He liked the way she said that.
“Perhaps he knew that someone stole it?—”
“—and he is trying to flush them out, to get it back to himself,” Evelyn finished. “That’s why he blamed you — he wanted to ensure that your word had no merit, if it ever came out that this note was found. He would try to turn it around on you and your family. And he has the perfect tool to do so with his wife. No one would ever suspect her of rumor-mongering, for she is always full of news about others.”
“What I don’t understand is why he would involve you,” Asher said. “Why forcing us together would benefit him.”
“For distraction,” Evelyn said with a small shrug. “Knowing who I am and what I am interested in, I make an easy person to blame. Just look at how everyone believed that my father was involved at the mere mention of his name, simply because he also enjoys puzzles.”
The fury was building within him, but Asher attempted to maintain control of it — at least for now. Evelyn didn’t deserve any of his annoyance, and he didn’t want her to see him in such a state.
He would save that for Norwood himself.
“Do you think…” Evelyn trailed off, and Asher knew exactly what she was going to say, even if she was uncertain about saying it.
“Do I think that he killed my father? Possibly my brother?”
Evelyn nodded slightly.
“It is most certainly a possibility,” Asher said with a curse. “I need to confront Norwood.”
She watched him, some fear filling her eyes, but she nodded in understanding.
“Promise me you will be careful when you do so?”
He looked down at her, seeing the emotion playing in her eyes, knowing she didn’t want to speak it aloud, even though a huge part of him wished that she would say what she was feeling, so at least he would know.
“I will be careful,” he said gruffly, as he realized that what he was most concerned about was coming home to her.
He had to make sure that nothing happened to her.
“This could completely destroy our reputation, depending on what happens,” he warned her.
She snorted. “Asher,” she said, tilting her head. “Do you think that matters at all to me?”
“Well—”
She moved closer, trailing her fingers up his shirt, until they wrapped around his neck, leaning in so that she could look directly at him.
“What matters to me most is that you come home, do you understand?”
“Where else would I go?”
She fixed him with a glare. “Norwood has resorted to the worst measures before, likely based only on supposition. Once he knows that you have discovered the truth, you will likely be in even greater danger. What will you say to him?”
At the moment, Asher didn’t know — nor did he care. All he could think about was that Norwood had taken away his father, his brother, so much from his family — and finally, after all of these years of pent-up emotion without any outlet, he now had a face upon which he could fix his vengeance.
“Asher…” she said softly. “I know what you’re thinking, but before you do anything rash?—”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” he bit out before he could stop himself, his restraint slipping. “You have no idea what I’ve been through, nor what I’ve felt.”
“You’re right,” she said, lifting her hands off him and to her sides. “I don’t. But if it were me?—”
“But it is not you,” he cut her off, frowning at her. “It is me. I must deal with this how I best see fit.”
“But—”
“I’m a duke, Evelyn. Let me do what I choose to do. Everyone else seems to understand that.”
