by Vella, Wendy
“Just James will do.”
“Maddie is wed now, she is not alone,” Max said. “So you could stay.”
“I have business that must be attended to and have no wish to stay here with your family.”
“Who is also your family,” James added.
“If that business concerns why you were trussed like a goose on that beach when Kate found you, then it’s my belief you’re better staying here,” Max said.
“And yet I do not take orders from you.” Rory’s words were cold.
“You will enjoy Christmas with us,” Cambridge interrupted, breaking the tension between the brothers. “We play games at which I excel and randomly select gifts—”
“Pardon?”
“You’ll understand more when you see it happening,” Cam said. “Trying to explain the rules makes us sound odd… which we are, but less odd when one is participating.”
Kate sat there, intercepting looks from her family. Wolf, she noted, was frowning. Her hand was still on Rory’s, and she wondered why there was this need inside her to support him. Why something about him tugged at her heart.
She wondered at his life before coming here. Wondered what he had suffered and how he’d lived. She knew Max had struggled to rise above his past; would Rory be the same?
Pride, she thought, looking at the tilt of his jaw. She believed that he’d lived by that alone for many years. Pride and survival; she just wasn’t sure how or what he had endured to make him the man he was today.
Chapter Eight
His heart had yet to settle back into his chest. He had more siblings. Another brother and three sisters. Rory’s instant response had been joy. He and Maddie were not alone. And then reality had returned. His life was in France, away from Max, not here. These people were his, not Rory’s, and their life vastly different from his.
“Max and I have been trying to find you for some time now. We sent an investigator to France, but they could find no sign of either you or your sister.”
He saw something of Maddie in the Duke, and there again in Emily.
They were not alone.
“I want or need no family.”
And yet he and Maddie had wanted that more than anything once. Wanted to be loved and supported when they’d had only each other for survival.
“And yet you have it,” Emily said, coming closer. She leaned down and kissed his cheek. “It is very nice to meet you, brother.”
He hated the weakness of longing as he smelled her soft scent. Another sister.
“I was once lost,” she whispered. “These people found me and gave me love and support. Gave me a reason to live. I would ask you to give us a chance now, Rory.”
“No.” He shook his head to confirm the words. “I cannot do as you ask. I must leave.”
“I find I like brothers very much,” Emily said with a gentle smile as she straightened. “I would dearly love another.”
“I cannot be that for you.”
He gripped Kate’s fingers harder. Her touch was an anchor that he needed, and that thought was enough to have him pulling his hand free. Rory relied on no one.
“Do you not want to be part of the family, then?” Kate asked him.
Her scent was in the air; he could pick it out among the others. What the hell was wrong with him? He cared nothing for people, and definitely not what a woman smelled like.
“I must go, I am weary.” He pushed upright with the last of his strength and made for the door without looking back.
“We are a family with a great capacity for love.”
“Go away, Kate.” He walked down the hallway and into the room he’d slept in, and she followed. “I want to be alone.” Of course she ignored him, as he’d known she would.
“Why do you not want to be part of them? When I found these people, I could not believe how lucky I was to have them as my family. It was like a warm blanket settling around my shoulders.”
“I don’t need a blanket, nor do I want one. You have been cosseted from birth, I have not—”
“You know nothing about me.”
He made himself turn to face her rather than fall onto the bed as his body urged him to do. She wore pale gold today and had a thick shawl of blue around her shoulders. Her hair was pulled loosely back in a knot, and a thick gold ribbon was tied around her head. Young, sweet, and beautiful enough that he wanted to hold her. He felt it again, that heavy weight in his chest. He stepped closer.
Rory knew instinctively that Kate Sinclair presented a great deal of trouble for him. He had to push her away. Stepping closer, the toes of his boots touched her slippers. She was nervous but didn’t back away. Foolish woman.
“I know you’ve slept in a bed from the day you were born and had food on your table. I know you never had to fight for the basic things a person needs in their life. You were always warm and loved, Kate. Just as I know you do not know what it is like to live on the streets when you could not go home.”
“Rory—”
“I know you’ve never stolen or hurt someone deliberately,” he continued, cutting off her words.
Her lovely eyes widened with sorrow and pity. Rory hated pity from anyone.
“I’m a bad person, Miss Sinclair, very bad, so stop trying to be nice to me. Stop trying to be my friend. I don’t want one, and definitely don’t want you, unless it’s to meet my needs.”
Her hand shot out so fast he didn’t see it, but he felt the sting from it on his cheek.
“That was vulgar and uncalled for.” Anger made her cheeks fill with color. “I know you’re hurting, just as I know your reaction to seeing your brother and now finding you have other siblings is unsettling you. But I won’t be insulted by you because of it.”
“Don’t do that again,” he growled, grabbing her wrist and tugging it hard enough so she fell against him. “Ever.” The kiss was swift and fierce and another mistake. Every time he kissed her, it increased his need for her.
He’d known her a day, and she was now a fire in his blood. Dangerous, he thought, extremely so, especially when coupled with the emotions seething inside him.
“Kate,” he sighed against her sweet lips as the fight left his body. “I know you saved me, just as I know what you’ve said is true. But I need you to back away from me now. I’m not good for you and will leave here as soon as I’m able.”
“Why?” That one word held so much emotion.
“Because this life, your life, is not for me. I am bad, you are good. Innocent and sweet. Naive, I would add to that.”
She could lure him close, as could those others with their promises of love and family if he let them. Releasing her, he stepped back. Rory needed no one. He must get back to France.
“You can’t know that.” Kate crossed her arms, and he knew it as a defensive gesture. “Can’t know if this life is for you unless you try it.”
“I have no room in my life for family, just as I have no room in my life for a woman like you. If you believe otherwise, you are fooling yourself.”
“I never asked you to have room in your life for me.”
“You would not be with me now in this room, alone, if you did not believe there could be something between us.”
“We barely know each other.” She backed away from him, and Rory told himself he was glad.
“I’ve seen the way you look at me—”
“No!” She backed further away.
“Don’t spin dreams around me, Kate. You’ll end up hurt, but I assure you I will not.”
“Why are you being mean to me?”
“Because I hurt him when I left, and now he trusts no one.”
Rory closed his eyes briefly before facing his brother, who had just walked into the room. Max’s expression was calm, Rory struggled to do the same.
Kate looked ready to weep, and he fought the need to apologize. She was nothing to him and never could be.
“Why is it so hard for either of you to understand that I do not want this.” He glared
at them.
“You would rather live alone than with a family who loves you?” Kate whispered.
“Yes.”
She turned away then and walked from the room.
“She is a kind and generous woman, I would ask you not to speak to her that way again, Rory.”
“I don’t take orders from you.”
“In this you do. I will not have her hurt because she has a kind heart and clearly feels something for you.”
Once, Max would have been yelling, but not now. He was calm and reasonable, and Rory hated him for it. He wanted him to yell, wanted to roar back at him, but his brother would not give him that satisfaction.
“I will leave, then you have no need to worry I will upset her again.”
Rory crushed the elation that Max’s words had created. Kate did not care for him, no one did.
“Very well, if that is your wish, I will not try and stop you from leaving, but only if you come to the castle for Christmas Day and the wedding,” Max said.
“What? Why would I come to the wedding of people I don’t know, and others I have no wish to spend time with?”
“James and I also wish for you to spend Christmas Day with us. The wedding will take place in the morning, then we will be together as a family. You have yet to meet Rose or Samantha, and it is unfair to them that you leave before doing so.”
“We are not family,” he gritted out. “I don’t take orders from you anymore. You lost that right long ago.”
“I understand that, but on this I will stand firm. You will stay, spend time with your family—”
“Maddie and hers are the only family I have or need.”
“And yet you will stay for this. If you do not, I will follow you when you leave.”
Rory would leave when his brother was sleeping. It would not be hard to do so. Today he had still been weak; tomorrow he would be stronger.
“I will have someone watching you, so if you try to leave, I shall know.”
“What? Why would you care now, when you never have!” The words exploded form him. “I want nothing to do with you or yours. I have no need of family, so you can cease this foolishness. I will leave, and you can go back to your life.”
“No.”
Just the one word, but Rory heard the force behind it. However, he was strong too, and equally determined.
He turned away from his brother.
“I wronged both you and Maddie, but I want to set that to rights now.”
“A few days will never right that,” Rory snarled, his voice raw with pain. “Nothing will change that.”
“Do you want to know why I left you?”
“No. I want you to leave me alone.” He made it to the bed. Suddenly he was ridiculously weary, and his arm burned.
There was silence behind him and then he heard the door closing softly, leaving him alone, as he had been for most of his life.
Chapter Nine
“Will you try apple bobbing, Kate?”
“I will not. What idiot would do such a thing in freezing conditions.” Kate looked at Wolf as she spoke. Her big brother walked beside her, and his wife Rose on the other side. She had a hand resting on her large belly.
“It’s my hope I don’t have this babe on Alice’s wedding day.”
“It will come when it comes, love,” Wolf said.
“Yes, I understand that, but it’s my wish Alice is spared that on her special day.” Rose, usually a placid woman for the most, had become testy lately, and the more she did the gentler Wolf was around her. Rose had told Kate yesterday that he made her want to gnash her teeth, as he wouldn’t argue with her.
Pregnant women, Kate had come to note, were not themselves during confinement.
“Are you warm enough, Rose?”
“I am carrying twice my normal weight, of course I’m warm enough,” she snapped.
“Excellent.” Wolf smiled.
Bran bounded up to him with Myrtle. Hep, Wolf’s dog, and Zeus, who belonged to Rose, were next, and last was Whiskey, Samantha’s little dog.
“Clearly he has taken over the leader of the pack role,” Kate said as the dogs all nudged Wolf for his attention. Her brother had a way with animals.
They were in the courtyard of the castle, where the locals had set up a fair. Delicious smells were everywhere. She saw trestles displaying toffee, butterscotch, and fruit marzipans. Another with fruit buns and cakes and biscuits. There was meat roasting and ale flowing, and everything looked festive, as befitted Christmas Eve.
“Speaking of idiots,” Wolf drawled as they approached Cam, who was bobbing for apples.
“Your lips are turning blue. Nothing would force me to plunge my face into that ice-cold water. I believe, cousin, you are quite mad,” Kate said.
“I wanted an apple.”
“Come, Rose, we will leave this fool in case his stupidity is catching. I will get you something warm and a place to sit.”
Rose sighed. Beautiful with her red-gold hair and pale skin, she had a gentle Scottish burr that made Kate smile.
“We have covered this many times, Wolf. I am pregnant, not sick. Now stop being a large eejit, and understand that I am neither an invalid nor an imbecile. I know my limitations.”
“Yes, love,” Wolf said with an attempt at meekness. No one bought it.
“But I would like something warm to eat and a place to sit, as I am weary.”
They were still arguing as they walked away.
“I was like that with Emily, and find I am no different with Beth. Who is at present over there attempting to charm her uncle out of his money so she can have the fudge her mother and I said she couldn’t.”
As one they looked at Cam’s daughter. She would be tall like him but had her mother’s fair coloring. The little girl was waving her arms about as she talked to Warwick. The boy was growing into a man, and he was bent at the waist listening to what Beth, now two, was telling him.
“She talks like you do.”
“Aye.” Cam smiled, and it was soft and filled with love. “With her entire body.”
Water dripped off his chin as he inhaled a large breath, then plunged his face back into the barrel filled with frigid liquid. While he froze his extremities, she looked around once more.
Would Rory come? She’d not seen him in two days and told herself constantly that she was glad about that. The man was too much of everything for her, and yet she couldn’t help longing for him.
“Still no luck?” Cam had come up for air. He shook his head, inhaled, and bobbed once more.
She’d come to love Crunston Cliff, and most of that love came from the people. Located near the cliffs, perched above a wild and unforgiving sea, the village was filled with hearty folk of weathered complexions and a belief they were just a touch above those born outside its borders.
“Harrumph.”
“Pardon?”
Cam now had an apple in his mouth. He took a large bite and smiled at her.
“Your face is numb, isn’t it?”
He took the cloth the lady manning the apple bobbing handed him and rubbed it briskly.
“Not at all, it was bracing.” She watched as he quickly stuffed his arms back into his overcoat and then wrapped his scarf around his face.
“Of course it was.”
“I am a local, Kate. It is expected of us, and we have been participating in these events since we were in short pants. More so as this year James is holding the event. This is the first time the fair has been on Raven grounds. The old Duke was a right bastard and hated pretty much everyone. He’d be turning in his grave about now, is my guess.”
“Most fairs are in spring or summer.”
“She’s not from these parts, is my guess,” the woman running the apple bobbing said as she shook out the drying cloth, then handed it back to Cam. “You’ll want to dry your hair.”
“No indeed, but she is family, therefore we tolerate her, Mrs. Crabb.” He gave her a pitying look, then rubbed the cloth over
his hair.
“Ah well, we can’t all be so blessed,” the woman said.
Laughing, Cam replaced his hat before grabbing Kate’s hand. He then swung it several times.
“Papa, Uncle Warwick won’t let me have more toffee!” Beth ran up to them, legs pumping, arms waving.
“Cad!” Cam picked her up and threw her into the air, making her squeal. “Shall I thrash him for you?”
“Yes.” She had a wicked little smile on her face. “No.” Her entire body wiggled as she sighed. “He did let me have fudge.”
“Which your mother and I told you not to have more of?”
She looked at him from under her lashes.
“You know your aunties have been trying that particular look with me for many years don’t you, Beth. It never worked.”
The little girl simply smiled. Cam settled her against his shoulder as they walked.
“Come, we will attempt to get the blood flowing through my veins once more. God’s blood, the day is bleak,” Cam shuddered. “I hate this indecisive weather. Let there be sun or rain, not this miserable sleet and hovering gloom.”
“It gets into your bones,” Kate said.
The fair was stretched around the edges of the huge courtyard. Part was cobbled and part grassed, and it was here a fire roared, around which people warmed themselves. It really was an impressive sight, especially as the castle stood sentry behind them. Flags fluttering, doors thrown open for those needing to venture out of the conditions. Huge torches flamed in sconces. A wreath of greenery, nuts, and red satin bows hung from one of the huge front doors.
“But seriously, Cam, it seems a foolish time of year for a fair.”
“If they hear you say such a thing, you’ll be run out of town. It has been taking place for hundreds of years.”
“Oh, well then, I suppose I can understand tradition as much as the next person.”
“That’s the spirit.” He squeezed her hand. “But I must warn you to stay away from the kissing booths. Sweet young thing like you will be roped in to participate—all for a good cause of course.”
Kate laughed. “Don’t tell me…. The kissing booths are tradition?”
