From the instant she’d looked into Cordell’s dark eyes, she had been set at ease. There were no concerns that he was not the man he claimed to be. She felt safe and comfortable around him from the beginning, which is likely how their attraction had been able to progress so quickly.
The Duke of Otlingham was another matter entirely. His familiar, cold blue eyes were quick to lock on her when he entered and for a moment, she saw a flash of confusion before he slowly smiled, as if the fly had willingly walked into the spider’s carefully laid trap. If she had come here alone, she would have immediately sensed danger.
She wanted to look away, but she refused to give him that power over her. He had rattled her at Vauxhall, but the time for his terror of women, of her fellow actresses was over after today.
“Miss Sims.” He started to move closer. “I was told that my nephew was here, but I find myself confronted with an image of loveliness.”
“Save your flattery,” Cordell spoke up firmly from the opposite end of the room.
The duke immediately paused and glanced toward the window where Cordell had turned and was slowly making his way over, ensuring that his body was in between his uncle and Aislynn. “Cordell, my boy!” The man’s face broke out in a wide grin and his expression transformed, turning bright and welcoming. “This is an honor! It has been too long since you have been at my estate.”
“Would that the tidings could be more enjoyable, Uncle,” Cordell returned stiffly. He reached into his vest pocket and withdrew the letter that Aislynn had discovered in Miss Flynn’s dressing room. “I came here for a reason. I need to know if my suspicions are true.”
The duke’s brow furrowed slightly. “What sort of suspicions?”
Cordell snorted. “I think you know exactly what I’m referring to, but in case you truly are that naïve, allow me to bring this to your attention.” He unfolded the letter and held it out so that his uncle could see it.
The duke narrowed his gaze to see the item in question and gave a boisterous laugh. “You would confront me about a letter to a whore?”
Aislynn’s fists clenched. Although she had not known Miss Flynn personally, it bothered her whenever anyone assumed that actresses were just as willing with their favors as the women in brothels.
“It is a menacing letter that was found at the scene of a woman who was brutally murdered.” Cordell folded the letter and returned it to the safekeeping of his vest. Crossing his arms, he added, “I just want to know why you did it. There has to be a reason and I would hear it from your own lips before you are taken to the Tower.”
The duke easily brushed off his nephew’s statement. “I am amused that you would think me capable of such vile acts of violence. After what your father did, you should believe that I would not want to see anyone suffer the same fate as your mother, my dearly departed sister.” He moved over to the sideboard. “I think what we need is a drink so that we can all sit and discuss this matter like reasonable adults.”
Cordell shook his head. “The time for that has passed once you started murdering innocent women.”
“Innocent?” The duke laughed almost manically. “Those sirens would lure me to their side and then toss me aside when they tired of me.” He gestured over his shoulder to Aislynn. “She will make a fool out of you if you allow it. Mark my words.”
“Is that why you threatened Miss Sims? Because you saw her as a threat to me?” Cordell challenged.
The duke filled a glass and waved his arm around as he spoke. “She is just like the rest! Capable of luring a man to his demise by their lurid dreams.” He swallowed the liquid in his glass with a single toss. When the tumbler came down, a gun appeared in his other hand. “You cannot allow them to win, these devious women who trick men into following them down to their depths. My sister was guilty of the same crimes. She allowed your father to follow her all the way from the continent where he took her away from me.”
Aislynn’s gaze shifted to Cordell, but she could not discern if his uncle’s words were a reflection of his current expression. Unfortunately, something told her things were about to get much worse.
“He took her from you?” Cordell said softly, not sure if he was prepared to hear the answer.
The duke ignored the glass and opted for the entire bottle instead. The pistol was still gripped tightly in his hand. It concerned Cordell, but he was standing between the weapon and Aislynn and that was something. “My sister betrayed me and went to another and started to increase with you.” He gave a smirk. “But I took care of my problem with due diligence.”
Cordell stilled, a sick sensation starting to churn in the pit of his stomach. “What do you mean?”
“I loved her!” He slammed the bottle down so hard that the glass cracked and broke under the pressure, littering shards all over the floor, but his uncle hardly noticed. His eyes were unfocused, glazed over. “She left me no other choice.”
It had been years since he’d thought about his childhood, but Cordell distinctly remembered the same distant look in his father’s eyes from time to time. Every time he would talk about his homeland, that melancholy would strike and he would fix a special tea. Thinking upon it now, it was the duke that had sent the tincture to his mother to help ‘cure’ her husband’s melancholy through the years, but as his uncle spoke, so many things that he hadn’t noticed as a child were starting to fall into place. Like a puzzle that had not quite fit together, now it all made so much sense.
“My father wasn’t mad,” Cordell whispered. “You poisoned him.”
The duke gave another laugh that made him sound unhinged. “It was the perfect solution! He always talked about how grand blue lily was for his constitution. I explained that I had something similar in my gardens that would help to ease his mental upset, but that is not what morning glory seeds are for. I have used them several times for my own amusement.” He tapped a finger against his lips. “Unfortunately, I fear it was the mercury that finally caused him to alter his perception past the point of no return. A small dose now and then was enough to make him question reality, but one day I misjudged the dosage and gave him too much…” His voice trailed off and he frowned. “She was not supposed to die. I swear her death was an accident.”
Cordell’s head was spinning. To learn that the man he’d believed had dragged him out of the mire was responsible for it all made him want revenge. His fists clenched at his sides, but oddly enough, his breathing remained steady, calm. “Did you try to kill me too?” He had to know the full truth of his uncle’s madness, the insanity that he’d struggled to defend for so long.
“What? No!” The duke looked truly stricken. “I looked at you as my own son! You were the child we were supposed to have. Not him. Never him. I would have never allowed her to travel beyond the shores of England had I but known she would engage in a torrid affair and break my heart.” He shook his head. “For years I tried to forget her but I failed. Miserably.” His expression brightened, as if seeing the sun emerging from the clouds of his convoluted mind. “And then I saw her treading the boards on the stage and I knew that she must be mine. Miss Flynn. But she spurned me, just as your mother had done. She had to be punished.”
“And the others? Did they reject you too?” Cordell asked.
“They were worthless harlots, the lot of them!” he growled. “I would offer them the same delights that have been my boon companion over the years, but they refused my gifts. They refused me. I could not continue to bear the same humiliation over and over again.”
“What of Miss Sims?”
