Page 92 of Deceiving an Earl
“So, you’re intent on marrying Needham?”
Her hand dropped from the frivolous ornament. “Yes, of course.”
“Even after what Armbruster told you?”
Her head jerked up to find her son staring at her with an odd, focused expression. “What do you know about that?”
“He’s a bastard,” Philip hissed with more emotion than she’d seen from him since his father died. “And you’ll just ignore it and marry him anyway?”
“Philip.” She passed a weary hand over her eyes, tired of trying to explain herself when she knew that her explanations were weak. What she wanted to do was scream at Oliver and Philip that she was doing this for them. That she was saving them from public humiliation and ruin. But she couldn’t say that, so she kept her course.
“This is unbelievable,” Philip said. “Insanity at its best. The man’s true character has been revealed, and you insist on staying with him. He’s a bastard, Mother.”
“That’s enough!” Her voice whipped out, startling them both. She never yelled at him.
Philip shook his head. “I don’t understand you.”
He turned to leave the room just as the butler opened the door to announce that Sir Needham had arrived.
Philip sneered at William and brushed past him, knocking shoulders with him.
William grabbed Philip’s arm, stopping him mid-stride.
Ellen made a sound of alarm, but it was as if her feet were nailed to the floor.
They were face-to-face, nearly nose-to-nose.
“Show some respect, you miserable whelp.”
Philip’s face turned red with rage, and he yanked his arm from William’s hold. “Never lay a hand on me again, sir. Or there will be fisticuffs.”
Before Ellen could move, William cocked his hand back and punched Philip in the jaw. The boy reeled back, his hand going to his face, his eyes wide and shocked and filling with a rage that frightened Ellen.
“No,” she cried out, hurrying toward them.
Philip turned his gaze to her, and she instantly recognized her mistake. By not berating William she had let her son know that he came second to William. That was not true, of course, but it was what he saw.
“Go to the kitchen. Have cook put a slab of meat on that. The swelling will go down in no time.”
But Philip had already turned away from her, leaving her standing there helplessly.
William took her arm and led her back into the parlor. “That boy needs some manners beat into him.”
Ellen turned on him in a swirl of skirts. “Don’tevertouch him again,” she said through tight lips.
William grinned. “And what will you do? Nothing. You will do nothing, because I know your secret, and I won’t hesitate to tell everyone I know.”
Ellen’s stomach clenched, and she felt as if she were to be sick. But there was one thing she could do. She would separate the two, keep them apart, so William’s evil could not touch her son. After all, she’d spent his entire life protecting him, and she wouldn’t stop now.
“Is it true?” she whispered. “What they are saying about you? Did you kill those men so you could cut them up?”
William appeared surprised and then calculating. “How did you come by this information?”
She realized her error. She could not tell him that Oliver had been by to warn her. He’d told her never to speak to Oliver again.
William took a threatening step toward her. “Tell me how you found out.”
She had no choice but to throw Oliver to the wolf, in order to save herself. “Armbruster came by to warn me.”
