“I’m afraid that may be a very bad idea.”
The men all jumped to their feet to find the door to the study had been opened and the Duchess of Donburrow now stood in the entryway. Smith edged his way past her. The butler looked pinched and irritated even as he tried to maintain some decorum.
“I’m so sorry, Your Graces, I could not stop her,” he panted.
Ewan waved off Smith’s apology. His heart throbbed as he moved toward his mother and then wrote, “What are you doing here? How dare you make judgments on what I should and shouldn’t do? You divorced yourself from my life long ago.”
She winced as she read the words and then glanced back up at him. Normally she was utterly cold when she looked at him. Now there was emotion in her eyes.
Fear.
It felt like fingers closing around Ewan’s heart as he saw that fear and searched for a cause.
“I realize I have no place here,” she said softly. “But I had to return. You see, you are in danger, more danger than you know, if you intend to marry Lady Portsmith. Oranyone, for that matter.”
Ewan glanced back in question at his friends, and they joined him to stand before her. Matthew cocked his head. “Just what do you mean by that?”
She flinched. “There was no coincidence that we showed up on your doorstep today, Ewan. Your brothers and I didn’t come simply because we were at a nearby estate. That just made the coming easier.”
“Explain yourself, madam,” Baldwin snapped. “You’re talking in riddles.”
Ewan nodded, as confused and annoyed as his friends. He was just happy they were saying exactly what he was thinking.
“I will. I’ll try, at any rate.” She hesitated, almost as if she were struggling with what to say. Then she sighed. “Since the matter of the title was resolved three years ago, Josiah has been…plotting.”
“Plotting?” Baldwin repeated with a shake of his head. “Why would Josiah plot?”
She shivered. “His father taught him hate. He taught him vengeance. He taught him entitlement. The last duke’s violent and cruel behavior didn’t just stop because you were removed from our home, Ewan. The man found a way to punish us all for various offenses.”
Ewan blinked. He’d heard rumors and hints of his father’s bad behavior toward the “good” sons. He knew there was abuse. But he hadn’t really pictured what that would mean. How his brothers would be as changed and damaged by it as he had been. He’d come to see them all as a unit of terror, not as individuals.
“You say he is plotting,” Matthew said evenly. “What exactly is Josiah determined to do?”
She swallowed hard. “Josiah’s worst impulses are driven now, fueled by drink and lament and a yearning for what he feels was taken from him.”
“And what does he want?” Ewan wrote, his frustration that she was dancing about the topic reflected in Matthew and Baldwin’s faces.
She turned away briefly. “Your—your demise,” she whispered. “He has murdered you in his head a dozen times. I’ve heard him talk about it.”
Matthew staggered back. “Josiah wants tokillEwan?”
“The title would pass to him then,” the duchess said with a nod. “All would be resolved as he felt it should have been years ago.”
“You knew this and you said nothing until now?” Baldwin all but roared. “What kind of mother are you?”
Her cheeks flamed. “I heard him talk about it, plan it with his brother, but I never thought he was serious. It was idle words, that’s all. Just idle and impotent rage.” She pushed past them into the room. “Until yesterday. He’s had spies in your midst, Ewan. For years they have reported your movements.”
“Spies?” Smith interrupted, jolting forward. “From this house?”
She shook her head. “No, Smith, you did a good job pushing out any servants who might have been loyal to my husband’s ideals. He has other sources. That doesn’t matter right now. One of those sources wrote to Josiah, saying that Lady Portsmith was visiting.”
Ewan jolted as Charlotte’s name was brought into what sounded like a very dangerous and deadly story.
His mother kept talking. “He told your brother that you and Charlotte had been alone together on the estate for several days. And later when he saw you together, this person suspected a connection between you that went deeper than a mere friendship. The very notion that it could be true drove Josiah wild.”
“What does that mean?” Ewan scribbled.
“He destroyed his rooms, he beat his valet, his rage was…” She cringed. “It washorrifying, darker even than your father’s worst days. It became clear that his plans to do you harm were no longer just fantasies in his mind.”
