The Last Time We Met - By Lily Lang Page 0,35

surface of the lake. Now, ten years later, William had grown up, but Jason could recall as though it had been yesterday the unguarded smile, the outstretched arms, the lisping voice calling, Wait for me, Jason! I want to come too!

“William,” said Jason, his voice faintly husky. “I see you survived your stay in Buckinghamshire.”

William did not seem to have heard him. He crossed the length of the Aubusson with long, purposeful strides, and as he came closer, the grimness of his mouth, the determination in his dark eyes, became clear.

“I might not have killed my uncle,” said William without preamble. “But I’m definitely going to kill you, and with pleasure.”

Too late, Jason realized the boy’s intention. He tried to sidestep the punch, but William was fast, and he was very, very angry, and the force of the blow sent Jason stumbling backwards against a bookcase.

Jason scowled up at the boy, wondering if the insolent puppy had taken up boxing at Eton. It seemed rather likely, for the blow had been both well-placed and powerful.

“I assumed you would be more grateful after what I’ve done for you,” he said, touching his jaw gingerly.

“I’ll thank you for saving me later,” William retorted. “That was for what you did to my sister, only I should have hit you harder.”

“What I did to your sister? What I did to your sister?” Jason pushed himself to his feet. He could feel his control slipping, but he didn’t care. Suddenly, ten years of suffering, of wanting and not having, was too much for him to endure.

“What about what your sister did to me?” He was shouting. He could not remember the last time he had raised his voice, but he could not seem to stop. “I was twenty-one, and she had your father throw me into the hulks for having the audacity to love her. God, what a fool I was! Do you know what the hulks are like, William? Do you know what it’s like to live without light, without food, without some shred of human kindness or decency? I nearly died there.”

To his horror, his voice trembled very faintly.

“What are you talking about?” William asked, the blood draining from his face.

Jason took a deep breath and tried to regain his composure.

“What’s the use?” he asked, wearily. He passed a hand over his face. “It’s over now. It was years ago, and she was very young. I survived.”

“No, what did you mean about Miranda asking our father to throw you into the hulks?”

Jason laughed bitterly. “You never heard the story? I suppose you were very young then. I made plans for us to run away together. On the night we were supposed to meet in the village, your father showed up instead with a constable. He told me she had changed her mind and had me arrested on trumped up charges of thievery. He said if I ever came back to Thornwood he would have me hung from a gibbet.”

The room was utterly silent. William stared at him, his thickly lashed black eyes, so like his sister’s, huge and unreadable in his darkly handsome face. “And you believed him? All these years? You believed Miranda changed her mind and had our father get rid of you instead of telling you herself?”

“It’s the truth,” said Jason bitterly. “Your father told me so himself.”

“He lied,” said William. “When she came to you this week, Miranda didn’t tell you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Miranda didn’t change her mind,” said William. “Our father didn’t find out about your plans from her. He found out because of me. I didn’t mean to, but Miranda had explained to me she was going. I suppose she couldn’t bear to let me think she had abandoned me. I was only six. I didn’t mean to tell him, but he found me crying because I didn’t think she would ever come back, and he got the truth out of me.” William fell silent for a moment, and Jason, remembering the old viscount, had no doubt Emmett Thornwood, damn his rotten black soul to hell, had beaten the truth out of the boy.

A long moment passed before William spoke again.

“Father wanted you out of the way, permanently,” he said. “He wanted to make sure you never came back, because he knew if you did, Miranda would try to go with you, at whatever cost to herself. He locked her up in her room for more than half a year and permitted her nothing but bread