had been a libertine who'd cuckolded a new husband every night. She remembered him admitting,'If they were married, then even better.' The two of them had been near in age.
Had Ethan had an affair with her mother? Why else would he lie so persistently?
Maddy had always wanted the key to unlock that night when her life had fallen apart. The questions had driven her mad. Now she felt the answers were there, just within her grasp.
Had her father unexpectedly returned home and caught his much younger wife in bed…with Ethan?
Maddy put her hand to her mouth to stifle a shocked cry. At twenty-three and without that scar, Ethan would have been gorgeous. Her aging father, who'd been dearer to Maddy than all the world, would have been devastated to see the wife he adored in bed with a strapping young Highlander.
Granted, Maddy couldn't know for fact that Sylvie and Ethan had…that they'd…
She shook her head hard. That part could be merely the imaginings of a frantic woman. But Maddy knew without doubt that Ethan had lied to her repeatedly and had sought revenge against her family. She couldn't state with certainty exactly why he'd punished her parents, leaving her as a casualty, but no matter if they'd deserved it or not, Maddydefinitely hadn't.
It was one thing to be a victim of circumstance and quite another to have a man show up on your doorstep to destroy you. She hadn't deserved to be dragged into this tragedy again.
Considering all that he'd done and deceived her about, she had to wonder if anything was true. Recalling the hasty marriage license—which Ethan had somehow had time to acquireafter drunkenly plotting the seduction of two barmaids—and the very simple ceremony with the registrar, Maddy realized she might not even be truly married.
Not one of the ladies in the boulangerie after all…
Ethan had looked her in the eyes and vowed that if she could just see her way to giving him one more chance, he wouldn't hurt her again.
Lies.He'd broken that vow, among others.The studied deception.
She'd been used. She was stunned, feeling so deadened that she was surprised she perceived her heart beating, could actually hear it in the silence of the room.
Maddy remembered Ethan once telling her to leave La Marais behind, not to look back. What had his plan been at the time? And if her friends had come to live with them and depend on them? Onhim ? Maybe that was why he'd been so insistent about them coming.
What am I going to do?All she knew was that she wantedaway from him , to be far away by the time he returned. She rose, and through tears gazed out the window at the windswept sea.
Maddy had called this place a fairy tale, and it had proved just as fantastical. Here, all was illusion.Peacocks and palm trees; jewels and sunsets over a blue Irish sea? If it sounds too good to be true…
You're a fool.
She'd take the filth and danger of La Marais, hard and real before her, over this, over the lies of her husband, of their life. 'Just one more chance,' he'd said, even whileknowing her trust would be in vain. He'd known she would discover his deceit. 'What happens if you find out something from my past that you canna abide and you leave me?'
She'dpleaded with him not to hurt her again.How many more times will I endure having my hopes crushed? How many more timescould she endure it?
No more. She truly was finished this time.
'I'll never let you go,' he'd vowed, and she believed him. Somewhere along the way, he'd fallen in love with her—or as much as possible for a man like him, with the lies between them.
In fact, she sensed that what he felt for her bordered on obsession. If she left, he wouldn't rest until he found her.
But she was Maddyla Gamine —she could find her way out of anything. She had the jewelry he'd given her, and all the money she'd wisely begun hiding away.
She'd go back to La Marais. But only to collect her friends.
On their way to somewhere else.
Forty-one
Ethan heard the screams from his Grosvenor town house before he even set eyes on the property.
To his shock, he saw Court and Hugh outside—notrunning to the sound. Court looked as though he was about to murder someone.
Ethan swung down from his horse. 'Why the hell haven't you gone up—' Another scream sounded, and Court bellowed in answering pain, punching his fists against the brick wall. Blood was already matted there from previous hits.
'Stop it, Court,' Hugh snapped. 'She'll no' like that I let you hurt yourself like this.'
'How could they send me away?' Court asked, his voice hoarse, his eyes dazed.
'I wonder,' Hugh said dryly.
Ethan finally found his voice. 'What the hell is going on?'
'They've asked me to keep him downstairs for the present,' Hugh said.
'Who?'
'Did you no' get our letters?'
'No letters, just a short telegram to Carillon—'
'I wasn't sure if you still owned that one,' Hugh said. 'I sent telegrams to the less likely of your haunts.' He narrowed his eyes. 'What were you doing there?'
'Spendin' the winter. Now answer me. What is going on here?'
'This is the birth of your niece or nephew,' Hugh said proudly. 'And the possible loss of your brother's sanity.'
'Birth?'Ethan tripped back against his horse. That arse of a horse sidestepped, and he almost fell. 'Now?'
Court bit out, 'She sent me away. Why would they send me away?'
Hugh responded, 'Again, I canna imagine.' To Ethan, he said, 'Annalía's been in labor for about ten hours now. You're just in time to help me hold Court and keep him out of the way.'
'Annalía'sin labor ,' Ethan said, stunned. He'd never been anywhere near a birth before.
Court swung his frenzied gaze on Ethan. 'Doona even start with me, Ethan. That baby is mine. Iknow her and Ifeel this. Any comment to the contrary, and I'll kill you.'
Ethan put his palms up. 'I'm no' making any comment about anything.'
Court looked confused. 'You're no' going to berate me or throw that bloody book at me?'
'No, I just…I wish you well.'
Now Hugh frowned, too. 'Fiona's here,' Hugh said to Ethan. 'She wants to talk to you.'
'She's here? In my house?'
'Aye, she's—'
A scream louder than the rest sounded, and the blood left Court's face. He barreled toward the front door, but Hugh collared him and hauled him back, cursing and swinging. 'A hand here, Ethan?'
'Oh, aye. Calm yourself, Court,' Ethan said, helping to drag him back outside. 'Women do this all the time.'
Court grated, 'If I hear that bullshite another bloody time…'
'This is killing him,' Hugh explained. 'He never wanted Annalía to have a baby.'
'Why no'?' Ethan asked, baffled. That's what men always wanted. Wasn't it? He'd tried to get one on Maddy with a feverish intensity.
'He dinna want to risk her. And he dinna want to share her. If he'd known he could get her with child, he'd have tried no' to.'
'They made me leave,' Court said again, his tone miserable.
'How about helping me distract him?' Hugh muttered.
'How?' At Hugh's shrug, Ethan said, 'Do you have, uh, a name prepared, then?'
Absently, eyes still on the door, Court said as if reciting, 'If it's a boy, we have to name him Aleix, after Anna's brother, Aleixandre. Because I put him in jail and stole his house and all that. If it's a lass, we're naming her
