Chapter 123

Temper hurtled through Layla like a rejuvenating blast of oxygen. You mean you wouldn’t have done it?

Of course I wouldn’t have done it. I’m not an unjust man. Your uncle gave you a home when you needed one, and I respect him for that because I doubt very much that he received much support from your aunt.’ Lucas studied her. But from certain things you have let slip quite without meaning to, I think your aunt should be burnt at the stake as a witch...and possibly your cousin with her.’

That cool rundown of her upbringing snuffed out Layla’s annoyance as though it had never been and provoked an involuntary laugh from her lips. ‘Oh...dear.’

But in one sense, you have done me a favour. Your position in your uncle’s family closely resembled William’s when my half-brother and I were children, and that has enabled me to see that William was often excluded, set apart from my parents and I by his birth and parentage and made to feel like an outsider, "he imparted grimly. It was wrong when tha