Page 54 of The Remarkable Myth of a Nameless Lady
Jacob shook his head. “You do not get to speak of them like that, Mother. You are the one who did wrong here, not them. You took everything from them, and yet you wail about the threat on your doorstep. Do you ever stop to think thatyouwere the one who brought that threat here?”
“They did not deserve it!” the Duchess screamed.
“That was not for you to decide,” he snapped in reply.
“I am English. Of course it was for me to decide. Your father would never have done it without a little coaxing and look what it bought for you. You are a duke. An English duke. Your brother is a lord. An English lord. You ought to be grateful instead of shouting at me with such vulgarity.” Her body shook with rage, no doubt pent up after all these years of keeping such a torrid secret.
“How can I be grateful, knowing where it all came from?” Jacob gaped in disbelief.
“Your brother does not mind.”
“Does Owen know of this?”
The Duchess withdrew into herself. “No… but, if he did, he would understand.”
“Would he, now? We are speaking of the same man, are we not? Owen believes himself to be as Irish as the stable-hands, and the farmers, and the tenants, and the cooks, and the maids, and the—”
“Enough!” the Duchess barked. “Owen isnotIrish, nor will he ever be.”
“Nor is he the Duke here,” Jacob reminded her coldly. “Once I have dealt with more immediate business, regarding the ball tomorrow, I will see what I can do to make reparations for your actions. If that means paying Mr. Price the sum he was truly owed, then so be it. I cannot give this title and these lands back, but I can certainly make the person it was taken from comfortable.”
Just then, the door flew open and Owen exploded into the room. “You will do no such thing, Jacob. You have no right!”
“I have every right,” Jacob replied automatically, ignoring the fright that Owen had given him, entering so abruptly.
“Mr. Price is no leader. Mother is right—he would have brought this house to ruin and embarrassed this nation, and our family. I do not like the manner in which it came into our hands, but it is ours now, and we must seek to unify Ireland with the rest of Britain. Mr. Price would have resisted that. He would have fought it,” Owen raged.
Jacob shook his head. “I cannot believe I am hearing this, fromyouof all people. You, who hates that land has been taken from the Irish and given to the English. You, who think you are Irish.”
“I know what Ireland needs. It needs men of substance and intelligence, who understand how to make their lands flourish, not drunken miscreants like Mr. Price,” Owen retorted. “Or men such as yourself, who have no idea how this nation works, or these lands.”
Jacob held his ground. “Iwillmake reparations to Mr. Price for what was taken from him.”
“You will not. Again, you have no right!” Owen spat.
“I am the Duke. If I do not have the right, then who does?” Jacob fired back.
The Duchess went as white as a sheet. “Owen, do not. I beg of you.”
“Do not what?” Jacob frowned.
“I am the only one with any right to these lands and titles.” Owen’s voice turned eerily calm, a small smirk turning up the corners of his lips.
“Owen, please,” the Duchess begged.
“What are you talking about?” Jacob looked to his mother and brother, as a cold and stabbing shiver crept up the nerves of his spine.
Owen’s smirk widened into an icy grin. “You are not our father’s son.”
“Owen, no!” the Duchess yelped, as though wounded.
“What nonsense is this?” Jacob remarked. “Another attempt to defy me, or to denigrate me?”
Owen shook his head. “No. It is simply the truth. You are not my father’s son. You are not the rightful heir. I only discovered it a few years ago, after hearing Mother and Father discuss it. I stayed quiet, for your sake. I thought you would never return here permanently, so it did not matter to me.” He scowled with pure venom in his eyes. “But then, you just had to come back and ruin everything. So, it only seems right that I tell you the truth, before you take any more steps to destroy what I have built.”
Jacob felt as though the ground beneath his chair was churning, ready to swallow him up. “Mother? That is not true, is it? Tell me it is not.”
“Why do you think you were sent away in the first place?” Owen continued, ignoring his desperate mother. “My father suspected you were not his, but he did not want to punish you for our mother’s actions. He vowed to treat you as his own, but he could not have you near, in case you found out, or he treated you differently without realizing.”
