Behind the Courtesan(33)

“You had better not. Ever. Just make sure it doesn’t come up in the bedroom or anywhere else you may find yourself in a weakened state.”

Daemon laughed again, though this time the action was strained. “Weakened state? I don’t know who you’ve been consorting with, brother, but no woman has ever led me to that state in the bedroom.”

Blake swallowed. It would be the perfect time to reveal his betrayal. But then there was never a perfect time to tell your half brother that you’d slept with his paramour.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell her.”

The look on Blake’s face must have been a serious one for Daemon to suddenly get serious in return. Blake nodded his thanks, but didn’t speak.

“I won’t be telling her any secrets from now on anyway.”

The way Daemon spoke, Blake would have to be deaf not to apprehend something wasn’t right. “You won’t?”

“We parted ways some months ago.”

Blake’s mouth fell open.

“She didn’t tell you?”

He shook his head and snapped his mouth shut. Why hadn’t she? He had been torturing himself for nothing? Maybe not nothing, but she should have let him know.

“I met someone,” Daemon said.

“You did?” he replied but he was still reeling. Sophie was available? Nothing tied her to London or any man? What was it that held her back? He could offer her a life in Blakiston, yet she hadn’t shown the slightest interest. She spoke of returning to the city at every opportunity she could.

“You don’t have to be so dramatic. It had to happen one day. I have to marry eventually and take care of the business of succession.”

“What about Sophie?”

He misunderstood the question. “I can’t marry Sophie and we all know that. Anyway, she wouldn’t marry me even if I begged.”

“How do you know that?” Blake’s head swam with the possibilities and his conscience let go a half of a fraction.

“Because I already asked her.”

“What?” He felt as though the floor had just disappeared under his chair.

“I asked her to be my wife shortly after we first met. I thought I could save her and I wanted to upset both dukes in the process, my birth father and my cuckolded one. Could you imagine the aftermath?”

“And she said no?” The woman was so damned confusing.

“Don’t worry about a thing, Sophie isn’t the type of woman to make a scene. We can peacefully exist in the same space. We parted as the best of friends, so your inn will stand come morning.”

Blake nodded but there were no words. God, how he wished there were. The mess just got thicker, deeper and messier. He recalled the words he had said to her that very morning about wanting to be a duchess and wished the floor had swallowed him whole.

“What the inn might not withstand is the other reason I came to see you.”

Blake’s mind was slow catching up, but the intent in Daemon’s eyes caused him more worry than the enigma that was Sophie.

“The other reason? I thought you were here for Blakiston?”

“I am. I’m here for the real Duke of Blakiston to finally come out of hiding and take his rightful place.”

“Why would you say that? What if someone were to overhear you?”

“I wish someone would overhear me, then they could talk some sense into you.”

“You can’t prove anything. We burned the evidence a long time ago. Do you think anyone would listen?”

“There are some privileges to being a duke. One of them is that when you speak, others listen and take notice. It is quite rude to call a duke a liar. Not many would dare.”

“I would.”

Daemon leaned forward in his chair and placed his glass on the smooth surface of the desk. The turbulence of the liquid drew Blake’s eye and held it while his brother spoke. “Would you denounce the truth if it became public knowledge?”

Blake continued to stare at the glass as he answered, “To my last breath.”

“What if I told you there was still evidence?”

“I would call you a liar right now. We watched them burn. You lit the spark that dissolved my birthright.”

“I didn’t want to.”

“But you went along with my wishes. Where is this going, St. Ives?”

His half brother didn’t miss his use of his title and not his name. “I sent my man on a wild goose chase to keep him busy earlier last year and he uncovered dozens of sets of documents.”

“Impossible.” Blake shook his head as his hand slashed through the air. “We burned those records to ash. Why would the clergyman make a second set?”

“Apparently the vicar had problems sleeping and spent his time monastically copying papers. He replicated the most important documents and kept them at a different location.”

“What location?”

“I won’t tell you that.”

Blake rose from his seat, put his hands on the desk and leaned in close so his brother wouldn’t miss the sincerity of his next words. “I’ll kill you before I let you release those papers. I don’t want to be a duke. I’ll never enter that house for as long as I live.”

Daemon watched him for a moment before nodding and indicating for Blake to sit back down.

Blake sat, but his heart wouldn’t stop racing and his nerves wouldn’t sit still. The repercussions of the two of them even having this discussion were so far reaching it actually terrified him.

“I went to see the old man before he died,” Daemon said.

“You did?” Blake didn’t care. He didn’t want to think of that sorry excuse for a man. He didn’t want to think of his brother having a relationship with a man who should have had a sword run through him the first time he took advantage of an innocent. He shook free of murderous thoughts. A man couldn’t die twice.

“He thought I was the vicar come to offer absolution. The things he told me, the things he was sorry for, they made my stomach hurt.”

Blake didn’t want to know if his mother was one of those he sought forgiveness for. It no longer mattered. It was all too easy for contemptible men to beg leniency when about to meet their maker.

“Did you forgive him?” Blake asked, despite not wanting or needing to know the answer.

“I said the words he wanted to hear,” Daemon said with a shrug.

“That was not my question. Did you forgive him?”

“I forgave him a long time before that.”

“Then why don’t you be the duke? One word from your mother or one more set of documents would solve everyone’s problems.”

“I made a promise to my mother that I would never reveal the truth in any form, that she had an affair with Blakiston. It would kill her and what would become of the dukedom I already claim? What would become of the villagers depending on me if they knew my father is not actually my father? I’ve worked hard for them and they for me. I don’t want or need more titles even if it were possible.”

Blake sighed. Some of the tension left his body in sheer defeat. Daemon laughed.

“What could you find so hilarious about this situation?”

“In the eyes of God I am the true bastard here, not you. You are the only one of us who has a legitimate claim to any title since you are the only one of us born in wedlock to your rightful parents. If my parentage were to emerge, my dukedom would be contested and I would probably lose everything. This one is yours and yours only and you have to step up to it.”

“I don’t want it,” Blake said for a second time. Or maybe it was the third? He’d say it a hundred times if he had to.

“I don’t think you have a choice anymore.”

He surged from his seat again. “The hell I don’t! We all have choices, I made mine and I won’t go back. Not you or any other man will force my hand in this.”

“That’s where you have it wrong. Do you think Sophia had a choice?”

“This has nothing to do with her.”

Daemon ignored his words and went on regardless. “One of the gruesome truths our father shared with me is a story about Sophia. Do you want me to tell it to you?”

“I don’t need to. She already told me.”

Finally Daemon showed some emotion in the shocked look on his normally nonchalant mask. “I don’t think she would have told you the full story.”

Had she? Or did she only share the parts she thought he needed to hear? He wasn’t going to share any of her secrets with this man, but one of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. “That’s why you have her.” It was a simple statement, no need for questions.

“I already had her. I just didn’t know exactly who I had until then.”

“She sold her body to you, and you expect me to believe you didn’t know where she came from?”