An Heir of Deception by Beverley Kendall Page B

God’s sake, she hasn’t seen her own twin in five years.”
    Eyes softened and voice gentled, Rutherford continued to speak. “And given the circumstances of her own birth, do you really believe she would callously subject her child to the same? She must have had a powerful reason to do what she did, and I for one intend to find out what it was. Charlotte would never intentionally set out to hurt you or her family. That I would stake my life on. She has a generous soul and an even bigger heart. And if you weren’t so filled with bitterness and this need to punish her, you’d see that.”
    Alex pivoted from his friend, dismissing his words with the sharp slice of an arm through the air while uttering a single vile epithet.
    The very last thing he wanted to hear was excuses for her unforgivable behavior. He hadn’t been keen to hear them from the liar herself and he was even less inclined to hear it from her doting brother. If she should suffer even a portion of the agony he’d suffered, that would be enough. Let her believe he had just enough vengefulness in him to take their son from her. Let her suffer the agonies of imagining that kind of loss. It couldn’t come close to the loss he himself had endured.
    “As I already said, this isn’t some vengeful attempt to make her pay,” he said, meeting Rutherford’s regard direct without blinking.
    Through narrowed eyes, the earl watched him in stifling silence, as if attempting to ferret out the truth with just one deliberate and probing look.
    “So you have no intention of separating my sister from her son?”
    “ My son.” He ground out the two words and it cost him everything to utter them with such restraint.
    Rutherford sank into the nearby armchair and with a heavy sigh, dropped his head into his hand before running it wearily through his hair. “You’re not thinking, man. There will be a scandal.”
    “Unless she returns to America, which I will not permit—at least not with my son—scandal is inevitable.” Alex had already resigned himself to the fact. He certainly wasn’t going to hide Nicholas like some shameful secret. He would claim him and damn Society.
    Would that scandal stopped at Charlotte’s doorstep and went no further, but scandal would play havoc on all their lives.
    Rutherford knew this too and didn’t speak for a good while, just regarded him, his expression a mixture of frustration, anger and pain. After too long under his friend’s scrutiny, Alex turned from him and walked to the window facing the grounds in the rear. A drink would come in handy right at that moment. The thought was fleeting enough not to rankle.
    “We have to do something.”
    “What precisely would you have us do?” Alex asked, shooting him a glance over his shoulder.
    “I don’t bloody know.” Rutherford all but growled his reply, his hand tunneling through his hair again. “But the situation won’t be helped if you’re intent on going to war with her over your son. You have to try to put your animosity aside. You have to forgive her.” From any other person it would have sounded like a plea, but from his friend it was all conviction.
    “What would you do in my place?” he asked in a toneless voice. “Imagine that Missy kept your children’s existence from you. What would you do?” Alex turned from the window to face Rutherford.
    Such a look came over his friend’s face, as if the thought unimaginable. And indeed it was for the love Rutherford shared with his wife made it so. Missy would never have kept his child from him. Alex hadn’t been fortunate enough to fall in love with a woman like her. Instead he poured all his emotions into a woman to whom loyalty was a word tossed about when referring to countries and allegiances.
    Rutherford’s eyebrows drew together. “I know my sister and so do you. There’s something else in play here. Something she’s not telling us.”
    Alex wisely said nothing about Charlotte offering to divulge her reasons