Demon of Mine by Ranae Rose Page B

inherited. As she spoke to her brother, her pretty face
was distorted by frustration. She was his junior by two years, but
she might as well have been his elder – the stern look she was
giving him was one a woman might show her little brother. “Murder!”
she hissed. “It is a serious charge, but money speaks, Damon. You
must avoid this trial, for your own sake and the
family’s.”
    He shook his head, and his dark,
glossy hair gleamed in the moonlight. “Indeed it does. But even a
Remington is not above the law. I have been spared spending the
days leading up to it in prison, but I must attend the
trial.”
    Lucinda compressed her mouth into a
tight line. “And if, God forbid, you are convicted? What then? Can
you imagine the scandal if they tried to hang you, or even to whip
you? The whole country would know our secret, and it would be the
end of us.”
    He shook his head. “I will not be
convicted. As you said only moments ago, money speaks. It has
already kept me out of prison easily enough.” Some of the tension
went out of his voice as he adopted a soothing tone. “It was easier
than it should have been to secure my freedom with the magistrate.
A few pounds and a promise not to leave my home until the trial was
all it took, really.”
    Lucinda dented her lower lip with a
surprisingly sharp-looking tooth. “Would that I could be so sure.”
She reached out and laid a hand on her brother’s arm, the air of
attempted authority draining out of her voice. “I am worried,
Damon. So worried. If there’s even the smallest chance that you
could be found guilty…” She lowered her gaze as she chewed her
lip.
    A moment of silence stretched between
them. After a little while, Lucinda looked up to meet Damon’s eyes
again. “Are you, Damon? Guilty, that is?”
    He snatched his arm away from her
touch, as if she were on fire. His eyes flickered with indignation
and something else – betrayal? “No! I’m not like…” His gaze
darkened, and he seemed to think better of whatever he’d been about
to say. “How could you even consider the possibility,
Lucinda?”
    Though she seemed embarrassed, she
didn’t lower her eyes. “You’re always having those strange midnight
escapades. You were gone that night, weren’t you?”
    His tone was flat. “I am gone every
night.”
    “ I thought that
perhaps…”
    “ I was not at the club when
Lord Griffith was killed. Nowhere near it, in fact. Whatever
happened to the man, I had nothing to do with it. I was already
here, in my own bed, by the time he was discovered lying still warm
in that alleyway at three in the morning. Would that I had someone
to vouch for that fact, but…”
    “ But you rode alone, as
always,” Lucinda said tersely, “and told no one where you were
going. Yes, Damon, I know you pride yourself on being the
consummate man of mystery.”
    The set of his shoulders was rigid.
“Have I any choice? No one in this family understands me. Not even
you, Lucy.”
    She sighed. “I am sorry. I should not
have asked.”
    He shook his head in dismissal. “Don’t
be sorry. I’ve already forgotten that you did.” He let his
shoulders drop just a little and chuckled wryly. “Would that Ares
could talk… He’s the only one who could testify that I was nowhere
near Green’s club.”
    Lucinda gave a small snort. “If your
horse could talk, I fear none of us would ever hear from you
again.”
    “ Of course you would.
Anyway, Lucy, you mustn’t fret over the trial. I’ll see that the
necessary persons are well paid to deliver the only true verdict –
innocence.” His tone was wry. “If I may take the liberty of calling
any Remington ‘innocent’.”
    Lucinda arched a brow. “You think too
much, brother.”
    “ You already know what I
would say if I had a will to disrupt the peace between
us.”
    She held his gaze in silence for
several moments before replying. “Good night, Damon. If I were
still a girl, I would pray that our money will be