Chapter 54
WHEN THE INCREDULOUS REACTIONS SETTLED DOWN, the questions began to fly.
Sebastian listened with only half an ear as Giles repeated his story and Pierre filled in a few loose ends, mainly that Cecil hadn’t just shown Juliette how she could trick Denton into marriage.
He’d also promised her there would be a nice title involved eventually.
He’d been that sure that Douglas would disown Sebastian because of the duel.
And it was that promise that had won him Juliette’s cooperation, part of the plan he hadn’t shared with his son.
Giles made no excuses for his father, just told his audience exactly what he’d told Sebastian.
He had done one last thing for Cecil, though.
He’d sent him word to warn him that he was coming home to put an end to both his and Sebastian’s long exile.
Not surprisingly, Cecil had left England himself rather than face the condemnation of his peers for what he had set in motion.
Sebastian was annoyed at how Giles’s mere presence was miraculously ending long estrangements.
“Douglas and Abigail had already made up,” Margaret said beside him.
Was she reading his mind now? She’d been holding his hand under the table, or rather, he’d been holding hers. He just wanted to get out of there with her. He’d done what he came there to do. Watching Giles be so easily forgiven and welcomed home was turning his stomach.
“I convinced your father to stop punishing himself,” Margaret continued, as if he knew what she was talking about.
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what he’s been doing all these years, you know.
He deliberately cut himself off from the two people who would have consoled him.
Well, it doesn’t sound as if Cecil would have consoled him a’tall, but—” And then she gasped, because she’d been listening to Giles with half an ear, too. “A son! I have a nephew?”
She started to cry in joy. Sebastian rolled his eyes but dragged her chair closer so he could put an arm around her. She wasn’t the only one crying. So was Abigail. And Douglas hadn’t stopped smiling. Bloody hell, he had to get out of there before some of that good cheer turned in his direction.
He stood up to leave and told Margaret, “Let’s go.”
She looked up at him in confusion. “You’re joking, right?”
“Not even close.” “But—oh, dear,” she guessed. “You haven’t forgiven Giles yet, have you?”
“Was I supposed to?”
“Well—yes.” She yanked him back down to his seat. “You don’t blame your brother for being tricked. How is Giles any different, when what he did he did out of love and loyalty for his father?”
“Denton’s only fault was having a pretty face that Juliette fell in love with. He’s suffered just as much as I have all these years and saw no way out of it. While Giles hasn’t suffered at all and could have come home at any time to put an end to all this.”
She frowned. “This isn’t about Giles, is it?”
“Don’t press it, Maggie.”
“Of course I will,” she retorted. “I’m your wife now and I will not tolerate your being unhappy.”
He stared at her and then he burst out laughing. God love her, she was serious. And priceless. He didn’t deserve her, but she was his lifeline to happiness and he was going to hold tight to it.
He stood up again, lifted her up, and kissed her. “We can discuss this at home.”
“But this is your home.”
“Not anymore. And shh, it’s all right, Maggie, really. Nothing else matters now that I have you.”
She tenderly cupped his cheek. “You’re going to make me cry, saying things like that.”
“As long as you do it with a smile, I suppose I can tolerate a few tears,” he replied dryly.
“Is something wrong?” Douglas asked behind them.
Sebastian stiffened. “No. Maggie and I were just leaving.”
“Why?”
Sebastian closed his eyes. Just a few more seconds, and he wouldn’t have had to deal with this.
“Because this,” he waved a hand toward Giles, “changes nothing.”
“I agree,” Douglas surprised him by saying.
“I was already displeased with Cecil back then for his weakness and lack of restraint. He was gambling with money he didn’t have anymore.
He’d already lost everything. I took the deed to his home with the hope that it would make him step back and realize what he was doing and stop it.
Of course I would have helped him one more time, if he’d come to me and told me his life was in danger.
But Giles was right. I sensed he’d begun to resent me, resent that I had so much more than he did.
I’m not surprised he’d rather trick me into canceling his debt than simply ask for my help again.
But I never dreamed that he could perpetrate something this destructive.
I had ended our friendship when he came here after Giles’s supposed death to force even more guilt on me, as if I wasn’t already carrying enough.
I never did quite understand how he had the gall to do that, but you’ve cleared up the mystery. You don’t take any credit for that?”
“For what? Bringing Giles back from the dead? He could have done that. For getting the shackle off of Denton’s neck? He could have done that.”
“But neither of them would have. It took you to end this nightmare.”
“So I’m the hero? Funny, it doesn’t feel that way, Father. Still feels like I’m the dead son.”
He said it lightly, but the pain was still there and rising fast to choke him. He gripped Margaret’s hand and walked away with her. She was trying to stop him, but nothing could. He had to get out of there....
“Sebastian!”
That tone again that had always worked, and it still did. He stopped, but he didn’t turn around.
“You never gave me an opportunity to say this,” Douglas continued. “You still aren’t, but I’m not letting you walk out of here again without hearing it.”
“Don’t,” Sebastian whispered.
Douglas didn’t hear him. “What was said that day, my rage, was for your pain. Your pain. I never meant it. Cecil had been wrong in that, when he promised Juliette that the husband she wanted would end up being my only heir. He thought he knew me so well that that would be my reaction, and while it did happen, it wasn’t for the reason he assumed.
I would have corrected that before the day was done, if I could have found you. But you’d left immediately.”
Sebastian dropped his head back, stared at the ceiling. Grasp the lie and—no, it would grow like a canker between them and never let go. There was no resolution to this. Giles had returned from the dead. Sebastian hadn’t.
He said nothing. The room had grown quiet waiting for his reply, but anything he said would rip him apart.
“I told you he wouldn’t believe me, Maggie,” Douglas said.
“Yes, you did,” she replied, then poked Sebastian in the ribs. “Are you listening, you dratted man? Your father told me this last week, when Giles was still dead.”
“Cor!” Timothy exclaimed from across the room. “He’s your father? But he’s not the man I spoke to in the stable, who said his son was dead.”
Sebastian turned incredulously to the boy to catch his furious blush. John came up behind Timothy and gently yanked a lock of his hair.
“No more reconnaissance for you, my lad,” John said.
“It was just one mistake!” Timothy complained.
“But a whopper.”
“Have you figured it out yet?” Margaret asked sternly beside Sebastian.
“That I let assumptions cripple me and never did anything about it?”
“Sort of what happened to Giles, eh?”
“Leave that blighter out of this.”
She sighed. “One step at a time, I suppose. But if you don’t hug your father and forgive him right now, I may have to divorce you after all.”
“You lost that chance, m’dear.”
“Don’t lose yours.”
He glanced at his father. Douglas was expressionless now, guarded, afraid to say anything else that might tip the scale the wrong way. God, he’d done that to him with the blasted shell he’d erected for his emotions, the shell that had just been cracked.
“I’ve missed you,” he said simply.
Douglas’s expression crumbled. He put his arms around Sebastian and hugged him hard. “Welcome home, son.”
Such simple words, and years of pain were washed away. The moisture gathered, uncontrollable, and then he caught sight of his ex-friend over his father’s shoulder, smiling happily at him.
“Giles, I’m going to kill you again,” he said, though without heat.
Giles grinned cheekily. “How many times have you said that now? You know you’re glad to have me back.”
Denton came up and hugged Sebastian as well. “It’s good to have you back. And I’ll help you kill the blighter.”
Sebastian chuckled. “It’s over. Get on with your life. Find a nice girl to marry this time—and no, you can’t have Maggie. I’m keeping her.”
Margaret beamed at them, bursting with pride for her part in bringing this family back together. Why, if she hadn’t thought Douglas’s life was in danger and listened to Abigail’s urgings, she never would have tried to hire the notorious Raven—and ended up finding love instead.
“So you’re really home?” she asked her husband a while later.
She had dragged him up to the balcony his mother had so enjoyed, stood there with him at her back, his arms around her as they watched winter waves breaking on the coast. It was chilly, but he offered enough heat for them both.
“I was home the moment you told me you loved me, Maggie. My home is wherever you are.”
She turned around to hug him. “I’m glad my sister found some happiness with Giles, however briefly. I just wish she had trusted me enough to tell me.”
“He probably infected her with his fears that you might tell someone.”
She looked up at him. “Not everyone can be like you.”
He raised a brow. “Like me?” “Spitting in the eye of death.”
He snorted. “It’s easy to be courageous when you don’t have anything to live for. Now that I do, I’m going to be a veritable coward.”
She chuckled. “Rubbish. But you have forgiven Giles, right? He’s the father of my nephew. I expect to see a lot of him, often.”
He sighed. “I’ll tolerate him, but only because he named his son after me.”
“Did he? And what shall we name our son?”
“Are you—?”
“No, but I want to be.”
“Good God, Maggie,” he said and surprised her by picking her up in his arms. “You shouldn’t say things like that right before dinner, not if you want to eat anytime soon.”
She laughed as he carried her off to her old bedroom, which had been his old bedroom. Rather appropriate that it was now theirs.