Page 131 of The Earl She Once Saved

“I was given this in settlement not two minutes ago,” Crote snarled. “I should like to know which of the brothers I am dealing with before it changes hands again.”

“This belongs to Verity.”

“It belonged to our mother,” Roland corrected. “Which makes it mine.”

Rafe pulled harder. One link cut into his palm. Crote watched him, not indignant but interested. He was taking a reading, testing how much force Rafe would use, and what the jewel meant to him. At last, he opened his fingers and the pendant dropped into Rafe’s hand.

“Whatever is owed,” Rafe declared, “it will not be paid with this.”

Crote adjusted his cuff. “As you wish.”

“You will be paid nothing from Edgeworth.”

A smile touched Crote’s mouth. “I can wait. I have waited years already.”

He was speaking to Roland, not to Rafe.

Roland poured himself a glass of wine. Rafe closed his fist around the pendant.

“You have not changed at all.”

His brother lifted the glass. “Have you?”

“You are still a thief. Still selling whatever was never yours.”

“Careful.”

“You entered a woman’s room and took the one thing she had been given for herself.”

Roland’s expression remained pleasant. “And you gave it to her.”

“Yes.”

“What did you hope she would give you in return?”

Rafe moved before he knew it. He caught Roland by the front of his coat and drove him back against the desk. Glass struck wood. Wine spilled across the papers like blood. Crote did not interfere.

Roland looked into Rafe’s face and smiled. “There you are.”

Rafe’s grip tightened.

“Do you mean to lecture me upon taking what belongs to another?” Roland asked softly. “The estate. The name.”

His gaze sharpened.

“My wife.”

Rafe released him. Roland struck the edge of the desk and straightened his coat. Rafe did not trust himself to answer. Any word would reveal too much, and Roland had already seen enough.

He turned and left the study with the pendant closed in his fist.

Music filled the passage as he approached the ballroom. He needed to find Verity. He needed to return the jewel and tell her that Roland had entered her room. He had scarcely crossed the threshold when Celestine stepped before him.

“There you are.”

“Not now.”

She caught his sleeve. “You abandoned me most shamefully.”