“But as you can see, Brighthollow will never allow it,” Walters continued, apparently unmoved by Hugh’s rage or Lizzie’s pain.
“I will not,” Hugh managed through clenched teeth.
“So you remember that when you look at him.Hetook your future from you, not me.”
“Don’t you dare act like a gentleman thwarted by my cruelty. You are only interested in my sister’s inheritance,” Hugh spat.
Walters did not deny the charge, and Hugh felt Lizzie shrinking into herself with every barb exchanged between them. How he wished he could shield her from the truth, from the pain.
But he couldn’t.
“Itisa very nice inheritance,” Walters said with a nod. “But I won’t need it now.”
“Aaron,” Lizzie whispered, her voice so broken that it was like shards of glass slashing through Hugh’s skin.
Hugh stared at Walters, stared at his smug, untroubled expression, and a sick feeling began to grow in the pit of his stomach. “What do you mean you won’t need it?”
“My driver, the woman who owns this home, my friends…everyone knows that we snuck away under your very nose. And that we have been alone for several nights.”
“But—” Lizzie began, her voice shaking.
“Hush now, Elizabeth, your brother and I are negotiating,” Walters said, never looking at her, never seeing how the sharpness and dismissiveness of his actions and words cut to her very spirit. “You don’t want all this to be unleashed into Society, do you? This thing that will ruin all her chances at a future?”
Hugh released Lizzie’s hand. He did not move forward, he didn’t move at all. Somehow he remained in place as he said, “I will kill you.”
For a moment, a flicker of fear moved over Walter’s face, but then he managed it. He smiled once more. “Do it, go ahead. If you do, it will only make this scandal all the larger and drag down your entire legacy…along with her.”
Hugh’s nostrils flared, for of course the bastard was right. If he said a word against this man, if he laid a hand on him with the rage that boiled so deeply inside of him, he would be exposing Lizzie’s indiscretion. She would be humiliated and shunned if he were imprudent.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“For you to do what any loving brother would do in this situation. You will pay me handsomely to cover up your sister’s foolish, youthful mistake.”
Hugh was too stunned to speak, but Lizzie staggered forward, her hands shaking as she stared at Walters. Hugh could see all her heartbreak on her face. She had truly cared for him, been convinced by him that this was their only future, their only path. And now…now to have all her hopes and dreams shattered, to have her humiliation used as a bartering tool…
A piece of her innocence was dying right before his eyes, and that had nothing to do with whatever she had allowed Walters to take from her body.
It killed Hugh to see it, and to know he could do nothing except hand over everything this bastard requested.
“How could you?” she whispered. “How?”
Walters looked her up and down, leering. Then he shrugged. “You wouldn’t understand. You’ve always had everything you ever wanted.”
“Get out,” Hugh said, his hand shaking as he pointed toward the door behind them.
Walters grinned. “I’ll come to your solicitor’s in London in…shall we say two days? I will assume my very generous payment will be waiting for me there. Good evening, Your Grace,” he said as he strode past them. At the door, he paused and turned back. “Oh, and Lizzie?”
She had been staring at the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks. She lifted her gaze toward this man she had apparently cared so deeply for. “Yes?”
“It’s been a pleasure,” he said, and walked out, laughing the whole way.
The moment he’d gone and shut the door behind himself, Lizzie tipped forward, dropping to her knees on the floor beside the bed. She buried her head in her hands and began to weep, the sobs wracking her entire body.
Hugh rushed to her, his heart aching as he dropped down beside her and gathered her into his arms, rocking her as he had so many times when she was a little girl, woken by nightmares. Only this time the terror was real—he could not hush it away with soft words.
She would feel it, because he had not been aware enough to protect her from it.
“I’m sorry,” she finally hiccupped against his shirt. “I shouldn’t have thought he could truly love me. I was such a fool!”
