Page 16 of The Villain
“Of course I wondered,” she whispered, wracking her brain for some clue as to the reason for her uncle’s drinking. For the life of her, she could conjure nothing.
“The reason was hidden from you, naturally,” he replied, folding his arms over his chest and causing his coat to strain at the seams along his shoulders. “Poor, sweet Daphne, too innocent to know the truth.”
“And what truth is that?” she demanded, narrowing her eyes at him. “What did you do to my uncle to drive him into the bottom of the bottle?”
Adam laughed, the rough sound lacking humor. “When a man drinks like that, there is only one cause … the demons he runs from. I did nothing to your uncle to cause him to drink himself half to death. Guilt drove him to drink, which drove him to gamble, making it easy for me to take everything he ever owned.”
Her chest tightened, gripping her heart in a vise as she studied the cold-hearted man before her. Jaw clenched tight, eyes dark and lifeless, mouth a cruel snarl. Despite his rugged beauty, the disdain he felt for her family overshadowed it all.
“You purposely pushed him to gamble away his livelihood,” she accused.
He shrugged as if they spoke of the weather instead of his methodical destruction of Lord William Fairchild. “Was he not a man with a mind of his own, capable of standing up from the table and leaving?”
“Yes, but—”
“Your uncle was irresponsible with his property, gambling it away as carelessly as a child tosses a toy across his nursery,” he interjected. “If I am to blame for anything, it would be simply reminding him that after the pain he had inflicted upon others, he no longer had any reason to live.”
Shock rippled through her, swiftly giving way to outrage. Her spine snapped straight, her fists tightening until her fingernails bit into her palms.
“You bastard,” she rasped, her voice tortured from the grief tearing her up inside. “You … you …”
“Murderer?” he offered, remaining as stone-faced as he had since beginning this conversation. “No court would convict me. Perhaps your uncle knew I was right … he took his own life because his sins had made his existence worthless. The pain he felt the moment that bullet tore through his skull was nothing compared to the pain he’d inflicted upon someone else.”
Someone else? Could the person Uncle William had hurt be Adam? The man seemed a force of nature, like a mighty oak tree, unable to be bent by even the strongest winds. How on Earth could her uncle have hurt him? And if William had committed some wrong against Adam, what role had her father and brother played?
“Whatever he did, I am certain he regretted it,” she managed, her head beginning to pound again from the effort it took to understand what was happening. “He did not have to pay for it with his life.”
Coming close again—near enough that she could see the molten gold and green flecks swirling within his brown irises—he dropped his arms to his sides. She stiffened, but he only came closer, so close his lips brushed her cheek, his breath tickling her skin when he spoke.
“A life for a life,” he murmured. “His final debt … repaid in blood.”
She gasped, her eyes going wide. “A life for a life? Hekilledsomeone?”
Backing away from her, he turned and began walking back down the gallery. “Come.”
She flinched as if he’d doused her with a bucket of frigid water, but quickly recovered, trotting to catch up with him as they went back the way they’d come. “Will you not answer me?”
“That is the extent of what I wish to divulge to you at the moment,” he replied, his tone dry as if he’d grown bored with both the conversation and her.
“But you cannot leave it there,” she argued. “You cannot accuse my uncle of murder and then refuse to speak more on the matter.”
His eyes darted toward her, and he smirked. “The weight of my secret was a match for yours. Perhaps, if you wish to know more, you will not hold back when I ask you for something. You will get from me as much as you give, little dove. Remember that next time you wish to make demands of me.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but then swiftly snapped it shut. Arguing would clearly get her nowhere with him. He’d given her a piece of the puzzle, one she could think over further once she returned to her chamber. Perhaps some hint of her uncle’s misdeeds stared her in the face—she only needed to think harder. She did not want to believe any of the men in her family were capable of the sort of thing Adam had implied, but something told her there must be some truth here. From the moment she’d met Adam, he’d been forthright, even when he’d been cruel. He had looked her in the eye and admitted to purposely setting out to ruin her father, uncle, and brother. Why would he then lie about the reasons?
Whatever the case, shewouldknow the entire truth by the end of her thirty days here. She had come all this way and put her virtue on the line—leaving without answers would not be an option.
She followed him in silence, numbly inspecting the contents of each room—her glance sliding unseeingly over opulent sitting rooms, a sun room, more guest chambers than she could count, and a small dining room meant for intimate meals. Another, much larger dining area could be found off the main hall, with a table long enough to seat fifty.
“That will conclude our tour for today,” he announced once they’d come back to the corridor where her room was located. “There is still more to explore, but Dunnottar is too massive for you to see all in one day. I will see you back to your room.”
Nodding, she trailed him back down the hallway toward her chamber. As they paused before the door, she gazed further down the corridor and frowned. Now that it was more brightly lit, she noticed the hallway curved to the left, likely leading deeper into the palace.
“What’s down there?” she asked.
Adam followed her gaze, his expression growing even more shuttered as he shook his head. “That part of the palace is forbidden to you, Daphne. Do you understand? You may venture to any other place I have shown you except that wing of the castle. The moment you step foot in that corridor, I will eject you from the premises with nothing more than the clothing on your back and the horse you arrived on. Our agreement will become null and void, and you’ll receive nothing from me.”
The sudden harshness of his tone took her aback, and as she gazed toward the forbidden wing, a shiver rolled down her spine. What could possibly be down there that he did not wish for her to see? His private chambers? Something more nefarious?
