Page 77 of A Highland Duke to Claim Her Heart

“Good,” Ewan said, settling back on the pillow. “Your mother? She is here?”

“Yes, she has been helping,” Cassandra said, a small smile tilting up the side of her mouth. “She has been distracting Christopher for us while we search for evidence and try to gather everything we can against him, proving his crimes.”

Ewan nodded, but already, a new feeling was blooming in his chest, one that was so powerful that he felt that if he released it, it could have burned down all of the Scottish Highlands.

Anger.

He was furious at his brother.

“I cannot believe he would do this,” he said, not looking at Cassandra. He did not want her to see the full extent of his anger. It was an ugly emotion, and not one he was prone to. “After everything I have done for him over the years, all the ways that I have helped him out of tight corners and scrapes. Even now—” his eyes went to her, no longer able to look away, “—I offered him a great sum of money to settle all his debts, to help him get back onto his feet. It is unthinkable, Cassandra. Unthinkable that he would resort to this.”

“I know,” she said again, her hand tightening on his shoulder. “I think it will take a long time for either of us to believe it.”

He grit his teeth and nodded. Anger was coming off of him in waves,. However, when he looked back at his wife, her expression was soft.

“It is okay if you are angry,” she sighed. “I am as well. For the past few days, my fear for your life has been so great that furyhas not been the primary emotion, but now, I feel it acutely. And scared. I almost married him! I could have spent a lifetime married to someone capable of such evil…”

She trailed off, and the shake in her voice ignited another, more familiar emotion: protectiveness.

Ewan leaned forward, taking her hands and pressing both to his lips. She looked up in surprise.

“I am sorry I did not discover this side of him sooner,” he muttered. “If I had, I never would have allowed him to marry anyone. I would have protected you.”

“It is not your fault,” she said at once. “And I do not want you to take that on.”

“Perhaps it is not,” Ewan said heavily. “I think he fooled us all. Disguised himself very well. And maybe he is simply desperate. If it is true that he is involved with the Ferguson family, and if they are threatening his life, he may have gone to extreme lengths to get the title and have enough money and power to save himself.”

“There is no excuse for this,” Cassandra said swiftly, and Ewan shook his head.

“I know, and I am not trying to justify it. Only trying to understand. Because I think it will help me, in the end, if I can understand why my own brother would do this to me.”

They were both quiet for a long time. Ewan was lost in thought, memories of his brother as he had been as a child filling his head, running through his imagination. Every time he thought of his brother as a little boy, he felt as if someone was carving out his heart.

At least he only targeted me.It was not much, but at least there was that.At least he did not go after Annabelle and Cassandra.

…Yet.

At last, he forced himself to speak.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked.

Cassandra blinked slowly. “I know it is difficult to do, but we need you to not confront him. Not yet. For now, you need to play along. Pretend to be sick still. Pretend that you have not recovered. That way, Christopher will think that the tonics and broths he has been sending are still working. As long as he thinks that, he will not change course, and we will be able to get the evidence we need.” She looked at him levelly. “Do you think you can do that?”

Ewan nodded. “I will do whatever it takes to catch him,” he said, “and to keep you safe.”

Chapter 28

“We need to act now,” Dr. Ludley said, placing a hand firmly down on the mantlepiece as he looked around the room. “Lord Christopher is growing impatient. He keeps asking me if the duke is improving, and each time, when I tell him that he is only getting worse, he looks at me as if I am lying to him.”

Cassandra placed a hand over her stomach as nervousness fluttered there. Beside her, Lillian also stirred.

Cassandra, Lillian, Alaric, Dr. Ludley, and Lady Pembury were all gathered in Lillian’s sitting room. It was the one place that was safe for them to talk in the house, as Christopher would never enter. He considered such a womanly space, fit only for a servant, to be beneath him.

Which made it the perfect place for the five of them to plot their next move.

“Do you think he suspects we know it is him?” Alaric asked sharply. His face was hard and lined, there were dark circles under his eyes, and he seemed to have aged several years in the space of the last few days. But Cassandra still saw the fondness in Lillian’s eyes whenever she looked at him. Even now, Lillian gazed at Alaric with rapt attention and adoration.

“I do not know,” the doctor said, sighing and brushing a hand across his brow. “But when I spoke to him this morning, he did not seem to believe me that the duke was worse.He seems less feverish to me than he did yesterday,he said.I felt his forehead, and it was no longer hot or clammy.”