Briar looked chagrined that he had so easily seen through her question. Miles’s smile broadened—pleased, predatory. Ivo felt the hairs rise on his neck. He spoke without thought, attempting to draw Miles’s eyes away from Briar.
“And what of you, Miles? Were you close to Anna, too?”
“I do not tell tales, brother. You should know that.”
“Aye, brother, you are too busy telling lies.”
Miles laughed. “As you will, but it is you who is disgraced, Ivo.”
That made him angry. So angry that there was no way to conceal the flare of pure rage in his eyes, or the iron-hardening of his body. How could Miles do this to him with mere words, after all this time? To his utter frustration, he knew that nothing had changed after all. Despite all that lay between them, he still felt like a child.
“You would know better than I why that is so,” he managed, but his voice sounded choked, ineffectual.
“You must try not to blame others for your own shortcomings, Ivo. ’Tis a fault you should have grown out of long since.”
Briar’s eyes widened. She was clearly fascinated by their bitter exchange. Perhaps she mistook it for brotherly bantering. Miles turned his smile at her, his gaze cold and possessive, as if she were a strange and interesting object that he coveted. But not to love, thought Ivo wildly. Miles could not love; it was an ability he had always lacked.
Ivo felt fear run through him, like a fire in dry grass catching and leaping and burning, unstoppable. He knew better than anyone of what Miles was capable. The thought of his brother with Briar in his hands was enough to make him want to retch.
“Ivo may no longer be a knight, but he has not stopped rescuing damsels in distress.” She glanced at him as she said it, her slanting eyes flirtatious, warm. We are together in this, she seemed to be saying. And did not know it was the last thing he wanted her to do.
Miles, too, glanced at Ivo, slyly, knowingly. “My brother was always one for rescuing those in distress. It is just a pity he does not always arrive in time.”
The world went red. Ivo’s rage swallowed him up, and he lost the ability to reason. His words spewed from his mouth.
“You talk as if all that means nothing to you! As if it were a forgotten joke. Why are you here! To torment me again; to make my life a living hell? Go away, Miles! Find a corner and curl up in it and die!”
His voice echoed, raw and shocking. Briar looked astonished at his outburst, her eyes huge in her pale face, her lips apart. And throughout it all, Miles watched him. And then he sighed.
It was the sigh of a man who had suffered, who was deeply wounded by what he had just heard. If Ivo had not known Miles through and through, he would almost have believed it was the sigh of a man who despaired of his beloved younger brother.
“That is what you want me to do, Ivo? To die?”
“Aye!” Ivo managed. His voice was hoarse, his fingers white as he clenched them on his sword. “That is what I want, Miles, above all things. Jesu, you deserve nothing less.”
“You disappoint me,” Miles said quietly. He looked to Briar, his gray eyes brimming with sorrow. “Lady, Ivo has always been the black sheep of the de Vessey family, but he is still my brother. Forgive him.”
Briar frowned from one to the other. “I—I do not…Ivo?”
Ivo ignored her, concentrated on his brother. Telling himself that as long as he kept his eyes on Miles, he could not harm Briar.
“If I see you again I will kill you. This time I will not let anything stop me. Do you understand?”
Miles made a face. “How can I not understand such blunt speech, brother? So be it. We will part now.”
Before Ivo could do more than draw breath, Miles had taken Briar’s hand, raised it to his lips, and released it. All in a heartbeat. Too late, Ivo grabbed Briar’s arm and pulled her away, causing her to stumble on the rubble. Miles’s gray eyes gleamed, amused by Ivo’s tardiness, but his face maintained the expression of sad courage he had affected for Briar’s benefit.
He has turned me into a clumsy fool. A vindictive oaf. Just as he intended…
Briar struggled in his grip, but Ivo would not let her go. He pulled her after him by force, marching her from the building and out onto the street. There they stood, Ivo still feeling dizzy and ill, Briar glaring at him like an angry little cat.
“What is wrong with you, de Vessey?”
I wanted to get you away from him, Ivo thought. He is evil, and he will hurt you. He will hurt you because he destroys anything I love…Aye, he loved her. The truth shone like a torch in a dark hall.
Ivo blinked and turned away. No time for that now. And he could not discuss Miles, either, not with her. His lips were stiff with all the terrible memories aching to spill out, as he prepared to mount his horse.
Briar’s voice followed him. “You are a disappointment, Ivo, just as your brother said. Why can you not be as charming as he?”