“I cannot answer that question for you, but perhaps if you speak with him—”
A distressed laugh pushed its way past Mary’s lips. “There is nothing for me to say.” He hated her for being Andrew’s sister. She’d seen it in his eyes when he’d told her that he never would have associated with her if he’d known. “Nothing at all.” Turning away from Sarah, Mary headed for the house, one foot stepping in front of the other, moving her forward until she eventually found her brother. To his credit, his expression was somber as she reentered the room from which she’d fled a short while earlier. He was the only one present now, abandoned by the Heartlys, it would seem.
“Of all the men in England,” he said as he rose to greet her.
Stiffly, she came to a halt before him, anger swiftly taking hold in response to his flippancy. “I would caution you to think twice before mocking me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “It was not my intention to do so. You know how grateful I am to you for your support.”
“Do I?” When he gave her a curious look she said, “Upon reflection, it has become increasingly clear to me that you have been taking advantage of me for some time now.”
Knitting his brow, he crossed his arms. “We are family, Mary. It is our duty to help and protect each other. Especially with Mama and Papa so far away.”
“That is what I told myself as well, Andrew, which is why I wanted to help you invest when your own funds were depleted. But the truth of the matter is that you have squandered away your fortune, along with all the money I have given you, in the most irresponsible way imaginable.” Studying him, she went on to say, “If I were to hazard a guess, you did not even discover the information for which you have been rewarded. Heartly did that before he was captured, didn’t he?”
“Of course not. I overheard the conversation that those French soldiers were having just as well as he did.” He looked away a moment before once again meeting her eye. “But they discovered our presence there and rather than try to silence them, I ran.”
With slow and measured breaths, Mary walked toward her brother. Her hands curled tightly into fists at her sides. “Would you and Richard have been able to overwhelm them if you had not done so?”
A second passed between them until he finally dropped his gaze and nodded. “I believe so. Yes.”
Pausing her progress, Mary swayed slightly on her feet, disgusted by her brother’s actions. “You left him to die, Andrew! Dear God, how could you?”
His eyes filled with angst as he came toward her. “You were not there, Mary. You cannot possibly imagine what it was like, fighting for survival.”
She shook her head, deaf to his excuses. “He was captured because of you, tortured even, yet you do not appear to be the least bit sorry for it.”
“You are wrong about that. I feel terribly about what happened, but I am also angry at Heartly for what he has done to me. He has taken everything from me, Mary, and—”
“Stop,” she said, unwilling to let him continue. “He has every right to seek satisfaction. If you do not see that, then you are a far greater fool than I would ever have imagined. Indeed, I am beginning to wonder if I know you at all, Andrew, for in my mind, my brother would never have done something this callous.” She hesitated a moment before saying, “You could at least have gone to fetch help, but you made no attempt at that either, did you?”
He shook his head. “I was frightened.”
“Frightened.” The word whispered across her lips. “You were weak and unworthy of the uniform you wore.”
For a second, he looked as though she’d just struck him, but then his eyes darkened and he said, “You have grown bolder since I saw you last. I find that I do not care for it.”
“And I find that I do not care for a brother who would happily trade a man’s life for a title and fortune!”
“Not happily,” he clipped.
“Really?”
“What do you want me to say? To my knowledge Heartly was dead, so why shouldn’t I have taken the reward when it was offered to me?”
“Because it was wrong!” The words whipped across the room leaving Mary’s throat feeling sore. Tempering her voice, she met her brother’s resentful glare. “What happened to you?” She could scarcely believe that the man before her had once been the boy with whom she’d played so well as a child. “You were always so kind and considerate toward others.”
“I have made mistakes. I cannot deny that.”
She gaped at him. “Is that supposed to make it better?”
“What can I say, Mary? Heartly suffered for what I did and I am sorry for that, truly I am, but I have suffered too. The humiliation he has forced upon me... You ought to know that I have challenged him to a duel. We meet tomorrow at dawn.”
Staggering back, Mary steadied herself against the back of a chair while her hand covered her mouth. “You must be mad.”
“Of course not,” Andrew bit out, “but if you think that I will allow that man to methodically plan my ruination without demanding satisfaction for it, then you clearly do not know me at all.”
“Indeed, I am beginning to see that I do not.” She shook her head. “They burned his face, Andrew, broke his leg and his arm. The fact that he was able to escape at all is a miracle in itself and yet you have the audacity to feel as though you have been wronged when you are no worse off now than before you went to war. All he has taken from you are the things that should have been his, and only because you were foolish enough to gamble them away.”
