Willoughby 03 - A Rogue's Deadly Redemption (17 page)

“Why? What was I doing?” He winced as he asked it, as though afraid of her response.

“Something to do with those men, I imagine. But you never told me anything, so I don’t know what.” She centered her breathing until she could focus again. “We should continue searching. They are waiting for whatever it is you’re supposed to provide them.”

At her words, Robert shifted his body away from her.

“Did you find something?” she asked.

He walked over to the desk, picked up the sketches of her. Her heart gave a flip. What did it mean that Robert had drawn those? That he’d spent so much time drawing her?

Had he drawn Cordelia?

The ugly thought refused to leave, and Lily stepped toward the desk. “Can I see the books?” She shouldn’t care. She shouldn’t want to know.

Robert wrapped his hands around them. “To see your sketches?”

She nodded, ignoring the white lie. But he didn’t hand them over. Instead he held them closer.

“Lily, there is something I should—”

A slamming door cut off his words.

“Lily! Where in blazes are you?”

Lily groaned.

“Adam.”

Robert’s fingers dug into the books. “Adam? Who is that?”

Lily looked slightly tortured. “I am sorry—”

Suddenly, a man burst into the room. Tall, blond, furious. His gaze narrowed onto Lily.

“What in hell are you doing here?”

Robert slammed the book down. “You will not speak to her that way in her own home.”

Edwin followed in. Robert held a hand to stop him. Edwin stayed, but crossed his arms and positioned himself a few feet away.

The man, Adam, gave him a withering stare. “You stay out of this.” He turned to Lily. “You left.”

“Now, Adam—”

“Don’t pull that tone with me. Whatever shape you were in, whatever happened was enough for Blythe to send for me and Ravensdale at the House to discuss it. At the bloody House, Lily. Do you realize the tongues that will stir?” He took in a deep breath as though to calm himself.

Anger prickled Robert’s skin like needles. He came around the desk and stood next to Lily. “I think you should leave.” His tone was flat.

Lily put a hand on his chest. “Robert, this is my brother.”

A ripple of relief rolled through him. Robert watched as Adam’s knowing gaze followed Lily’s hand, then lifted to match measuring stares with Robert. “Then he should remove himself until he can speak in a more civil tone to you in your own home.”

“
My
home is her home,” Adam replied. “She left this one.”

“Oh dear lord, not again.”

The voice was a female, not Lily’s. Robert tore his gaze from Adam’s to see the doorway filled yet again, this time by two strikingly different, beautiful women and one imposing man who loomed, ready to fight the cavalry.

“Oh, lovely. The cavalry is here,” Lily muttered loud enough for him to hear, reading his thoughts.

The troupe moved into the room as one, coming to flank Adam’s sides. One woman, blond, petite and with fire in her eyes, stepped closer to Lily and put her hands on her shoulders.

“I should smack you soundly,” she said. “Do not leave like that. You didn’t even leave a note.” The accusation lost its might when she pulled Lily into a hug. As she stepped away, she shot a glare in Robert’s direction.

Family relations had not been his strong suit, it would seem. Shocking.

The other woman, tall with a head of dark curls and a presence like a whirlwind, strode up to Lily and pulled her into a hug. “I’m emotional. Don’t do that to me. If you make me cry, I will never forgive you.”

“Neither would I,” Adam added.

Robert studied the lone man who had yet to say a word. He stood in stony silence, the flat line of his mouth and the unblinking stare a solid indication that his opinion was no better.

“I’m Robert.” With that, all gazes turned to him. “I realize you know this. But I do not know you.”

Stone Man frowned. “What is this nonsense?”

“It’s true,” Lily said. “Robert was in an accident. He doesn’t recall his memories.”

The man looked down at the blonde. “Did you tell me this?”

She patted his hand. “Yes, Michael. But in your defense, you were knee deep in ledgers at the time.”

“That is why I’m here,” Lily added. “He needs help.”

Adam looked at the rest. “This is what required us leaving Parliament? Not, mind you, that today’s topics were scintillating, but that is beside the point.”

Stone Man grunted. “It was bloody boring, Merewood, and you know it.”

“Your sister was taken,” the blonde said in exasperation.

“But she’s right here.” Adam gestured to Lily.

“Oh for God’s sake. Earlier. She said something about thugs taking her, and it has something to do with him.” Her finger pointed right at Robert, and with it, the full attention of the room’s occupants.

“What is this?” Adam stepped closer. “Lily, what happened? Are you hurt?”

“Do I appear hurt?”

“No.” Adam lifted his hands. “But that doesn’t matter.” Lily raised her hands in irritation, but he ignored her. “You’re coming home. We’ll discuss it there.”

Lily stepped back, her back pressing against Robert. Without thinking—and had he had any of his faculties, he might have realized that it wouldn’t be wise—Robert curved his arm around her waist and towed her closer.

The room went silent.

“It’s time someone explained what’s going on here.” Her brother’s tone was as hard edged as a rock.

Lily pulled away from Robert’s arm, and he felt the loss immediately. “Fine.”

“No.” He jabbed a pointy finger at Robert. “He will.”

“But he doesn’t remember what to tell you.”

“Lily, it’s fine,” Robert said. “I’ll talk with your brother.”

Before she could protest further, the women whisked her to the corridor and Robert was left in the room with both men. Their stances suggested they were ready for battle, legs wide, arms crossed, determined glares.

Robert spotted Edwin and dismissed him with a nod, hoping he would understand that he wanted Edwin to watch over Lily. Be certain her family didn’t have a mind to whisk her away.

“Perhaps you might start with your names?” Robert turned to the brothers. He’d be damned if he would cower to these men, memory or not.

“Merewood. Lily’s brother.” He nodded his head at the other man. “Ravensdale.”

“Also Lily’s brother,” Ravensdale added.

Robert felt the need for a drink. “You are her brothers. Family protects one another. I understand. I don’t need the show.” Something inside of him pinched, though he couldn’t for the life of him understand why.

“I want to know what bloody game you’re playing, Melrose. You’ve done enough damage to her, don’t you think? Played with her emotions long enough? What was that display?”

“It wasn’t a display. I love your sister.”

“You bastard.” His words held a note of resignation, and Adam shook his head.

“Not quite the response I expected.”

“You can’t love her now any more than you did before this supposed illness.”

“What about what Blythe said? Something about men taking Lily? And you?” Ravensdale added.

The room was charged with their aggression and Robert knew it was a matter of manners that kept them from getting physical. He could see the anger, the disgust in their faces.

The last thing he needed to do was tell them about the copperplates or tell them what he knew about his past. Not until he had made a plan, not until he knew how to fix it.

Not until he knew that whatever happened, he wouldn’t lose Lily.

“I demand an answer,” Adam said, his impatience clear.

“What has he done now?”

Robert turned at the booming male voice. His body tensed at the sight of the man striding toward him with an angry purpose. The flare of anger inside startled him.

“Another brother, I presume?” Robert addressed this to Adam. How many siblings did this woman have? And why did he have such a negative reaction to him?

“Not mine. Yours.” The ‘you idiot’ was implied.

His brother. The other one.

Robert looked at the newcomer. Older than him, by a good measure.

His brother. The man didn’t stop, instead reached a hand out to Robert’s shirt and hauled him up. “You bloody bastard, I wish I could kill you!”

Up close and personal, Robert could see the ravaged lines around eyes bruised with grief. Something pinged in his head, like a string that had snapped from its violin. “Marcus.”

He knew his name. How had he known his name?

“He’s dead because of you.”

“Who is dead?” Adam asked.

“Cary.” Marcus snapped the word out. “He was murdered on the street.” Gasps erupted from the other people in the room. “This has something to do with you, Robert. What the hell have you done? You will tell me everything you know, or by God I will pummel you straight into hell, where you deserve to be.”

The anger this man projected, the vision of Cary lying on the ground… “There isn’t much I can tell you.”

“You damn well will tell me.”

Robert held a hand up. Images flailed with a violent shove in his head, shifted with no more clarity than shadows skirting the edges of moonlight. “I mean, I don’t
know
.”

“Like hell you don’t.”

Did Robert really have to explain this again?

“My sister believes he has lost his memory.”

Marcus stepped forward. “You’ve
what
? Are you going to stand there and make up such a pathetic excuse?”

“It’s true. I don’t remember you either.” His words inflamed his brother but Robert was distracted by the pulse that had begun to pummel his head.

“As much as I wish differently, our blood runs the same.”

“God help me if mine runs as cold.” Where had that sarcasm come from? “Blast it, I’m sorry.” Why couldn’t he stop the words that leapt out of his mouth? He felt compelled to sharpen his words with this man, and he had no idea why.

His brother curled his lip. “You are pathetic, Robert. You don’t even care that our brother is dead.”

“I do care,” he argued but it was hollow, words without the punch of grief that should accompany them.

“Then you do remember.”

“No, I don’t.”

“You can’t have it both ways, you bloody jackass. Is everything a game to you?”

“I’m not playing a bloody game!” Robert yelled. He was tired of the insinuations and the distrust. He knew he had no right to be. He was a bastard. He got it.

But damn it, that
wasn’t
him anymore. He refused to be that man. He refused to believe he’d be that man again.

“I can tell you what I do know. The same men that attacked Cary attacked me and took me somewhere else. It was a threat. I owed them something, and they wanted it.”

“Where did they take you? Who are they?”

“I don’t know.”

“You liar—”

“I don’t. But Lily might know where we were.”

“Lily was
taken?
” Adam’s roar filled the room.

Robert’s head began to throb, in waves that wrapped around his skull. Flashes of something—blurred images, garbled voices, ran through his head. Nothing he could make out, nothing he could catch. It was all a jumble.

“Answer me!”

Robert’s temple began to throb, his vision grew blurry. Robert pressed his palm against his head. “Give me a minute. I just need a minute.”

If he could think, maybe he could bring the images back, make them clear.

“You never cease to sink below my expectations, do you?” Marcus said. “Cary is dead and you put your wife in danger. Does someone else need to die before you become a human being?”

“I will not let you hurt her again,” Adam warned.

The ping pong of their accusations and their anger flung around Robert. His body grew itchy, and the room shrunk around him, making him feel large and boxed in. The urge to leave lurched in his gut.

“Stop it!” Lily came roaring in the room, her sisters behind her. Her beautiful brown eyes were blazing with fury. “Can’t you see you’re hurting him?” She stopped at Robert’s side, laid her hand on his arm. “Are you all right?” Before he could answer, she turned to his brothers. “How dare you treat him this way?”

His older brother scowled. “I told you to leave him, didn’t I?”

The words felt like a punch in Robert’s gut.

He didn’t understand why but the realization that his brother had urged his wife to leave him stung.

“Unlike you, I refuse to abandon him when he needs help,” Lily shot back. “Whatever he’s done, it’s pointless to discuss it now. He can’t
remember
.” She looked at him. “Tell them.”

Warmth filled Robert at her resounding defense. And yet, guilt edged it, threatened to squash it.

He was lying to her.

She was defending his complete lack of faculties and he was withholding a piece of vital information. He was a forger. The words were on the tip of his tongue. Fury at himself, at his inability to be a better man, rumbled through him. He curled his fists.

Marcus saw Robert’s fist. “You plan on using that? Go ahead. Whatever it takes to show you for the liar you are. God, you are pathetic!” He pressed in, forcing Robert to dig in his position, tempting him toward violence that he wanted to aim at himself.

“All these years I did my best to protect you from Mother, to keep you away from her so she wouldn’t—” He stopped. “You only saw that
you
were ignored,” Marcus continued. “How no one
saw
you.”

Beside him, Lily sucked her breath in. But Robert didn’t blink. He matched his brother’s glare at eye level, his body lurching forward, ready for something he couldn’t understand. The impulse to goad his brother engulfed him.

Why
did
he want this confrontation?