“No. I can’t say that shocks me at all. I would have been surprised if you hadn’t been seeking revenge.” She walked over, her limp always slightly present, and sat down in the armchair next to him, leaning her cane to the side. “If it had been my mother, I would have wanted to do the same thing.”
“The bastard died before I could fully enact my plans.” Seb took another sip of his whiskey as memories of the past assailed him. “I’d already started to financially ruin him, though he didn’t realize I was behind the financial misfortunes he’d suffered. He thought he’d just had a run of terrible luck with his investments. He had no idea I was systematically bankrupting him. And then the goddamn day before I’d planned to reveal to him I was the one who had orchestrated his downfall, and call in all of his debts, the bastard visited his mistress and died in her bed.”
“Oh…”
“Oh, indeed.” Seb finished what was left of his whiskey in one sip and placed the glass on the side table with slightly more force than necessary.
“I had heard some rumors hinting at such a thing, but I didn’t know if there was any credence to them or not.” Livie shrugged her shoulders.
“Yes, there was credence,” Seb replied, leaning forward and gazing into the flames of the hearth, resting his elbows on his knees with his fingers steepled. “The bastard’s heart gave out on him right in the middle of coitus. Well, at least that’s what the doctor concluded must have happened. The wretch died happy.”
The thought still sent a shaft of hopeless rage through him. How anyone who had perpetrated such evil in his life should die happy absolutely beggared belief.
“I wouldn’t have even known that someone could die in such a manner, that such a thing was possible…” Livie’s voice trailed off, and she looked delightfully embarrassed to be discussing such a thing. “So how did you end up the owner of this residence? I’m surprised it wasn’t entailed in the inheritance.”
“The only property entailed was the ducal seat,” Seb answered with a half smile. “By the time of his death, the duke owed over fifty thousand pounds to me, without realizing it.”
Livie drew in a sharp breath. “Fifty thousand pounds? Goodness, that is a fortune many times over.”
“It is,” Seb agreed. “The man’s arrogance knew no bounds. He thought because of his position in Society that his bank would continue lending him money, having no idea I’m a majority owner of his bank, which was no coincidence at all. I’d given explicit instructions that the bank was to refuse to extend the duke any further credit or any extensions to his loans. I was then going to have all of his debts called in, which would have bankrupted him completely.”
“That must have taken a lot of planning.” She cast him a veiled glance, and he couldn’t tell what she was thinking from her expression.
“Several years actually.” He could feel the muscle in his jaw twitch from what had ended up being a futile endeavor. “But in the end, after he wasn’t alive to ruin, I realized that bankrupting his estate wasn’t worth it. It wouldn’t just be affecting him, it would affect a lot of innocent people, too. His servants, his tenants, and even his heir and daughter.”
“Your half brother and sister.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t want to be a party to ruining them, did you?” The corners of her mouth turned up as she beamed at him. “That’s why nothing is known about the new duke becoming bankrupt, because you didn’t bankrupt him, did you?”
“No, I didn’t,” Seb flatly told her. It was best he cut her short from thinking he was some goddamn hero when he was anything but. “He wasn’t to blame for the sins of his father. Even if both of our blood is tainted by his.”
“That doesn’t make you tainted.”
Seb laughed, cold and hard. “That is exactly what I am. My half brother is as ruthless as I am. He simply disguises it better, behind a veneer of social acceptability and manners. But both of us have a darkness inside that we can’t fully disguise.”
“That’s the biggest load of rubbish,” she said.
“Excuse me?” Had she really just accused him of bullshit, but in a much more civilized manner?
“Just because your father was an evil man does not make you or your brother evil.”
“Stop being a bloody dreamer.” Seb dragged a hand through his hair. “I’m not a good man, Livie. For God’s sake, you know I’ve killed people. Only a few hours ago, in fact. What do you call that? Saintly behavior?”
“They were bad men, Sebastian,” Livie replied, narrowing her eyes on him as she raised her chin. “They kidnapped Charlotte and me, and were going to do a lot worse to us. One can hardly blame you for ridding the world of men such as that.”
“You can try to justify it all you want,” Seb replied. “It doesn’t change that I am a murderer.”
“That might be true, but many men are murderers and are labeled heroes for it. Men kill blindly in times of war, simply because the other soldiers are the enemy. Is that not murder, too?”
“Killing is justified in times of war.”
“Why? Because it’s been declared a war, and hence killing of the enemy is not only sanctioned but supported? Decorated, in fact?”
“Yes. That’s exactly why.” Suddenly, he felt the need to pace. He bolted up from his chair and began to prowl around the room. There was a restless energy coursing through him that he didn’t know how to get rid of.
“Well, in my eyes, that’s worse.” She stood and strode over and grabbed his hand,
