His brother considered Evan for a moment, his face serious but not forbidding, and he felt a silent but powerful understanding burgeoning between them.
“Why does it matter, Evan? You no longer owe her anything,” Apollo pushed, and Evan resented it as much as he ached to have this truth extracted from him. “If she hates you, all the better for swiftly regaining your freedom and disappearing to the life of whisky-making and the solitude you’ve claimed to desire.”
“I don’t want to hurt her unnecessarily. She’s already been through too much. She deserves to know.”
“Why?”
“Damn you, Apollo.” The words were like a dagger blade in his mouth.
Because I care too much about her to hurt her in that way. Because in the last month, her happiness has become more important to me than this fucking revenge.
He clamped his teeth against that truth and let his words hang in the air between them.
“All right, I’ll let you keep it all inside, brother. But we both know you’re ruined. In honesty, I will call on our sisters this afternoon,” Apollo said, to Evan’s surprise.
“I thought you wanted to wait,” Evan said, not bothering to hide his surprise.
“They should know. It’s been weighing on me for some time now.” His older brother shook his head, his expression as serious as he’d ever seen it. “You are right to want to protect your woman. I will do the same for our sisters.”
“You have my sympathies,” Evan said, bowled over by the genuine, deep regard he had for his brother. And legitimately concerned for his safety when faced with Adalyn and Beatrice. “Are you sure you don’t want me there?”
“I am. Tell your wife, Evan. Once you have, do whatever is necessary to make it right. That is what men of honor do.” Apollo’s words hadn’t a trace of irony or doubt.
“I’m fairly certain she will shoot me for keeping this from her,” Evan confessed, to which Apollo responded by doubling over in a fit of laughter, significantly cooling any emerging warm feelings Evan had toward his brother.
“I cannot wait to get to know Lady Darnick better. She sounds like my kind of woman.”
A growl escaped Evan’s lips. “I will thank you not to use possessive language when speaking of my wife.”
Apollo laughed harder. “You are frankly too easy to rankle. It’s getting quite boring.”
“You’re a bloody bastard.” He grumbled.
Apollo looked up and winked. “Thatmight be the one thing I am not, brother.”
Evan bit his tongue and stood up, feeling like a man about to go to the gallows.
“Are you going to her now?” Apollo asked.
Evan shook his head. “Her trustee has been making a nuisance of himself with her solicitor, demanding compensation for his so-called management of the estate. I thought I’d pay him a visit.”
“I thought he no longer had any control over her money?”
“He’s a bloody loose cannon,” Evan groused. “Luz Alana refuses to let me threaten him with bodily harm, so I will merelyadvisehim today and then have my lawyers give him one last warning instead of the horsewhipping he deserves.”
Apollo made a sound of distaste, which illustrated Evan’s feelings exactly. “If you are attempting to be more honest and establish more equity between yourself and your wife, perhaps heeding her requests pertaining to her business would be a positive step in that direction?”
Damn the man, but his brother was right.
“You are infuriating.”
“I am wise beyond measure. You can still have yourlawyersthreaten the rodent. Compromise is the secret to all happy unions.”
“And you are an expert in marriage?” Evan retorted instead of admitting that Apollo’s advice was sound. “I will talk to my solicitor. Let’s hope the man gives up once and for all.” Evan was truly out of patience when it came to Percy Childers, but he had more important things to deal with, like keeping his wife, for example. “I will go to her now.” Dread gripped him again, alongside something that felt very much like his heart breaking.
“Don’t get yourself killed before tomorrow evening,” Apollo said with another one of those irritating grins. With that, the man pulled Evan in for an embrace, thumping him twice on the back. “Justice will be done tomorrow. I will not forget what you’ve risked to help me set things right.”
A wave of emotion clogged Evan’s throat. He’d honestly never thought there might be a future where his family and their legacy weren’t something to repudiate, but he and Apollo might be able to make things different. To use the lands and the holdings that for so long had only served the Sinclairs, to honor both of their mother’s lives and to improve the livelihoods of others. He only wished in the end it had not cost him Luz Alana.
