She pushed her hair back before she turned to face him. Thank God he"d come to his senses.

She wanted children, but not his. She still wouldn"t have him even if he were worth a fortune, which he wasn"t. She needed the ties severed with him and his damned father, and that wouldn"t happen if she bore him a child.

She caught him staring at her body when she turned. That drew her attention to her heavy velvet riding skirt that hadn"t fallen naturally back into place when she stood up. With a tsk she shoved it down over her knees.

He was still obviously bristling, blaming her because his domineering tactics had backfired on him. Too bad for him. She was still calm. That really was remarkable. She"d never been this calm in his presence before.

“Let"s hope this is our last meeting,” she said.

“It better be,” he warned.

“There we go agreeing with each other again.”

She actually smiled at him! What the deuce was wrong with her?

She took a deep breath before continuing, “I"m going to take you at your word, since you leave me no other option, and proceed with my petition to be rid of you so I can get on with my life just as you have. If you insist on visiting your brother, warn Charles to keep his mouth shut when I have you declared dead.” She said that on the way to the door and paused only long enough to add, “I promise you, Richard, if you or your family foil my effort to break that despicable contract, I will pay someone my entire dowry—to kill you.”

Chapter Twenty

SHE HAD A PISTOL on her,” Ohr said when he returned to the room later that day. “She didn"t try to kill you, did she?”

“Just my sanity, she"s good at threatening that.”

Richard discounted the possibility of Julia"s killing him in the heat of the moment when she was screaming at him, but he knew she could inflict a lot of pain. She was good at delivering pain. But he was certain one of them would kill the other eventually if they were forced to marry. They both got too crazy around each other.

That threat she"d made today, though, had definitely given him pause. She"d said it so bloody dispassionately, as if it were something she was used to doing, paying others to see her will done—just like his father.

He shuddered at the comparison and tried to put Julia Miller out of his mind. She was gone.

He"d watched from his window as she galloped down the road, back toward London. He"d be out of the country again soon himself. There was no reason for them ever to cross paths again.

“A pretty girl,” Ohr remarked. “Too bad you two can"t get along.” Richard snorted. “Beauty means nothing when there"s a little monster hiding under the surface.”

Ohr grinned. “Not so little anymore.”

No, dammit, she definitely wasn"t little anymore. Julia had filled out with some luscious curves. Nothing about the scrawny, enraged child had indicated she would turn into a beauty one day. Not that it would have mattered. They could have become the best of friends and he still wouldn"t have married her, because it was what his father wanted, and he refused to give that bastard any satisfaction at all.

But for a few moments today, too many moments, he"d utterly ignored that conviction, which he"d lived with for most of his life. He"d wanted her. How the hell did that happen?

She"d come at him with her claws bared, and with little effort he"d propelled her past him, where she"d fallen onto his bed. He wished to hell it hadn"t occurred to him that it would be easy to keep her nails and her teeth off him by holding her there.

So his body had responded normally. How could it not with her squirming and moving so provocatively beneath him? But he should have realized what was happening and got off her immediately. Instead he"d kissed her and had been inflamed by that even more.

In retrospect it was rather obvious. He could kick himself for not realizing that something like that could happen if they started fighting physically the way they used to do when they were children. They were adults now. Sex was bound to get in the way of that sort of angry passion. And it hadn"t just happened to him. She"d kissed him back just as furiously.

But he thrust her from his mind now to ask Ohr, “Did you have any luck?”

“As good as it gets.” Ohr grinned. “I delayed getting back, so he should be arriving any—” He didn"t finish, just chuckled at the sound of someone knocking at the door and waved a hand toward it. With a laugh of delight, Richard leapt for the door and yanked it open. He was engulfed in a bear hug that he returned wholeheartedly. So many years had passed since he"d seen his family, at least the only member of his family he loved, that such a wealth of emotion filled him, it almost brought tears to his eyes.

“I really didn"t believe your friend,” Charles said with a laugh. “Secret meeting? You actually here? I even got angry that he was getting my hopes up with lies.”

“He did, too,” Ohr put in.

“But I couldn"t not come to see for myself. And you"re really home!”

“Not quite,” Richard said, pulling Charles into the room. “But I couldn"t leave England again without visiting you this time. God, it"s good to see you, Charles!”

“And you! But what"s wrong with your face?”

“That"s nothing,” Richard hedged. “I had a little too much to drink and fell facefirst into a brick wall.”

“I know how that is,” Charles admitted with a wince, but then he took a step back to have a full look at Richard and finished with an amazed chuckle. “Forget what century you"re living in? Or is that a wig to disguise you while you"re in the neighborhood?” Richard grinned and got a tie from his pocket and fastened his hair back. “It"s real and not all that unusual where I"ve been living. But look at you. Not so skinny anymore, eh? Someone feeding you well?”

“Look who"s talking.” Charles chuckled. “I barely recognize you.” Then he added on a sober note, “But it"s easy to eat normally when you"re no longer feeling twisted with turmoil and anxiety that has you puking all the time.”

Richard nodded in understanding. He could recall doing that a few times himself when he"d felt so churned up with impotent fury that had no outlet. But for Charles, the excessive drinking must have added to the difficulty of keeping food down as well. Richard couldn"t recall Charles doing anything other than picking at meals after his marriage. But he definitely remembered him always being drunk.

It wasn"t easy to tell they were brothers, the resemblance was so minimal. Neither of them actually looked like their father, either, though Charles did take after him more, having Milton"s dark brown hair and blue eyes. He even had their father"s stocky frame now that he"d put on weight. He was a few inches shorter than Richard, too. Richard also didn"t take after his mother either, though he"d been told his black hair and green eyes did come from her side of the family.

But since his brother appeared to be standing there sober and had obviously found his appetite again, Richard guessed, “So you gave up the bottle?”

“Yes, but that"s not what gave me peace.”

“Don"t tell me you actually get along with father now?” Richard was joking. No one could get along with that man.

But Charles replied, “He and I have an—understanding, but Candice actually did me a good turn. She died. I"ve been at peace ever since.”

Richard wasn"t expecting that, and just stared for a moment before he replied, “I"ll skip the condolences, if you don"t mind.”

“Please do. Truth be told, I was hard-pressed not to smile at her funeral. But I can"t say that I don"t bless her every day now.”

“For dying?”

“No. For finally gaining me a son. It took three years, which was mostly my fault—I could barely stand to touch her. Her complaining didn"t stop once we repaired to the bedroom, you know. But we found out she was pregnant right after you left.”

“I have a nephew?” Richard said with a beaming smile.

“Yes, Mathew just turned eight, and he"s utterly changed my life. You can"t imagine how fiercely protective I am of him, or how much I love him. I found out just how much when my father-in-law showed up after his daughter"s funeral demanding that I turn Mathew over to him so he could raise him himself.”

“Are you kidding?”

“No, Mathew is actually his only male heir, so the duke was quite serious and determined, even brought his solicitor along to make it legal. Some of the threats he issued, including ruination, were rather nasty. And Father took his side, of course. He"s afraid that offending that old man for any reason will cost us his benevolence. Which is what my marriage to Candice was all about. Father is also in debt to him apparently, so he was furious when I balked and ordered me to comply.”

“Damn, Charles, they took your son from you?”

Charles chuckled. “I can"t blame you for drawing that conclusion. I never did tell Father no before, did I? Like you constantly did?”

When every one of those “refusals” earned Richard a beating, Charles just hadn"t found a good enough reason to suffer that pain. But Richard replied, “You weren"t as stubborn as I was, nor as rebellious.”

“True, at least not until that day.” Charles grinned. “I warned Father to stay out of it. The boy is mine. He gives me the courage I always lacked. As for the duke, he raised his daughter to have the worst disposition I"ve ever encountered in my life, and I told him so. He was not going to raise my son to be like her.”

“What happened?”

“I told him I"d take the boy and leave the country so he would never see him again. By the by, you gave me that idea.”

“He believed you?”

“Why wouldn"t he? I meant it.”

Richard laughed. “Good for you!”

“And besides, I wasn"t denying him access to Mathew, far from it. I take Mathew to visit him every few weeks. In fact, we were packed to leave for one of those visits today, but then your friend found me, so I postponed the visit until tomorrow. But, suffice it to say, we"ve all decided to forget about that original altercation.”

“Even Father?”

“Father"s attitude changed that day, at least; he no longer tries to force his will on me. You could say he treats me with kid gloves now. I have a feeling you"re responsible for that, too.

With one son gone, he"s realized that I could disappear, too. Mathew and I are the link that keeps the duke happy with the Allen family. Father doesn"t want to lose that. So as I said, we have an understanding, unspoken, but there nonetheless, to simply leave each other alone.”

“I"m—incredulous.”

“I"m not,” Ohr put in. “Everyone changes, and nine years is long enough for someone to change.”

Both brothers stared at Ohr, but then Charles chuckled. “I wouldn"t go so far as to say that.

My father is still the tyrant he always has been. He just manages to control his overbearing nature when he"s around my son. Not that I would allow it, but not once has he ever tried to enforce his strict rules on the boy, or interfere with the way I"m raising him. And unlike the way Father treated you and I, Richard, I let Mathew make his own choices, and he makes them logically. He"s such a bright, caring child. He even loves both of his grandfathers, but then oddly enough, they"re both on their best behavior around him.” Richard found it hard to believe that his father had changed for any reason, even for what sounded purely like self-interest. But the changes in his brother were definitely remarkable.

Charles seemed to glow with happiness when he spoke of the boy.

“But enough about me,” Charles said. “Where on earth did you go? Another country? What have you been doing all these years?”

Richard, his eyes sparkling with laughter, glanced at Ohr before he gave his brother the toned-down version: “I became a sailor.”

Charles stared for a moment, then chuckled. “That"s probably the one thing I would never have imagined. You? But you had such a rebellious nature, I was sure you"d gone off to find other battles to fight. At the very least, doing something adventurous.” Richard laughed. “What makes you think sailing can"t be adventurous? And I"m well pleased with my life. I"ve made such good friends, they"re like family to me now. I always have a place to sleep, food to eat, good companionship, and more women than I can count.

What more could I want?”

“Children.”

That was a sobering thought, and of course now that Charles was a proud father, he would think of that. But Richard didn"t have to dwell on the matter to come up with an answer.

“I"d rather have children with a woman I love than with one who"s forced on me.” Charles flinched. “I can"t argue with that. And you"re young. No special lady, though?”

“Yes—but she"s otherwise attached,” Richard mumbled so low that only Ohr heard him and rolled his eyes.

Charles said, “What?”

“I"m glad to know you aren"t still living in hell,” Richard said, changing the subject. “I was actually going to try to talk you into coming away with me, but it sounds like you"re quite content here now.”

“I am. But I"d be even more content if you told me you"re home for good.”

“That isn"t going to happen, and not just because I despise our father. I just found out I can still be roped in by that damned marriage contract he saddled me with. I really thought Julia Miller would have married someone else by now.”