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“As you wish, Your Grace.”

As soon as the door closed behind Barnaby, she whirled on her feet and faced her brother, who was looking back at herstubbornly without an ounce of remorse for what he had just done.

“Colin Fitzroy!” she cried. “How could you do this to him?”

Her brother—whom she adored greatly—did not even bother to glance at Daniel. “Nothing he did not deserve,” he muttered.

“You will apologize,” she seethed. “Now.”

“The hell I will!”

The look on his face would have been comical if Evie had not been so angry with him and her husband was not sporting a bruise on his cheek and a cut lip.

“You will not swear in my presence!” she admonished him furiously.

“Andyouare going to pack your bags and return to Blackthorn Estateimmediately,” he shot back.

Evie stood back and folded her arms over her chest, glaring at him.

“In case you have not noticed,” she spat at him. “I ammarriednow. You cannot just make me leave with you!”

“And in caseyouhave not noticed,” he retorted. “I do not care whathedid. You are returning to Blackthorn Estate even if I have to haul you bodily all the way back!”

“You would not dare!”

“Watch me,” Colin challenged her, his blue-gray eyes stormy with anger that matched her own. “I will be expecting you tonight!”

With that, he stomped out of the study just as Barnaby appeared at the door with the ice and the towel she instructed him to bring. The poor butler did not even look the least bit fazed as Colin angrily strode past him.

Evie accepted the items from the butler and told Daniel to sit down as she tended to his injuries.

“Colin has gone too far this time!” she muttered angrily. “Why can he not just discuss this properly like a civilized gentleman?”

Daniel did not even wince as she held the ice to his face. She was certain that it must have hurt. That bruise looked rather ugly on his handsome features, and it broke her heart to see him injured.

“Colin is right,” he told her calmly, as if it was not his face that had just gotten mauled by her brute of a brother. “Evie, you deserve so much better than what I have to offer.”

She shook her head. “What are you saying? I do not?—”

Her words were cut off when he placed a finger on her lips.

“I should not have stolen away your right to decide who you wanted to marry,” he admitted. “Nor should I have prevented you from marrying a loving husband and becoming a mother to all the children you could possibly want.”

“Daniel!” she cried out, stomping her foot in frustration. “You are not making any sense. Did Colin hit youthathard?”

He laughed softly, mirthlessly. “I shall see who I need to blackmail to make sure we can get this marriage annulled. I am so sorry, Evie—more than you can ever possibly imagine.”

He grasped her wrist and gently moved the ice away from his face, before he stood up and walked out the door. He never even looked back at her.

If he did, he might have seen how her heart now lay shattered on the floor.

CHAPTER 26

Evie did not know how long she had been sitting there on the floor of Daniel’s study, wishing that he would come back. Hoping that this was nothing more than a horrible nightmare that she would soon wake up from.

Her numb hands still held onto the towel and ice he had gently pushed away before he left her.

When the door finally creaked open, the cold and the wetness had already seeped into her morning dress.