Prince of Ravenscar (Sherbrooke Brides 11)

“All right, yes, I did hire him to cause a bit of damage. He wasn’t going to burn all your goods, that would be foolhardy, he was going to keep the blaze well under control, bring about just enough damage so your goods would be worth nothing much at all, but the blighter failed, damn his eyes. You know you deserve that I try to ruin you. You bastard, you murdered my sister! You shot her dead. I think you believed she had a lover, and that’s why you killed her.”

Julian said very quietly, “Do you believe Lily was unfaithful to me, Richard?”

Richard drew a deep breath. He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “No, I don’t know, but I’ve never known you to act in your life without a good reason. Lily having a lover is the only reason that makes sense, the only thing that would anger you sufficiently. Why won’t you admit it? Why? There is no one here to hear you confess, you won’t be hung, dammit.”

“Do you know, if Lily had taken a lover, I wouldn’t ever have considered killing her. How could I? I loved her. I would have set her free.”

“I have seen you in a rage before.”

“And did I kill anyone?”

“No, you beat the fellow to his knees.”

“Ah, that one. Well, he was a bully, and he insulted Lily. What was I to do?”

“Beat him to his knees, damn you.”

“Richard, let me be honest here. I wouldn’t have killed Lily if she were unfaithful, that is quite true. The man, however, I might very well have killed. But I wouldn’t have been in a rage. I would have been as smart as I could, killed him, and buried him and gotten away with it.

“Now, I will tell you yet again. I didn’t shoot her. When I came into the garden, she was already dead. Listen to me, Richard. I will say this once more, then never again, for I begin to bore even myself. I swear my innocence to you on my father’s honor, since you obviously don’t believe I have any honor.”

“You had honor once.”

“As did you.”

Richard picked up a brass candlestick and hurled it against the fireplace. Both men stared as the candlestick bounced off the marble, then rolled across the wooden floor, coming to rest on the Aubusson carpet.

“You frightened my spaniels.”

Julian sat down again, gathering the four dogs to him. “It’s all right. Just an accident. Cletus, don’t you forget your manners.” He calmed the dogs, then looked over at Richard, who stood, white-faced, leaning against his desk.

Julian said, “You have spent the past three years of your life plotting my downfall. You have thought of nothing else. It has become an obsession with you, your father is quite right about that. You have stopped moving forward, Richard, you have stopped living your life.”

“I owe it to my sister to bring her murderer to justice. Until you are dead, I will continue to owe it to her.”

Julian eyed his boyhood friend, saw his hands clench and unclench at his sides, felt the heat of his bubbling rage writhing about just below the surface. He said, “I would ask you to believe—but for a moment—that I am not guilty of her murder. If you believe my innocence—for a moment only—then tell me, Richard, what do you think happened?”

“What is this nonsense?”

“I ask you to humor me—for but a moment. If I didn’t shoot Lily, then what do you think happened?”

“She didn’t commit suicide, as you were claiming. I know Lily; she would never kill herself, never. It would mean that someone else killed her and tried to make it look like suicide. And the someone else saw you coming and hoped you would be blamed, that is what I would think if I were not certain in my own mind that you were guilty.”

“All right. I ask that you consider for yet another moment that I did not kill Lily. Let me ask you, did you kill her, Richard?”

“I? Kill my own sister? I loved her; I would never have harmed her.”

“Even if she did something so reprehensible it destroyed all feeling for her?”

“No, there is nothing that would make me feel that way, even if she took a dozen lovers and flaunted them about the neighborhood.”

“Very well. I ask you to keep thinking that I am innocent. If Lily didn’t kill herself, then who put a pistol to her heart and pulled the trigger? Who left it in her hand? Do you remember who was in the house that day?”

Richard shoved his fingers through his hair. He began pacing the estate room. The spaniels were pressed tightly against Julian, watching first him and then Richard.

Richard whirled about. “My father was in the house. So was Vicky. She had tried on a new white gown, I remember that clearly. When she came running into the garden, you were crouched over Lily, bloody, looking down at her. Vicky fell to her knees and hugged her sister tightly, began rocking her. When my father lifted her off, there was blood all over her white gown. I remember thinking it looked like she was shot.”

Julian nodded. “Yes, now I remember you yelled at her to go burn the damned gown. I remember, too, that I simply couldn’t accept Lily’s death, couldn’t accept that she wasn’t breathing and I couldn’t bring her back, that she was gone. I remember there was so much blood. I had her blood all over my hands.”