Page 67 of Dangerous Exile
“He did. He was highly decorated—a hero—but he saw a lot of death. That death—what he endured—your mother always said it changed him. Changed him drastically.”
“You’re saying my father had gone mad?”
Her shoulders lifted. “I don’t know. Whenever your mother said anything to me, it was short and whispered, behind closed doors. And my husband had his own opinions of the fitness of your father’s mind that were much…stronger.”
Talen had to look away from her. Had to take a steeling breath.
He didn’t want to hear any of this. None of it. This was a story about another family. Another life. Not his life. Not his parents.
He stared out the window at the view along the east side of the estate.A wide, open-air pavilion sat along a rectangular pond, stretching the entire length of it.Bloody opulent.
“What did your husband do?” He couldn’t look back to the dowager.
“Something I didn’t think him capable of. But he had become obsessed with saving the earldom, saving it from madness, saving it from anything that would taint the gild of it. But beyond that, I think it went deeper with him. Your mother and father and you—you three were happy in each other’s company. A happiness that had always eluded him…us. I know he envied it. It festered within him and only added fuel onto his obsession to save the estate from ruin.”
“He was third son, it wasn’t his concern.” Talen’s words were wooden, the rasp in his voice more pronounced than usual.
“No, but that didn’t deter my husband. I tried to stop him—to talk reason to him, but I could not sway him from his obsession. He was determined that he was the only one that could save the earldom.” The dowager’s lips pursed, a deep frown setting on her face as she paused. “He hated being under his brothers’ thumbs—Walter, Thomas. He’d had a lifetime of it. He tried to hide how it ate away at his soul. But then one day…he just broke…his mind broke so fully and I found out too late what he had set into motion.”
“You’re saying my uncle did this? To my parents? To me?” Talen’s words came out slow, measured, regaining all the indifference he’d mastered at the Alabaster when dealing with the scummiest vermin.
She gave an exhausted nod. “He lured the three of you to that cottage where men he had hired were waiting.” Her fingers went up to her mouth, tapping her lips against her own horrified words. “I am so sorry that I found out too late—too late to stop him. Too late to save your father. Too late to save your mother. But you. You were determined to live, so I got you out of the cottage.”
His glare skewered her. “He murdered my parents?”
Her face whitened to ash as her hand dropped to her throat. She nodded.
“And you saved me?”
“Except I was a failure. I was too late. Too late to stop any of it. Fredrick had come in with blood on his waistcoat and by the time I found you—them—one of those vile, vile men was choking you. You. A boy. A mere child. I threw myself at him, shoving him off you, threatening them—they knew I was Fredrick’s wife. And I got you out of there. Out of that cottage. But I was afraid my husband wouldn’t stop at your parents’ deaths. He wanted your life as well. My fear for you was so great that I whisked you to theport in Whitehavenand paid a doctor aboard a departing ship to take care of you. It was all I could think to do.”
“Why would you send me away? Why not keep me safe?”
Her head tilted to the side, the turban slipping along her left ear. “I didn’t have that power, Talen. Your own father couldn’t keep you safe, so what could I have done? I couldn’t risk your life by keeping you near and within my husband’s reach. The ship was the only option—I had to send you into exile.”
Thundering rage beat in his chest, fighting to explode, but Talen tamped down on it, his words pinched. “What happened to your husband?”
“He died nine years ago.”
Ness gasped next to him. A gasp not in surprise, but in pain.
His look shot to her, searching her face and then he glanced downward. Her hand was still on his thigh, but he’d grabbed it without even realizing it.
He’d been crushing it. Was crushing it still.
His hand instantly released her delicate bones, his knuckles cracking for the strain they’d been under. Bloody hell, he hadn’t broken her hand, had he?
His stare jumped up to her face, panicked. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her. Scare her.
She held his stare for a long second, hiding pain, he could see. But then she simply flipped her hand over on his thigh, her palm and fingers wrapping up around his knuckles, not letting his hand go. Weak, but holding on.
“Please, you must stay here at Washburn until my son arrives.” The dowager drew his attention back to her. “He is due within the next two days and there is much that we must…consider and resolve.”
Talen instantly shook his head. “No. We have to make it to Scotland. Stopping here at the estate wasn’t even part of our plan. It was only the rain that held us in the area.”
Her head jerked back. “Scotland? Whatever for?”
“Mrs. Dochertyand I are to marry.”