting the estate, purging his soul, and making amends to you for his wrongs. I was his son, too. But he never saw me anymore. Just you.”

Daniel cringed at the bitterness etched into Edmund’s words, born of a hatred that had festered for years, driving him to madness.

His father had more than one betrayal for which he needed to make amends. He had wronged them both. They were his sons, but he only saw his heirs, conduits to the estate and the next generation, who was best to ensure that longevity.

“Shaw drafted the petitions, confessing everything. I would have lost it all,” Edmund cried. “Everything I had been groomed to own. Did you honestly think I would let that happen? I knew Shaw and Reilly could be bought. Everybody has a price, but theirs kept going up. Reilly charging me for trips, land, and whatever his latest venture was. And Shaw. Christ, the man was like a sieve with money, could not stay away from the cards or ahead of the bloody creditors. They were bleeding me dry,” he bellowed.

“So you started doing the same to the estate.”

Edmund snorted. “You never understood. You still do not. I am not paying the tenants to feast off my land when I can get the same work at cheaper wages.” Edmund shook his head as if to clear it. “I am not explaining myself to you. This is over.”

It is time. Come home and claim your destiny.

He had never been too late, but Shaw’s cryptic missive may have been.

Good lord. His whole life a lie. It did not matter. It never had. The land was in his soul, but Julia . . . Julia was his heart.

He looked Edmund dead in the eye. “You can have it. You can have it all. You asked for an exchange and I am giving you a damn fair one. Our lives for a dukedom. Release her and it is yours. You get your life back, and I . . .” His eyes met Julia’s and he smiled gamely at her. “I save mine.”

Julia’s lips parted, her eyes widening, tears streaking her cheeks. “Daniel.”

She did not speak, but mouthed the words. He heard them and so much more.

Edmund scoffed. “You have been in America too long. This is England. You cannot give up a dukedom. It is not done. Do not take me for a fool.”

“Let her go, Edmund. Let her go and you live, harm one hair on her head and you die.”

Edmund stiffened, Julia crying out as he instinctively tightened his grip. “Be silent! It is too late. Too damn late,” he scowled.

Daniel paled at hearing the ominous epitaph he had once sworn would grace his gravestone. He held up his hands in a placating gesture, seeing the cornered look in Edmund’s eyes.

“The whole place is set to explode. And that will be the end of it.”

“You do not want to do that, Edmund. There are too many people who know. I am not alone. Robbie is here and Brett Curtis and—”

“Robbie has no title, and Curtis is an American,” he sneered the word derisively. “Their word against mine will not stand.”

“What about Taunton? People take notice of the word of an earl.”

“You brought Taunton with you?” Edmund breathed. He cast another frantic look around the balcony. “No matter. He is the aggrieved father of a ruined, dead daughter.”

Julia cried out.

“Enough,” Edmund bellowed. “Enough of this.” He dragged Julia farther backward, closer to the balustrade as Daniel advanced upon him.

“Edmund, please, listen to me. It is not over.” Daniel kept moving toward him.

Edmund dragged Julia back until his legs hit the balustrade. As he glanced behind him to gauge the distance to the ground, a shot rang out.

Edmund’s bellow rent the air as the bullet ripped through his jacket, piercing the arm holding the knife to Julia’s throat. The wounded appendage dropped and dangled uselessly to his side, the knife clattering to the ground. Stunned, Edmund glanced down, as if not fully comprehending the red stream leaking from the hole in his jacket.

He had only seconds to contemplate it, for with a cry Julia shoved free.

Daniel lunged toward Edmund, who staggered back, his knees hitting the cement wall behind him. His good arm flailed like a windmill to right his balance, and then he was gone, tumbling backward, green eyes wide with horror.

Daniel raced to the ledge to see Edmund sprawled on the slate patio, his sightless eyes open, blood pooling around his arm.

Daniel swallowed hard. Then Julia was in his arms, and he crushed her close, against his heart, where she belonged.