Cam dropped her hands. “My mother’s downfall was a great stroke of luck for my uncle. He’d been trying to find a way to steal Lindenhurst for three years by then, and this—well, you can imagine how delighted he was to find a reason to be rid of us at last.”
Her face flushed with anger. “Why did you let him, Cam? Lindenhurst belongs to you. He had no right. Even your aunt said he had no right.”
Cam ran a hand down his face. God, he was tired. Tired of this tragedy. Tired of himself. “I was a boy. Just a boy, and still grieving.”
Her hand went to her mouth, but he heard the sound just the same—a soft sob.
Pity.She pitied him.
His jaw went hard. No one pitied him. Not anymore. “I’m not a boy any longer. No one takes anything from me now. I’m the one who takes. When I want something, I take it, and I want you, Ellie. So much.” Despite his harsh tone, his voice broke a little on the last words.
“No, you don’t,” she whispered. “You want something, but you don’t want me.”
But he did want her. More than he’d ever wanted anything. He held out his hand to her. “Yes, Eleanor. I do.”
For one moment her face softened, and his heart surged in his chest. If she’d only believe him—
But then her eyes went flat, and she backed away from until she came up against the fireplace and could go no further.
He followed her. “Don’t run away now. You haven’t told me the best part yet.”
“The—the best part?”
His lips twisted in a mockery of a smile. “Come now, Eleanor. Clever as you are, you must have drawn your own conclusions. My mother was disgraced to such a degree my uncle was able to snatch Lindenhurst out from under our feet, and my father died years before Amelia was born. You’ve said this much. Why not unburden yourself completely?”
She must have seen he’d allow her no quarter, for she lifted her chin and said, “You and Amelia don’t share a father. She’s your half-sister, and she’s illegitimate.”
He cupped her cheek gently in his palm, but his face felt stiff and hard. “That’s right, Ellie. Amelia was born on the wrong side of the blanket. She’s a by-blow, a bas—”
“Don’t!” She put her hands over her ears and shook her head. “Stop it, Cam.”
His hand dropped to his side. “Do you think it’s any less true of if I don’t say it aloud? How naïve you are. You may cover your ears all you like, but it doesn’t change anything.”
She lowered her hands, her face defeated.
He moved closer to her—close enough to touch her again, but he didn’t. He kept his arms at his sides. “Tell me, Eleanor. Earlier, when you came in, you said “this is over,” or something equally dramatic. What did you mean?”
She pressed her hands flat against the fireplace in back of her, as if she wished she could push it out of the way and escape him. “Just what I said. It’s over. You have information on my sister I would prefer didn’t become public, and—”
“And now you have information on my sister, too. Is that it?”
“I should think it would be obvious.”
His hands closed around her upper arms. “But I want to hear you say it just the same, and don’t think to look away from me when you do. When you threaten someone, you look them in the eyes.”
Eleanor Sutherland was no coward. She did look into his eyes, just as he’d bade her. “If you ruin Charlotte, I’ll ruin Amelia.”
He shouldn’t have looked into her eyes.
He should have known better, because as blinded with fury as he was, he could see the wretchedness in those dark depths, the shadows underneath that spoke of her sleeplessness. Her misery.
She didn’t want to do this, not to Amelia, and perhaps not even to him. Would she go through with her threats? She’d told him she wouldn’t give up, and he believed she wouldn’t.
Even when she should. Even when holding on would devastate her.
She took a deep breath. “I will not marry you, Cam. You will release me at once from your demand. If you do not, as surely as you will ruin my sister, I will ruin yours.”
Cam went still. He’d known she was going to say it. He’d expected to feel rage when she did. Rage and bitterness and yes, hate—the same hate he’d felt for Hart Sutherland. But Eleanor wasn’t her father, and even now, when she had such hateful words in her mouth, he could never hate her.
