London, December 1821
The deafening crack of ice breaking was like a gunshot. It halted Charles Humphrey, the seventh Earl of Lonsdale, dead in his tracks. He’d been racing across the frozen Thames, twilight bleeding over the wintry landscape ahead of him, creating eerie shadows that led to the figure just beyond his reach.
“Stop!” Charles shouted. Pain and rage filled him to the point that nothing else existed within him. He was a beast driven with one purpose: to kill the man he pursued.
His own brother.
But the sound of breaking ice was all around him now, echoing across the Thames. The man ahead of him stopped, skidding briefly along the ice. Charles did the same, listening for another warning sound, but he could see no obvious cracks in the surface.
“Not another step, brother,” the man warned, his voice firm and cold.
The rage that had momentarily been pushed aside by the threat of breaking ice now came roaring back. His fingers curled into fists.
“Brother? You dare call me that? You took everything from me. She was my world.” The fury inside him fell like a black curtain over his vision. He dared not close his eyes. If he did he would see her, his love, dying in his arms, and it would weaken him. His anger was his only strength now.
“It’s no less than you deserve. You took my world from me,” his brother practically growled. “You and your father destroyed my life.”
“He was your father too,” Charles hissed. “He was trying to save you.”
“He left me to save myself! You are a disgrace.”
Charles’s fury was just barely controlled. “I’ve never had a problem with the man I am, but you? You are a murderer. If we’re listing sins, yours will come first.” Charles took another step toward him.
“Murderer? How dare you—”
Crack! The ice broke, and his brother cried out and plunged into the icy depths below.
“No!” Charles rushed toward the hand sticking up from the break in the ice, and like a damned fool, he shot down into the water as well.
Darkness, ice, and cold enveloped him. He struggled as he saw another figure in the murky water. He reached for him, his fingers brushing the tip of the man’s shoulder, but the current was too strong. They were going to die. Every nightmare he’d ever had since university was coming true. This was going to be the end.
At least then he would be with her, his darling wife.
The man ahead of him choked, his pale face contorting as he drew in a lungful of water.
He should have always known it would end like this. Death in the dark for both of them. Only this time, he’d killed his own brother and his wife, because the past wouldn’t let go of him.
Perhaps he had been the villain of this story all along…