Page 76 of A Highland Duke to Claim Her Heart

The fog had lifted. He knew it at once as he breathed in deeply. Whatever had been hanging over his head for the past few days, making him delirious and unable to focus on anything anyone was saying, was gone.

And across from him, Cassandra was sitting in a rocking chair, a book in her hands. She was reading quietly, his expression soft and open as her eyes moved across the page.

At the sound of his covers rustling, she looked up. For a second, their eyes met, and she almost seemed to not recognize what was right in front of her. Then her eyes went wide, and she quickly pushed herself up from the chair.

“Ewan,” she murmured, rushing to his side. “You are awake! How are you feeling?”

“Better,” he said, testing out how it felt to speak, waiting for the familiar burn of his lungs that had haunted him of late. But there was no burning. Whatever had been making it difficult for himto breathe seemed to have been cured. He could hardly believe it. In the worst moments of his illness, he had feared that his lung would collapse and kill him.

But now, he sucked in a deep breath, filling his lungs with air, all without even the smallest twinge.

“Not fully recovered,” he said, trying to smileCassandra. “But at least the fog is gone. I feel clearheaded for the first time in… days?” He shook his head. “I do not even know how long it has been.”

“It has been four days,” Cassandra said, laying the back of her hand on his brow. Her eyes widened. “Oh! It is cooler! The fever has broken!”

She looked so thoroughly relieved that he wished he could have leapt from the bed just to prove how recovered he was. Seeing her smile like that was the best thing that had happened to him since he had fallen ill.

“It is not a miracle, though,” she said, as she pulled the rocking chair closer and sat down in it. “It is the treatment of Dr. Ludley, who has taken better care of you than I ever could have hoped for.”

Ewan nodded. “And did the doctor say what it was that was wrong with me?” He was not even sure he wanted to know, buthe also knew it was better to hear it now, to know for sure, to no longer live in doubt.

His wife looked at him very seriously, and he tensed, waiting for the blow to fall.

“I do not know how to say this exactly,” she began, her eyes locked on his. “But you were being poisoned. The doctor was able to identify the poison as arsenic. It has been given to you in small doses over the past week or so, which slowly brought on your symptoms. If you continued to consume it, you would have died within a few days. Fortunately, the doctor was able to ensure that all your most recent food and drink have been prepared without contamination. It is this that saved you.”

Arsenic.

So it was true.

Somehow, he had known.

He cleared his throat. “And do we know how it came to be that my food and drink has been poisoned?” he asked. He already knew, of course, but he needed to hear it out loud.

“We believe that…” her voice faltered, and then she tightened her jaw. “It was Christopher. We have been able to identify the substance in the tonics that he has been giving us to aid in yourrecovery, and we can link this to the many drinks he prepared for you in the days preceding and during your illness.”

Ewan had to close his eyes to take in these words. Even though he had been expecting them, they still hit with the force of a cannonball. Disbelief gathered in his chest like a cloud over the castle. He knew it would pass, but for several long breaths, he could not believe it was true.

Christopher was his brother.

The brother he had always taken care of.

The brother he had promised his father to always love.

And this brother had orchestrated his death. And for what? Money? A title? A chance at the dukedom?

Ewan’s eyes flickered open, and for a moment, he thought he was going to be sick.

“Are you well?” Cassandra murmured, and he shook his head. She put out a hand, touching his shoulder, bracing him, really. “I know,” she muttered. “I know, I know. It is more terrible than one can even imagine. I myself did not want to believe it was true. I fought it for as long as I could.”

“Was Annabelle ever in danger?” he asked. “Were you?”

“I think not,” Cassandra said. “Annabelle does not pose a threat to him. She is a girl and cannot inherit the dukedom. As for me, I did fear that I might be in danger if he thought I was with child. But I made it clear that there is no possibility of that.”

Ewan looked at her sharply. “You did not tell him about our arrangement, did you?”

There was still a possibility that Christopher could try to use that information to force Cassandra to ask for an annulment. But when she shook her head, relief settled over him.

“No, of course not,” she said gently. “I told my mother to let slip that my courses had come recently, while you were ill, and how much of a shame it would be if you died without our ever producing an heir.”