Page 53 of The Beastly Earl

"Ewan, why are you here. It's barely past dawn."

"Is she awake?" At his question, Wallis looked over her shoulder and dismay swept across her face. He didn't give his aunt a chance to reply as he gently moved her out of his way. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Ewan, please," his aunt whispered as she caught his arm in an effort to stop him. "She won't be happy you're here."

"I don't give a damn about her happiness," he growled with restrained fury. "It's time my mother came to terms with the fact that I rule Argaty Keep, not her."

Apprehension darkened his aunt's face as he gently tugged free of her fierce grip. Seeing the fear on her face, Ewan paused long enough to squeeze her hand in a gesture of reassurance before he crossed the floor to his mother's sitting room. With a vicious twist of the doorknob, he flung the door open, and it hit the wall with a resounding crash. Satisfaction made him smile with cold amusement when he saw his mother jerk her head toward him in surprise, and perhaps even a bit of uneasiness.

Seated in a chair near the fireplace, she quickly composed her features and bent over Gilbert who was sitting at her feet. She murmured something to his brother as she brushed her fingers across Gilbert's cheek in a gentle, motherly caress and kissed his brow. Ewan's jaw clenched at her tender gesture. As much as he'd come to despise his mother, the tenderness she showed Gilbert still sent a jolt of pain slicing through his mid-section. Not once in his entire life had his mother ever demonstrated any affection for him. All she'd ever displayed where he was concerned was her loathing.

"Why did you let him in, Wallis?" Lady Argaty tilted her head slightly to look around Ewan at the woman who had followed him into the room. "You know how much noise upsets Gilbert."

"I…he was…I…" Her sister's stammering caused a look of contempt to freeze on the dowager countess's face and with a dismissive wave of her hand she silenced Wallis.

"What do you want, Ewan?" his mother asked coldly as she focused her attention on his brother once more.

"How many times this week have you ignored my instructions and released Gilbert from his room when Brown was off duty?"

At his harsh question, Gilbert made a noise of angry frustration similar to the one he'd made when Ewan had ordered him away from Louisa's room. Ewan glanced down and saw Gilbert's fat, stubby fingers squeezing the neck of a doll he held in his lap. It was an ominous sign and renewed the chill he'd experienced earlier.

"I have no idea why you're questioning me." Lady Argaty's gaze glided over Ewan with a look of intense dislike before she bent over to soothe Gilbert again who had begun to grunt with agitation. "Why not ask that silent brute of a guard you hired. The man doesn't let Gilbert out of his sight."

"Because aside from Brown and myself, you have the only other key to Gilbert's room," Ewan snapped with a ferocity that made his mother stiffen in her seat although she continued to soothe his brother's restless mutterings. "Mr. Brown locks Gilbert in his room at night, and yet my brother escaped his confinement this evening."

"How do you know that?" The dowager countess jerked her head up to look at him with speculation and suspicion.

"I asked you a question, my lady.” Ewan ignored her response as he noted the lack of concern on his mother’s features with a growing sense of alarm. “How many times?"

“I don’t know,” the dowager countess said with a cavalier wave of her hand that horrified him. “Four or five.”

“And did one of those times occur the night of the MacLaren woman's death?”

"What are you implying?" Scorn filled Lady Argaty's voice as she tipped her chin upward at a defiant angle and glared back at him.

"I am not implying. I am accusing you of disobeying my expressed orders as to the restrictions of Gilbert's movement within the keep. You've allowed my brother to roam the Keep without supervision."

"And what if I do allow him to play when you and Brown forbid him to do so during the day."

"Brown takes him to the garden twice daily," Ewan said between clenched teeth.

"Only during meals when no one will see him." The harsh, indignant accusation made Ewan stiffen at his mother's inability to see the reason for keeping his brother out of sight.

"Your blindness is ironic given you have two eyes compared to my one. Gilbert and I frighten people. Responsibilities make my presence in the keep a necessity. One monster roam the keep is one too many." Ewan looked pointedly in his brother's direction.

Short in stature, his brother's head was abnormal in size. A large, melon-shaped growth jutted out from the side of Gilbert’s skull. The weight of it forced his brother’s head to fall downward at an unnatural angle until his ear touched his shoulder. Gilbert’s other ear laid flat against the side of his head. He had one eye that was crossed, while the other slanted downward until the eye occupied almost half of his brother’s cheek.

As Ewan studied his brother, Gilbert lifted his head. The look of cunning on his sibling's face made him draw in a sharp breath. He'd been right to think his brother might be dangerous. The expression on Gilbert's deformed features indicated he wasn't quite the simpleton Ewan had believed. Ewan dragged his attention away from his brother's crafty expression and narrowed his gaze on his mother who had remained silent.

"You did not answer my question, my lady," Ewan bit out as he stared at his mother with intense dislike. "Other than tonight, has Gilbert had the opportunity to go outdoors unattended?"

"Are you suggesting Gilbert is responsible for that village girl's death?” For a second time, she deftly sidestepped answering his question. Ewan’s jaw clenched tight as he restrained himself from shaking the answer out of her.

“Was he?”

“Of course not,” Lady Argaty snapped as she looked away from him, but not before Ewan saw the guilt on her face.

"You're lying."