Page 51 of A Highland Duke to Claim Her Heart

And then a voice came floating down the hall toward them.

“Cassandra? Where are you?” Christopher poked his head out of the parlor door and gestured at her. “Come, Cassandra, for we are to play whist, and I insist on partnering with you! You were always a brilliant whist player.”

“I—” Cassandra looked back at Ewan, but his expression had once more shuttered.

He bowed to her. “You should go,” he muttered. Then he turned and strode away along the corridor, leaving her staring after him, feeling more alone than she ever had.

Chapter 19

He had been cold to her. Unnecessarily so.

Ewan knew this, and yet, as he stared out his study window at the hills and mountains rising in the distance, he could not imagine having done any differently.

The alternative was to tell her how he was feeling, to express the fears that lurked in his heart, and which he saw crystalizing every time she laughed at something Christopher said.

And yet, he knew that by pushing her away, he was only speeding up what he was afraid was inevitable: When Cassandra would choose his brother over him and insist on an annulment.

One of these days, she would be so lonely, that she would let slip to Christopher that her marriage was unconsummated, and then he would strike.

But no.

He said he does not want her.

That he is not ready for marriage.

Ewan had to remind himself of these things, but even as he did, they rang false. Christopher might say one thing, but he had always been a man who had known how to lie to get what he wanted. Was that not why he was such a proficient gambler?

There was a knock on his door, and Ewan shook himself.

“Enter,” he said, and the door opened to reveal his brother.

Ewan swallowed, then sat up, hoping that none of the emotions that had just been tearing through him showed on his face as he gestured to the chair across from him.

“Please, sit,” he said.

Christopher crossed the room and sat before him, hooking his ankle over a knee and sitting back luxuriously.

His expression was mild, but there was something glinting in his eyes that Ewan did not like.

“What can I do for you, brother?” he asked.

“If I am not mistaken,” Christopher said, “you are not overly pleased by my return.”

Ewan blinked, then frowned. He suddenly felt a creeping hotness in his face.

“What are you talking about?” he said gruffly. “Of course I am pleased by your return! What kind of man do you take me for?”

Christopher raised his eyebrows. “The jealous kind.”

There was a long, tense silence. Then Ewan said, “I do not know what you are talking about.”

Christopher leaned forward, a frown unfurling on his lips. “I am talking about your marriage to my intended, Ewan. The fact that you stole what was mine from right under my nose.”

Anger, but also another, more ugly emotion, flickered through Ewan.Guilt.

“I did not steal what was yours,” he muttered. “We thought you were dead, Christopher. Her father had to be appeased.”

“And yet, how am I to be appeased?” Christopher snapped. “It was not my fault that the storm took my ship. And yet, I returned home to find that I had been punished by my brother for nearly dying. Do you know how difficult it was to stay alive out in the water, brother? Do you have any conception of what I suffered?And yet, I held on, knowing that I would come home to a loving wife and brother.” His eyes were very still. “Except that is not what I returned home to, is it? No, I return to find that my brother has taken my wife for himself, and now I am forced to watch as they make a home, and a life together. While I… I have nothing.”