Her brother shook his head, but his eyes darted around the room.
“You speak nothing of sense.”
“And when the time came, you had him sign a document.”
“What document?”
She continued on, pressing forward.
“And you pretended to be Baron Marsh.”
“Baron March,” her brother snapped, correcting her without thinking about what he was saying, and Julia shot one eyebrow towards the ceiling.
Silence fell.
Her fired questions, one after the other, had caused him to make a mistake. He had corrected her when he ought to have denied even knowing that name, and there was no escape for him now. Letting out her breath slowly, Julia heard Lord Wiltsham also blow out a long sigh as his shoulders relaxed. The truth was out, and none could hide from it now.
Julia looked straight at her brother as he gazed back at her, his cheeks a little pale. It was clear that he did not want to look in Lord Wiltsham’s direction.
“It seems, then, that you know exactly what I am talking about it.” Keeping her voice low, Julia lifted both hands. “You cannot have known that name unless you had written it yourself.”
“You cannot pretend any longer,” Lord Wiltsham added, his voice low. “Where did you put the contract?”
Lord Kingston opened his mouth, perhaps to protest his innocence again, only to catch the sharp eye of Lord Wiltsham. He dropped his head and drew in a breath. When he lifted it again, his eyes were darker than Julia had ever seen them, the slash of red around his mouth making her shiver.
“Given that the contract is mine, there is no need for you to either have it or know of its whereabouts.”
Now, it seemed, he was no longer able to deny that he had written the contract but was instead demanding that he keep it entirely to himself.
Lord Wiltsham cleared his throat.
“You have admitted that you are Baron March. I am aware of what you did that evening, and your relationship with Lord Montague and his wicked schemes. You may think of yourself as successful, but that coin is not yours. It was taken from me at a time when I could not consent to it. You have no right to keep the money.”
“Particularly when you have more than enough wealth of your own,” Julia put in, at which her brother began to laugh.
The darkness in his eyes shifted to his voice and Julia shivered, just as Lord Wiltsham reached up to grasp her hand with his.
“And do you truly believe, sister, that our father left us with enough wealth to be comfortable?” he asked, his dark eyes flashing. “As I have said, father was not a frugal man. I shall have to work hard to make sure that the estate is profitable, and that the wealth I have at present continues to increase.”
Julia looked back at him steadily. The way he had admitted to taking such wealth had come as a great astonishment to her. It was as though he genuinely believed that he had every right to take what belonged to others.
“And you think that you can do so by drugging unwitting gentlemen and taking their fortunes whilst they are indisposed, simply to secure your own wealth? I do not believe that you are poor, brother. I believe that you have an evil desire to hold onto as much coin as you can, and that you will get it in any way that you can.”
“A gentleman must do what he must to protect his own estate.”
Lord Kingston drew himself up, folding his arms across his chest and lifting his chin, as if daring either of them to challenge him.
“It seems to me that rather than doing whatever you could to make your estate profitable by way of your own hard work, you decided instead to steal what did not belong to you,” Lord Wiltsham interrupted, pushing himself up to stand, before Julia could say anything more. “Is that not so? Perhaps I am not even the first to have felt the sting of your deception.”
Julia practically felt the heat from her brother’s glare, despite the distance between them, but Lord Wiltsham managed to simply ignore it.
“Regardless as to whether or not you have a vast deal of coin or very little, it is a gentleman’s duty to work hard at his estate and to make it as profitable as it can be – through legitimate means. If a gentleman’s main concern is that his wealth might not be enough to keep it prosperous, then such a gentleman of honor would work at hisownestate on hisownland to make sure that it was safe and secure for generations to come. You, on the other hand, have simply decided to take what is not yours, so that you might become successful – or all the richer. There is no honor in that.”
Lord Wiltsham’s hand touched hers and she quickly laced her fingers through his so that they stood as one.
“To be truthful, I cannot believe that you are as impoverished as you make out. I do not think that there was a single, legitimate reason for you to take even a penny from another. Rather, I believe that you did so simply because you are selfish, because you are greedy, and because you are too lazy to make any effort to work hard. It is easier for you to steal than to put everything you have into your estate.”
Julia caught her breath. She could not imagine what her brother was going to say to her words, but from the darkness in his eyes, she trusted it would not be of any jot of contrition. He had despised every word.
