Page 78 of To Hunt the Hunter

“Ah, well,” Theodore said with a shrug. “I’ll be the marquess for the duration of the trial. The Mad Marquess has quite a ring about it, doesn’t it, my boy?” He grinned, an expression that made Lucian’s skin crawl. “My word, how your father would have despised the scandal, not to mention the end of our illustrious line. That’s why he hated me. You know, that don’t you? Because our mother was a whore. She’d gotten her heir and forgot to secure a spare before she leapt into another man’s bed. Our father never said a word, naturally, didn’t want a scandal, but they all treated me like I was diseased, a rotten limb that ought to have been cut off, so I cut them off instead.”

“I’m sorry,” Lucian said, thinking only that he ought to keep him talking. “I had no idea.”

“Or what?” his uncle sneered. “You’d have been different? You’d have treated me with respect?”

“Yes,” Lucian said, realising that the one thing he’d always feared was not the case. His uncle did not know about Phoebe. “I would have. We loved you, Theodore. Thomas and I loved you. That would never have changed, no matter what.”

“Liar.”

“No,” Lucian said, shaking his head. “Upon my honour.”

His uncle’s face whitened, though high colour remained on his cheekbones. He looked ill, but his lips thinned into a taut line, his grip on the pistol firming. “What’s done is done.”

“No!” Matilda cried, her arms wrapping about Lucian’s chest, over his heart, trying to protect him. “No, don’t hurt him.”

Lucian tugged her hands away and watched Theodore raise the pistol higher, only relieved that Phoebe and Matilda would be safe. If he died now, his uncle would hang, and Phoebe and Matilda would make a new life for themselves. He would die knowing what it was to love and be loved, and that was more than he’d ever hoped for. Matilda clutched at him, trying to protect him even now, but he held her firmly behind his back, feeling her trembling against him.

“Yes, Theo, what is done is done, and it cannot be undone,” he said, his heart thudding too fast. “But you could stop now, before you make it worse.”

Theodore shook his head, a febrile glint in his eyes. “No, it’s too late.”

“It is,” Pippin agreed, something in her voice that made Lucian uneasy. “Far too late.”

He glared at her, wondering now if she was trying to get him killed.

“Pippin,” he said, pushing Matilda back again as she struggled to move out from behind him.

“Too late!” called Aashini’s grandmother, her words echoing Pippin’s, eerie somehow.

His uncle was sweating now, breathing hard as he looked between the two woman, alarmed. “What the devil are they on about?”

Lucian stared at them too, just as unnerved as his uncle at the certainty in the women’s voices.

“Pippin?” he said, and Pippin just smiled at him, calm and reassuring.

“I told you she looks after you.”

“Pippin,” he warned, angry with her. “Don’t be foolish, not now.”

He jolted as Matilda gave a soft laugh, something like relief in her words. “Pippin is a wise woman.”

A strange prickling sensation crackled down Lucian’s spine, even though he knew it was all nonsense. Matilda spoke again, her voice louder this time, surer.

“One of her ancestors was hanged for a witch. Did you not know that, Mr Barrington?”

“Matilda, shut up, love,” Lucian muttered, wishing these blasted women would get themselves to safety, but he saw something that looked very much like fear in his uncle’s eyes, and wondered at it.

“You got it, didn’t you?” Pippin said, a confident note in those words, such a hard edge to them that Lucian felt a little daunted himself. “All those years ago. I knew you did. I warned you not to come back again, didn’t I? I told you what the price would be.”

“Nonsense,” Theodore said, though a hunted look flashed in his eyes.

“Got what?” Lucian asked, looking between Pippin and his uncle, who was tugging at his cravat.

“Shut up, boy!” Theodore shouted, struggling to raise the pistol again as his hand trembled.

He pulled the cravat from his throat and wiped his face with it. Lucian tugged Matilda behind him as she tried to break free once more.

“I told you, sooner or later,” Pippin said, sounding incredibly smug. “Time’s up. That old heart of yours is giving in, like I said it would. Only a few beats left now.”