Beauty and the Earl (23 page)

He cleared his throat, as the servant remained, waiting for him to formulate some kind of response to the news of his guests.
 

“Put Rothcastle in the parlor. You may serve him tea, I suppose, since that is the polite response to a duke in one’s home,” he said, waving a hand as if Christian’s presence here was unimportant. “And bring my sister to me.”

If the butler was surprised at this unorthodox handling of guests, he made no indication. He bowed and left the room without another word.

Once he was gone, Mal pushed to his feet. “Would you like me to stay?”

Liam shook his head. “No. I’ve hidden from this long enough. And you should go to Olivia, shouldn’t you?”

Mal grinned, and the love and hope in his eyes made Liam’s heart ache all the more. He was happy for his friend, but how jealous he was of his certainty in his feelings, his future.

“Try not to murder anyone,” his friend said as he exited the room.

Liam smiled, though he knew, probably as well as Mal did, that not that long ago that might have been a possibility in this situation. But he had changed.

Violet had changed him.

In the hall, he heard the muffled voices of Mal and his sister as they exchanged a polite greeting. He stiffened, rising as he waited for her to enter the room. It took what seemed like an eternity, until the seconds on the clock all but rung in his ears like a gong.

And then she came into view, passing through his door and coming to a halt as she stared at him. He couldn’t help but stare back, for she was changed from the last time he saw her.

His sister had always been pretty, but now she was stunning. Her dark brown locks were swept up in a delicate fashion that framed her oval face and accentuated her clear, porcelain skin. Her blue-gray eyes were bright and there was no doubt they were also filled with happiness.

It was that emotion, written all over her appearance, the way she held herself, the way she moved…that was what made her even more beautiful than she had ever been.

And he could not begrudge her that, no matter the source of the change.
 

“Ava,” he said softly.

“Liam,” she whispered in return.
 

Then she all but ran to him, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing so tightly that she almost dragged the air from his lungs. He felt her tremble, her breath broken with emotion before she pulled away. She searched his face, her fingers coming up to brush the line of the scar down his cheek before she pulled it back and stepped away.

“I-I’m sorry,” she said with a shake of her head.

He smiled and to his surprise, the expression was very real. Having his sister in the room with him was far sweeter than he’d ever thought it would be.
 

“It’s all right,” he reassured her as he came around the desk and motioned to the chairs before his fire. “It’s been a long time. Why don’t you sit? Clearly, we have a great deal to discuss.”

She nodded and slowly sank into a chair beside the fire. When she did so, he saw her shift, slight discomfort on her face.

“Are you well?” he asked.

She nodded. “Of course. But the more important question is how are you?”

His lips pursed at her dismissal of his inquiry, but then that was Ava. She had always been too worried about others, often at the expense of herself. That drive to repair broken people had led her to Rothcastle. A bargain made to save Liam. One that had changed them all irrevocably and altered the course of all their futures.

He winced at the memory of finding his sister with that man after she had been kidnapped, compromised and utterly ruined. He had never been closer to homicide than in that moment, never been closer to utter destruction.

He shoved the thoughts away and forced himself to speak.
 

“I am as well as can be expected when I have only recently discovered how far you would go to uncover any facts about me.” Somehow he kept his voice even, calm and his eyes on her face.

The color drained from her cheeks and her hand clenched into a fist on the arm of the chair.
 

“You mean, I suppose, my sending Violet here,” she said.

He nodded slowly. “Yes. I mean your sending Violet here,” he repeated, accentuating every word. “So tell me, Ava, why did you send a beautiful spy into my midst to seduce and betray me? And why did you have to choose Violet Milford?”

Chapter Nineteen

Liam hated the tremble in his voice as he spoke the question. He hated the fact that his expression likely revealed far more than he would have his sister see. But Ava didn’t shy away from the raw emotion on his face. She didn’t react to it at all, except to lean forward and take his hand in hers.

“My dearest brother, I realize I betrayed you, perhaps far more than I ever intended to do,” she said softly. “But you must understand the depth of my desperation. We have been estranged for so long. I have reached out to you over and over again, but none of my attempts met with any success. I
had
to get to you somehow. I had to ensure you were well by any means.”

He tightened his jaw. When she put her feelings that way, he could see why she would reach for such desperate measures. He could also see the role he’d played to place her in that utter torment.

“I realize I’ve hurt you by my actions. I never wanted that. But seeing you is so very difficult,” he admitted. “Because of
him
.”

“
Him
,” she repeated, her eyes going softer and filling with both trepidation and love. “You mean my husband. You mean Christian.”

He nodded once, unable to say more on the subject. That would have to change soon enough, he knew, but he was still adjusting to that reality for now.
 

She sighed. “For nearly two years
he
has done nothing but love and protect me, Liam.”

“Was sending Violet here his idea or yours?” he asked.

She arched a brow and her mouth grew tight. “Mine, actually. He didn’t approve for a very long time, but when he saw I wouldn’t be dissuaded, he did as I asked and looked for the right woman for the job. He determined that would be Violet. He vetted her. He introduced us.”

Liam squeezed his eyes shut. “Great God.”

She didn’t respond, and when he looked at her again, there was a deep sadness on her face. “You cannot blame him for this, Liam,” she whispered, releasing his hand abruptly. “He is not the villain in this play.”

It was hard to agree to that, for Christian had been the villain of every play for so long. And yet she was right. Damn her, but she was utterly right.

“Why now?” Liam asked in order to avoid the subject of Rothcastle as much as find out the answer.

She blinked. “What do you mean?”

“As you said, we have been estranged for such a long time. What drove you to suddenly seek such drastic remedies to that problem?”

Ava sighed and in answer, rose to her feet. Slowly, she smoothed her high-waisted gown down flat across her body and revealed the burgeoning swell of a child growing within her.

His breath caught and he slowly rose to his feet and stared at her. She nodded at the unspoken question in the air.

“I’m having a baby,” she whispered. “And you are my brother and I love you. I want you to be an uncle to this child. I want him or her to know you.”

Liam swallowed hard as emotion rushed over him. He was shocked by the news of her pregnancy, but further shocked by his own reaction to it. Immediately and without warning he felt protective toward the baby inside of her. More to the point, he felt love for his future niece or nephew, regardless of the child’s father.
 

“Do you understand now?” she asked, searching his face.

“I understand more,” he said, retaking his seat with a thud. She did the same, though she sat on the edge, watching his every move. “But having Violet seduce me, pretend to care about me…that goes very far, Ava.”

She shook her head. “You judge Violet too harshly, Liam. She didn’t pretend anything—it is evident she cares for you. Even if she wishes she didn’t.”

Liam turned his face. Could that be true or was his shrewd sister perpetrating another lie in the hopes it would soften him?
 

“And yet she betrayed me,” he said, his voice rough.

“On my orders,” Ava pointed out softly.

Liam looked at her, brow arched. “Are you trying to make me angry with you too?”

She smiled slightly. “No. I already know what your anger can do. What I want you to do is forgive both Violet and I for our parts in the past few weeks.”

Liam squeezed his eyes shut. How he wanted to do just that. To forget everything. But unlike his sister, he wasn’t certain of Violet’s feelings. And unlike Malcolm, he still had a great many barriers that separated him from the woman he…

Well, how he felt about her wasn’t something he wished to analyze too deeply.
 

“Forgiveness isn’t easy for me,” he finally said.
 

She nodded. “I realize that. I understand it even. Our father didn’t preach forgiveness, only hate.”

Liam flinched. “Indeed, that is true.”

He thought of their father. A hard man, a man driven by his inexplicable feud with the Rothcastle family. A man who railed at his son until Liam had the same prejudices. Even long dead, Liam could still hear the old earl’s voice close to his ear.

Never forgive them. Stop being weak.

He shook the sound from his head and sighed. “He gave no quarter to anyone,” he said softly.

She nodded, deep sadness in her eyes. “But he isn’t here anymore, Liam. He isn’t here, and I am. I’m asking you to be bigger than he was. To be better than he was. To learn from the mistakes all those generations of bitter men made, from the damage you and Christian did. Please.”

He looked at her for a long moment. There was such hope in her stare, but even more than that there was faith. Faith that he could do this impossible task she asked of him. Faith that there could be peace.

Faith he found himself wishing he could share. Wondering if he could share in it…

“I want to speak to your husband.”

He heard his voice say it and realized it was true.

Ava’s hands gripped the arms of her chair, and she shivered from head to toe.
 

“Liam—” she began, fear lighting in her eyes and trembling in her voice.

He shook his head. “You want this to end, you want me to be part of your life again, you want me to learn this forgiveness you claim is possible…but I’m afraid all those wishes are tied to Rothcastle. We must speak at some point in order to grant you those things you desire.”

Ava considered that a moment. “May I stay?”

He drew a deep breath. Having Ava in the room would complicate things between he and Rothcastle. Sisters had always tended to do that.
 

“Let me see him alone,” he insisted.
 

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Fine. I will stay away, but only on your promise that you won’t hurt him, Liam.”

He stared at her, quivering with worry, hands clenching at her sides reflexively, bright eyes sharp with emotion.
 

“The time for that has long passed, Ava,” he said with a sigh. “I wouldn’t do that to you, to your child. I swear it on my life.”

And for the first time, he found he meant it.

“I’ll fetch him,” Ava said, moving toward the door.
 

“Good,” Liam murmured as she stepped away and down the hall to her husband. To a man he had called an enemy his entire life.

Only now he didn’t know what to call him. And he could only hope he might figure it out before they came face to face in a showdown that had been coming from the moment each man had been placed in a cradle.

Violet sat in the window seat at the home she had left only a few days before. It felt like a lifetime, but somehow it wasn’t. She stared toward the long road that led from Bath and toward Liam’s estate, just a short ride away.

So close. So far.

A servant came in quietly and Violet glanced over. She had been without Rachel almost since her arrival in London. The Duke of Rothcastle had helped her find a place in Romwell, a pretty cottage judging by the sketches. She had offered on the place and Rachel had been sent ahead to prepare it for her and for her son.

That was how quickly the duke could arrange things. All done to convince her to come here, to come back to Bath and be near a man she loved. A man who hated her.

“Would you like tea, miss?” the young woman asked with a smile.

Violet shook her head. “No, thank you.”

When the girl left, Violet looked at the clock. It had been over an hour since the Rothcastles had departed for Liam’s estate. They would long be there by now. Had Ava been able to see her brother? Would Liam look past his anger to accept her into his life again?

Violet hoped so.

“He needs them,” she whispered.