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“He was dashed on the rocks at the foot of Dartmouth Cliffs”

Courtney tensed, and Slayde anticipated her next question even as she uttered it “Was he … alone?”

“If you mean, was he pushed, no one knows There were no witnesses” Unconsciously, Slayde tightened his areneration of Huntleys has endured bloodshed We’ve also enjoyed a sizable, ever-increasing fortune So, according to those who believe in myths, the curse has come to pass”

“But two days ago, you turned the black diamond over to that despicable pirate, so the curse should end for you”

“Should it? Not when the true curse is the hatred spawned generations ago and furthered by the Bencrofts Trust me, Courtney, that hatred will never end”

“ ‘He with a black heart…’ ” she recited thoughtfully “The Bencrofts think of your great-grandfather as such for deceiving Geoffrey Bencroft and disappearing with the stone”

“Yes And they despise us because of it You see, from the moment the diaan dissipating Each successive loss they suffered heightened their resentment And there wasn’t a bloody th

ing we could do to alter that True, randfather cheated Geoffrey out of his half of the diamond’s worth But he also never sold the stone or reaped any actual profits, so after his death, we had no tangible fortune to share with the Bencrofts Further, we couldn’t turn the stone over to them even if ished to; we hadn’t a clue where it was hidden Consequently, we had no way of righting his wrong”

“And they didn’t accept that as truth?”

“Not for atheir hatred was quickly snuffed out Less than a fortnight after land that Geoffrey Bencroft had succumbed to a fever and died on his journey home From that moment on, the Bencrofts’ enmity intensified to the point of obsession—violent obsession Of course, at the heart of that obsession lay Geoffrey’s son, Chilton, the new Duke of Morland New to his title, but not his role,” Slayde clarified “Chilton had been the acting head of his fa the estates and businesses while his father gallivanted about the globe By the tist mes—and the Huntleys becan our name and thwart our business ventures It maddened him beyond reason when each atteains for us and more abject poverty for them

“One month before my parents’ deaths, Chilton’s mind snapped He and his only son Lawrence—the current Duke of Morland—forced their way into Pe back, enraged but willing—no, rateful—to leave the verbal assault to his father, while he himself tossed off a bottle of madeira and paced sullenly about the roo accusations about how my family had destroyed the Bencrofts and hoas time for him to even the score, to make the Huntleys pay The servants and I threw them out But I remember Chilton’s expression vividly: there was murder in his eyes”

“You think he—or they—killed your parents?”

“Just Chilton,” Slayde corrected “And, yes, I do—although the authorities were never able to prove it As for Lawrence, he’s too weak to kill anyone, although Lord knows, the intensity of his hatred is more than sufficient to incite e it—when he’s sober But he isn’t strong enough to wield the weapon; he’d sooner hire another to do it for him, someone like the bastard who seized your father’s ship Now that is the type of method Lawrence would employ In fact, the more I consider it, the more convinced I am that he is the orchestrator of that entire plot Toment of justice will have been served Generations of Bencrofts one unpunished, but the current Duke of Morland will pay—he and his pirate conspirator”

Slayde felt a tre, he jerked back to the present, staring down at her face and seeing tears gather in her eyes

“I’ the moisture as it trickled down her cheeks “I don’t knohat possessed hten you with my family history”