After the Abduction Read Online Free PDF Page B

painted by an adoring wife and displayed in glass cases. She’d noticed no such items in the hall they’d passed through, either. It was stark and purely male, a bachelor’s temple.
    “Only Sebastian’s father and I knew that my sister Ophelia had really abandoned her son and husband,” Mr. Pryce interjected. He set his cup back on the saucer, rattling it. “She vanished, and all attempts to find her were fruitless. So none of us knew of Morgan until sixteen years ago when Ophelia summoned me to Geneva, where she’d been living.”

    Lord Templemore gulped some tea as if he wished it were something stronger, then set down his cup with an expression of distaste. “By then, Morgan and I were thirteen. Penniless and dying of consumption, my mother worried about what would happen to him. She begged my uncle to see that Morgan received the advantages of his birth. Needless to say, Uncle Lew didn’t question her tale—one look at Morgan and he knew she spoke the truth.”
    “And I thought my background was odd,” Griff muttered under his breath.
    “How do we know that you speak the truth?” Juliet burst out. “There’s no corroboration in Debrett’s —and you know that. You can claim whatever you like. How do we know you and your uncle haven’t concocted this tale of an identical twin?”
    “I beg your pardon, I would never—” Mr. Pryce began to protest.
    “Juliet,” Griff interrupted, “the runner already gave us accounts of both men in separate places at the same time—Morgan serving in the navy and Lord Templemore running this estate. I assure you, no man can run an estate for years from a ship.”
    He had a point, and yet…“Why doesn’t anybody know of the twins? If this ‘twin’ was brought back to England after his mother died—”
    “He wasn’t,” Mr. Pryce explained. “Sebastian’s father and I had Morgan schooled abroad. When he came of age, we purchased him a commission in the navy and he went to war. And stayed out of England.”
    “He’d already taken Mother’s maiden name, so they claimed he was Father’s ward. That’s all they told me, too.” Anger now tinged Lord Templemore’s voice. “Since I rarely left the estate and Morgan served on a succession of ships, they figured they could easily keep us apart andthe connection between us hidden. Morgan knew he had a brother because our mother told him, but I didn’t know anything.”
    “That sounds very unfair,” Juliet said softly.
    His startled gaze swung to her. “I thought so.”
    His bald admission tugged at her foolishly tender heart. Especially when she glimpsed the vulnerability in his eyes.
    Then she frowned. Oh, no, not this time. Never again would she let him play on her feelings, so he could slide under her guard and twist in the knife.
    “We did what we considered best, Sebastian,” Mr. Pryce protested. “We didn’t want any trouble when it came time for you to inherit. The midwife was gone, and no one could swear you were the firstborn. Best not to have Morgan around at all to cause trouble when you ascended to the title.”
    Lord Templemore dragged his gaze from her. “Then it’s a pity your attempts to avoid trouble didn’t stretch to keeping Father alive.” Despite his flip words, grief lingered in the bitter tone, the hand that convulsively squeezed the India rubber, as if movement distracted him from pain.
    Mr. Pryce sighed. “Your father always did whatever he liked.”
    “True.” Lord Templemore rose, went to a side table where sat a decanter and some glasses, and poured himself some dark and intense fluid, probably brandy. He swallowed a mouthful, then stood staring into the glass.
    Juliet had to fight a silly urge to leap from her chair and comfort him. She’d heard about his ne’er-do-well father—who’d died in a duel over Lady Throwley, the last in a series of married women, opera dancers, and demireps the old baron had taken up with. Leaving his son to suffer the scandal.
    Her