“Very well,” Ewan signed. “I’ll speak to him and you be my voice. We’ll stall him as long as possible.”
“He wants to know what you want,” she added.
“I’ve no idea what secret little messages you are sending the great love of your life,” Josiah said. “But I assume her questions are what aretrulyin your head. You want to know what I want?”
Ewan nodded.
“You know what I want,” Josiah hissed. “You know what I deserve.”
Ewan turned his attention on Josiah fully and signed, “The title.”
When Charlotte had translated, Josiah sneered. “Mytitle,” he corrected. “It’s always been my damned title.”
Ewan let out a breath and tried to recall what this man had gone through as a child. To try to appeal to the pain in his heart rather than the hate. “That’s what Father told you,” he signed. “What he taught you to believe through his violence. That you were entitled to it. That I was trying to rob you.”
“Yes.”
Ewan glanced at Roger. “And what about you? What did he tell you?”
Roger seemed confused to be included in their conversation, but he slowly said, “He—he told me that you were a usurper. That my job was to help my brother get what was his.”
“And what was yours?” Ewan asked, meeting Roger’s eyes as Charlotte translated. “Was anything yours?”
Roger swallowed and the answer flitted across his face. “No,” he admitted softly.
“Enough,” Josiah snapped, and he grabbed Charlotte’s hair, tilting her head back. “This is between you and me.”
“Yes,” Ewan signed with a nod. “You and me. You ought not to bring Roger into it, nor Charlotte. Let them both go and it can be between you and me.”
Charlotte hesitated. “No,” she said, addressing him rather than the others. “No, I won’t let you do that.”
He tilted his head and signed, “Sacrificing yourself for me is not an option.”
“You tell me what he said!” Josiah roared, and swung on Charlotte. The back of his hand hit her face, and Ewan jumped forward as she turned away with a gasp of pain. Redness rose to her cheek immediately.
She slowly repeated what Ewan had signed, her eyes welling with tears that he believed had more to do with him than with her own pain or fear. Because she was Charlotte, and she loved him like no one else had ever loved him.
“I’m not letting her go,” Josiah sneered. “The problem exists with both of you now. A child, even a bastard one, could ruin my plans if she fought it. And she would, wouldn’t you?” He turned his attention on her. “Because you love him so very, very much.”
“I do,” she admitted. “Has no one ever loved you?”
Ewan saw his brother’s face convulse, a mask of pain and even more rage. He wished he could scream more than he ever had in his entire life, to tell her to stop. She was kicking a hornet’s nest right now, and if she played it wrong, she would be dead before he could do anything.
“That man, that duke, that bastard who sired you all,” she continued softly, gently even. “He taught you to hate each other. To compete. That your bond was one of destruction. But did he ever teach you love? Or acceptance? Forgiveness?” She swallowed. “You deserved that, just as Ewan did. Perhaps what you really hate about him is that he escaped the house when you could not. That he was given the love you so wanted.”
“Stop,” Ewan signed desperately. “Look at his face, Charlotte. Stop!”
She ignored him. “You still have time to change this, Josiah. To redefine your life. You and Roger both.”
“I’m redefining my life, my lady. I’m going to shoot you between the eyes and watch him wrestle with his silence as you bleed out on the floor. I’m going to make himfeelyour very last breath. And then I’m going to kill him. And I’m going to make it look like he killed you and then himself.”
She stiffened and her gaze flitted to Ewan. The expression on her face tore his heart in two. She was calm. Accepting. Filled with love that washed over him and made every effort to make what was about to happen all right for him.
It wasn’t. It never could be.
“Watch me,” Josiah whispered. Then he depressed the trigger of his pistol.
Ewan braced for the end of his life, the end of everything that had ever mattered to him. But to his surprise, it didn’t come. The trigger depressed, but nothing happened.
