Page 112 of Deceiving an Earl
Bastard.
“And that is acceptable?”
Needham shrugged. “She was not following my orders. It is in my right to discipline her.”
Oliver had to forcefully not clench his fingers into a fist. The man was a monster.
“It is your right to discipline her if she is your wife. She is not your wife.”
“Close enough.”
“I wonder—” Oliver edged closer. “What kind of parents teach a child that it is acceptable to beat a woman?”
Needham huffed out a laugh. “Please. Don’t get all high-and-mighty on me. A woman is a man’s property, and it is perfectly acceptable to discipline her as a husband sees fit.” He paused, considered Oliver. “Besides, it was your fault she had to be disciplined to begin with.”
“Mine?” Oliver raised a brow even as his insides clenched. He knew the man was testing him, getting under his skin on purpose and damn it, it was working.
“I told her she was no longer to see you or converse with you, yet she continued to do so.”
“That is not her fault. I was the one who called on her.” Had Needham really beaten Ellen because of Oliver?
Needham shrugged. “She should have told you.”
And she had. The first time he’d visited after the engagement was announced, but he’d continued to call on her, and she’d paid the price for his stubbornness.
But that did not make what Needham did right.
“I know the secret,” Oliver said. The length of the room separated them, and Needham had to turn his head to keep Oliver in his sights.
“What secret?”
“Don’t play coy with me, Needham. I know you were blackmailing her into marrying you. Was it because you could not get a woman the normal way?”
Rage flattened the doctor’s eyes, but he seemed to tamp it down and didn’t respond. Oliver stopped pacing, not yet ready to approach.
“I know Philip is my child.” He didn’t really know that for a fact but was going on his gut. “I won’t allow you to blackmail Ellen or punish Philip.”
“The boy is a bastard, through and through, both by blood and by nature.”
With supreme force of will Oliver pushed away the ever-increasing rage inside him and made himself practice patience.
“That is enough.” His voice was calm, quiet, forcing Needham to concentrate on his words.
“Or what? What will you do to me? No one will believe that I did that to her.”
“Two scandals in one week, Needham. That’s hard to overcome.”
Needham made a noise of dismissal. “The other was preposterous. No one believes it anyway.”
Oliver grinned, and Needham paled just a bit. “Do you think so?”
“I know so. I am highly regarded in Society. No one will believe you, just as no one believed that I knew about the dead bodies.”
“Ah. So you were aware that your assistants were killing people to provide bodies to you for autopsies.”
“Of course. How else was I supposed to get them? The Resurrectionists couldn’t provide me with enough, and I was in competition with other physicians. That wasn’t acceptable. I needed a steady supply. People were relying on me to teach them. They were coming to me because I am the best, and they wanted to learn from the best. It was a necessity. Besides, those people were nobodies. They didn’t matter.”
They didn’t matter?
