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He rounded on Edwin with a wild look on his face.

“It should have been me!” he bellowed, thumping his chest.

“I simply cannot believe that you tried to kill me, and then you sent a man to attack my innocent wife simply because of money.”

“No, no, no.” He wagged a finger in Edwin’s face. “I sent the man toknockyou out. However, for your wife, I simply wanted you to have a taste of what it feels like to lose someone you love. Margaret is the only woman I have ever truly loved, and having her taken away from me was worse than losing her to death.”

Edwin’s eyes widened in shock. “You wanted to kill my wife?”

Lord Wilbury chuckled. “I suppose I did not tell Skippy to kill her. I simply gave the instructions to scare you in every way possible.”

Edwin’s blood boiled.

The Earl shrugged. “If he took it far and decided to kill her, then you simply cannot blame me for that.”

Edwin ground his teeth so hard he thought they would crack. It took all his self-restraint not to lunge at the man and beat him to a pulp.

“You,” he growled. “I will make sure you do not get away with this.”

Lord Wilbury regarded him with a disdainful look before he barked out a laugh. “You are quite the jester, boy.”

He doubled over again from laughter.

“I am certain you will laugh even harder when I throw you in prison.”

“Prison?” Lord Wilbury snorted. “I think you’ve forgotten that you need evidence for that to happen. Do you truly think the court would take your words simply because you are a duke and I am an earl?”

Edwin sighed. “You are right, Lord Wilbury. I need evidence to throw you behind bars for good.”

Lord Wilbury shrugged, a triumphant smile on his face. “I know this must hurt you greatly. Now you know how I felt when you took Margaret from me.”

Edwin chuckled in satisfaction. If only the Earl knew.

“Now, I would love to stand here and continue to taunt you. However, I have other pressing matters to attend to.”

With that, Lord Wilbury turned on his heels and walked back to his house.

Edwin smiled. He was definitely going to enjoy this next part.

“Wilbury…” The Earl stopped and turned around. “What if I told you that you will be leaving with the constables right now.”

Lord Wilbury sighed and rolled his eyes. “Edwin, truly. You need to admit that I have won. Now, go home and spend the rest of the day with your wife—or whatever is left of her.” He chuckled.

Edwin took a deliberate step towards the older man. “What if I told you that I caught the man you sent to attack my wife?”

Lord Wilbury’s face paled with shock.

Edwin smiled in satisfaction. “It may interest you even more to know that your boy, Skippy, is now with the constables and iseagerto confess.”

“Uh… that does not bother me.” Lord Wilbury shrugged. “All I have to do is deny Skippy’s claims and the constables will let me go. Who would they believe—some scoundrel who is probably a known criminal, or me, a renowned businessman and an earl? Even you are not powerful enough to get me imprisoned over that.”

Edwin deliberately schooled his features. “I suppose you are right, Lord Wilbury.”

“I know,” the Earl declared proudly. “I have given this a lot of thought before I did it.”

“Then you must know that I have thought of that as well. I knew you would simply deny all the things you have done,” Edwin said as he strode to his carriage. “And that is why I came with”—he yanked the carriage door open—“the constables.”

Two constables climbed out of the carriage.