“You set a fire,” Adrian repeated, standing up. “Are you quite serious? You could have been killed! You put countless others in danger!”
“Cousin, please,” Caroline timidly replied, her shoulders rising to her ears. “I... it was an accident. I never meant to stumble so.”
Adrian rounded his desk, his blue eyes blazing with rage as he raised a finger at both women.
“And this accident never would have happened if you had not been there in the first place,” Adrian bit out. “I really expected better from you.”
“Brother, do stop yelling at our poor cousin before she faints from terror,” Elara said with exasperation. “This is not her fault a single bit. It is entirely my own; I forced her to be there, and everything was entirely my idea.”
Adrian opened his mouth as if to argue, then gnashed his teeth.
“Caroline,” he said, his tone only slightly less enraged than before. “I believe that it would be best if you went home now. I am sure your stepmother and stepsister will be expecting you.”
Elara looked over at her cousin just in time to see her face grow paler, and for a moment, Elara truly feared that Caroline was going to faint. It was almost as if she would rather stay and face Adrian’s wrath than go home.
“Perhaps she could simply—” Elara began to say, but Adrian cut her off.
“No, she is to go home,” Adrian commanded, nodding toward the door. “I believe some time apart would do you both a great deal of good.”
Elara gave her cousin a sympathetic look, and Caroline offered her a small, sad smile before the two hugged.
“I shall write to you later this evening,” Elara whispered the promise into her ear.
Caroline nodded, then, without another word, curtsied to Adrian and his wife, Bridget, and promptly left the study.
“You should not have sent her away like that,” Elara insisted, refusing to meet her brother’s eye at first. “I fear all is not well at her home and I—”
“You know I have nothing against Caroline, and I sympathize with her if that is true,” Adrian said, cutting her off as he drew closer to Elara. “But for now, I must focus on controlling what goes on inmyhousehold, which, dear sister, includes you.”
Now standing directly before her, Elara had no choice but to look up and meet her brother’s gaze.
“You were right earlier,” he said, his tone harsh. “About the blame resting entirely on your shoulders. It has been from the very start, and therefore, you alone deserve the punishment.”
Elara balked at the words, but it was her sister-in-law, Bridget, who hurried to Adrian’s side to defend her.
“Now, darling, let us not be too quick to pass judgment,” Bridget insisted. “I am sure that Elara has a perfectly good reason for escaping her guards’ watch last night to attend the Duke of Ashworth’s party.”
The note Elara found after escaping the Duke’s notice last night burned against her wrist where she had tucked it. She wanted to show Adrian what she had found, but not while he was like this. She needed her brother to be reasonable first, and at the moment, he seemed far from it.
“That is what I am afraid of,” Adrian stated, keeping his gaze on Elara.
He took another step closer, his gaze intense and scrutinizing.
“You should not be afraid of the truth, Adrian,” Elara said quietly.
“You just will not let it rest, will you?” he asked, a look of pity swirling with his rage.
Elara’s lips set into a line of determination.
“We do not know that he is dead, Adrian,” Elara said, her voice quiet as she looked up into her brother’s eyes. “All we have is the word of a dead man, whom I recently discovered was in business with the Duke of Ashworth’s younger brother, Augustus! Evander might still be—”
“Evander is dead!” Adrian snapped, and Elara flinched at her brother’s intensity.
Bridget placed her right palm on her husband’s shoulder, and her left on Elara’s, as if pleading for peace. Adrian closed his eyes at his wife’s soft touch and drew a deep, steadying breath as Elara continued to gaze at him.
“Evander has passed away, Elara,” Adrian said, calmer this time as he opened his eyes. She did not miss the pain in them. He missed their brother, too. “It is a heartbreaking truth, but a truth no less. Most days, I can barely get Mother to accept it, and I thought I at least did not have to worry about you. But now that I understand this is what you have been using your freedom for, I am afraid I must take it away.”
Elara’s brows furrowed as a knot formed in her stomach.
