“I approached your daughter first, Talbot,” Oliver said. “She is not in the wrong here.”
“Why would you damn well approach her in the first place?”
“Because I had the betting book from White’s which, along with the list of heiresses, also contains evidence of your wife’s illicit transactions,” Louisa exclaimed. “Would you have done any differently if you had been in his shoes?”
“Louisa?” Leo asked hesitantly before Talbot could say anything. “What is going on? Who is this man? Is he not a Bow Street Runner?”
Oliver cursed inwardly. “I am not a Runner, but I do help Bow Street on occasion.”
“Do not poison my son’s ears with your nonsense,” Talbot snapped. “He is the Duke of Mortimer,” he said to Leo, “our family’s oldest enemy.”
Leo’s eyes widened even as Louisa’s snort came from beside him. “Enemy? He might be the oldest rival, but the true enemy of our family is standing next to you, Papa!”
Oliver’s grip tightened on the ledger. The duchess, who this whole mess was about, stood still as a delicate rose, with a look of pure innocence on her face. No wonder she had gotten away with so much. Even now, her husband was hesitant to take action. He finally understood what Louisa had meant by her stepmother putting on a face in front of the duke and dropping it the moment he was gone.
There would be no reasoning with the duke. The only reason the man had tolerated his presence up till this point was because he’d been rattled by events. But Oliver could sense that feeling was fading.
“I have what I came for,” Oliver said to Talbot. He didn’t want it to end like this, but what other choice did he have? He didn’t dare look at Louisa, afraid he might give away too much in front of her father. “I shall take my leave. Bow Street will be in touch to discuss the proceedings with your wife.”
“Are you delighted?” Talbot growled. “You finally get to ruin our family.”
“I have ruined nothing.”
“Nothing, you say?” Talbot suddenly laughed. “Your family started this damn feud with us! We might have come to some sort of accord with time, but that ended ten years ago.”
Oliver froze.
No.
“The day you kidnapped my daughter.”
A soft gasp filled his ears, and his heart plunged to his boots. He never wanted her to discover the truth. Never wanted her to loathe him.
“That’s right, take a good look at the man you aided, for the blood in his veins is the reason you were afflicted beyond measure when you were but a little girl.”
“Is this true?” Her soft voice stabbed at him.
How the hell had things turned from the duchess’s atrocious dealings to his family? But he couldn’t deny it. He had no right, for his familyhaddone that to her. He glanced over to her, his gaze meeting hers.
“It’s true.
Chapter Nineteen
Louisa’s mind drewa complete blank.
Oliver had left only a few seconds ago after his admission. He’d strode from Camilla’s chamber, his shoulders stiff but his steps firm. He hadn’t looked back. Not even half a look. Not even a slight tilt.
The Duke of Mortimer... his family... they were behind the kidnapping all those years ago? The man who had kissed her, comforted her,heldher... he was part of the nightmare that gripped her for the last ten years?
Her breath turned to ice in her lungs.
She might as well have been plunged beneath the surface of dark, freezing water. That darkness seeped into her mind, and she could hear the laughter, the droplets of rain dripping from cracks in a roof. Feel the hard mattress...
And a gripping fear that wouldn’t let her go.
Her gaze shifted back to the spot he had occupied moments ago, denial pulsing from her heart.
No.
