by Vella, Wendy
She didn’t want to lie, but neither did she want to speak of what she’d left.
“This is Fleur, Rory,” she said, looking down to the child at her side, who had been watching the adults closely.
He did not question her further, instead kneeling before her daughter.
“Hello, Fleur. I am your uncle Rory. I have dreamed of this day for quite some time. This is Bran. He’s big but gentle, and I know he will love you.”
“Bonjour, Uncle Rory and Bran.” Fleur smiled. “Mama told me I would like you.”
“Well now, that’s handy, as I like you.” He touched her cheek. “Am I allowed a hug?”
“Good morning, Maddie,” Max said.
Pulling her eyes from Rory and Fleur, she looked at her older brother. He held the hand of a boy, and Essie was at his side.
“This is our son, Luke. We also have a daughter, Claire, who is sleeping. She is three months old.”
Claire was Maddie’s middle name.
“She is named after you.”
Maddie let none of what she felt hearing those words show on her face. She’d not always been strong; in fact, her brothers had called her the gentle member of their family. That too had changed over time. You couldn’t stay gentle when you were struggling for survival.
“Good morning, Max and Essie.” She leaned closer to her nephew. “Good morning, Luke. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“And you, Aunt Maddie.” He had his father’s smile.
The jolt hearing herself called aunt was not an unhappy one. Maddie loved children, and this boy was not responsible for any past deeds. He was her blood, and hers to love.
“How do you feel?” Max asked her. “I’m sure the journey was challenging. The property you and your husband lived in was, I believe, some distance from Calais.”
“It is, but I am well, thank you, Max.”
“Last night, you were exhausted. I thought you would fall asleep while you walked.”
“It was a comfortable bed.” Unlike last night, today she felt more in control and contained. “Forgive me for appearing as I did.”
“As you did?” He raised a brow.
“Travel worn and weepy.”
“Because you arrived as you did, it let me hold you. I cannot fault that. There were no barriers between us as there are now.”
“Pardon?” His words surprised her. Once Max would never have spoken so openly.
“Your reaction to me is the same as Rory’s was, but perhaps not as angry. But then, you were always the gentler of the three of us.”
“I am grateful to be here under your roof, Max, but we are strangers. Surely you understand that?”
“Tell her.” Rory now held Fleur in his arms. What surprised her was that her daughter seemed happy there. “Tell her now; then we can begin to heal and be a family. There is much more she will learn today; this should be the first. Don’t wait as you did with me, Max.”
“Tell me what?” Her eyes followed Fleur as Rory lowered her to the floor. She moved to stand before Luke and smile up at him. Bran trotted over to stand at her side, almost the same height. Fleur hugged him.
“She doesn’t usually like strangers.”
“We are not strangers, Maddie, we are her family,” Rory said. “Mother sold Max to that captain so we could have free passage to France. He was then beaten and tortured at the hands of that man.” The words had been spoken so only she, Essie, and Max could hear.
“Sh-she did that to you?” Maddie looked at her brother.
“Rory, here and now is not the time for this.”
“When is a good time? Tomorrow, five days, or a month from now? It needs to be spoken. Take her somewhere and make her listen. Only then can we start to heal the wounds that woman inflicted upon us.”
“Rory, I need to eat. Fleur is hungry also.” His words had shocked her, but Maddie didn’t think she was ready to hear the rest. Yet more shock on top of everything she’d already endured.
“You must. I’ll look after Fleur. You go.” Rory nudged her arm.
“I’m not leaving her!” The words were a low growl and came from the fear that had ridden her for days. Her daughter had kept her strong; she would not turn from her now.
“I understand she has been your sole responsibility, Maddie, but you are not alone anymore. She will be happy and safe with Essie, Luke, and me.”
“I will watch her, Aunt Maddie.” Luke held out a hand to Fleur, and she took it willingly. “I will read her a story.”
“Story, Mama.”
“Are you happy to stay with Luke, Fleur?” Maddie wanted her daughter to say no so she didn’t have to face whatever awaited her. The little girl nodded, more than happy with the arrangement.
“Very well, if we must do this now, then so be it.”
Max had been tortured.
Maddie followed her silent brother from the room. They took the stairs down and walked along another hall. The doors at the end were open, and it was there they stopped.
“Please sit.” Max waved her into a chair and took the one beside it. “I would not have chosen to talk to you about this now, considering you have just arrived, but Rory has forced my hand.”
The room had a large desk in polished wood and shelves filled with ledgers and books.
“This is my study.”
“Rory said you are a wealthy businessman now.”
“I am, and was driven to achieve that when I arrived in England. For a while it was all that motivated me, and then I met Essie.”
“And… and are you happy, Max?”
“I am. I have a family I love, and you will meet the rest of them later. There is much to tell you, but for now I want you to know I never forgot that I had a sister.”
“Is it true that man who gave us passage to France many years ago tortured and beat you, Max? The ship’s captain?”
He sighed. “When finally I was able to escape that ship, I came back to you a different person. I was angry, Maddie, and that anger spilled over to you and Rory, so I had to leave or kill her.”
She knew who he meant. Their mother had done this to him, as she had done many things to her three children. Maddie had fallen for her mother’s lies again after her husband passed away, believing she had changed and wanted to be with Fleur and Maddie during their time of grief. It had not taken her long to realize how wrong she’d been.
“I was wrong to leave you and Rory to her, and for that I am truly sorry. I should have been there to protect you as I had always done. You were never like us; you could be hurt easily.”
“You make me sound weak; I am not that. And Rory kept me safe until I wed Jacques.”
“And like you, he paid the price.”
She looked at the man who had once taken beatings for her, slept beside her while she cried. Soothed her pains. But he was no longer just hers. He had a family of his own now, as did Maddie.
“I want us to be a family again, Maddie.”
“I will try” was all she could manage. Too much emotion was surely not good for a person if this was how it made you feel. For so long she’d shut it away, as had all the Huntington siblings.
“Then that is all I can ask. Will you now tell me why you arrived on my doorstep exhausted and scared, sister?”
“I was not scared, I was tired, and it was time to come” was all she managed to get out. She could not tell them the rest. That was behind her now, in France… she hoped. “Fleur needed to meet her uncles.”
“Very well, but when you are ready to talk, I am here.”
“There is nothing further to say.”
“I don’t believe that, but for now we will eat, then there are more people I would like you to meet.”
“Who?”
“Family. Rory did not want to tell you this news in a letter, but there are more siblings now. Three sisters and a brother, to be precise.”
“I don’t understand?”
“You will, but for now we will eat and check on Fleur, and w
hile you eat I will attempt to explain about this new family you have gained.” Max got to his feet and held out a hand. Maddie looked at it for long seconds before placing hers inside.
Could this really be a new beginning for the Caron women? She hoped with everything inside her it was.
Chapter 6
Harry had sat there in silence while they’d talked, and learned that the eldest sons in each of the three Sinclair brothers’ families all had the gift of sight. He, Devon, and Wolf could see further and more than any human had a right to.
“But there is a great deal more to this family,” Dev said as Harry ate his eggs with a fork in one hand and a child settled in the crook of the other arm. After all, he’d not eaten his morning meal and was hungry, so he may as well eat the food that was before him. Every time he tried to hand Ruben back to a parent, he wailed, therefore Harry kept him. Rose and Wolf did not seem overly concerned that their infant was rejecting them.
They are an odd family.
“I have no wish to hear more, as I wanted only to know about my gift.”
“And yet we will tell it, because you are now one of us, and it is not something you can escape,” Wolf added. “You will feel more now we have connected.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re not alone there,” James said. “I still don’t understand, and I’ve lived with them the longest.”
“Yes, thank you, James, we have no wish to scare Harry any more than we need to,” Dev said.
“I am rarely scared.”
“How brave of you,” Cam drawled. Harry had already come to understand the man was the most annoying member of the family, and he’d not met the others yet.
“Now, Lilly is the only one who can heal with her hands,” Dev added. “But it takes a great deal out of her if the injury is serious.”
“I beg your pardon. Surely you jest?” Harry looked around the table, but he could see no visible signs of madness. Lilly simply smiled at him.
“She pulled a bullet right out of Dev’s chest,” Cam said with a mouth full of food, as if he was discussing the weather. “He’d stopped breathing, and she brought him back to life.”
Harry rubbed Ruben’s back as he grappled with what they were telling him.
“You brought him back from the dead?”
Lilly nodded.
“Were I one to faint, now would certainly be the time,” Harry muttered. He couldn’t take it all in. Was it possible? And yet hadn’t he known he was different, so it was possible others were also.
Dev went on to speak about the rest of the family. Taste, sight, hearing, touch, smell; they had it all, and other things that had manifested themselves as the family grew. The really odd thing about all of this was that he wasn’t as shocked as he should be. Well, not exactly true; their words were shocking, and yet Harry had to admit, if only to himself, that he felt comfortable with these people, which in itself was odd.
Harry usually avoided situations like this one. Situations that involved families and their clear love for each other.
Twin Sinclair sisters arrived, Dorset and Somerset, two young ladies who welcomed him with the same enthusiasm as their family. Kate and Alice also arrived, Wolf’s sisters. There were more, and they would be here soon.
As a boy, Harry had once dreamed of just such a family. Dreamed he was not alone with a resentful father and no one else in his life but Faris and his grandmother. He didn’t need it now but would have relished this once.
“Sinclairs marry Ravens, Harry, so it’s likely there will be one in your future,” Cam said. “Keep your eyes open.”
“Pardon?”
“Need he know this now?” Dev sighed. “Really, Cam, we had hoped to keep him here, not send him fleeing from the house screaming.”
“I do not scream,” Harry said, offended they would think he could.
“It’s like picking a scab, Dev. Get it all off at once.”
“Charming though that analogy is, I have no plans to marry, so this conversation need not be added to.”
“It’s a long-ago legend actually, cousin,” Cam added, ignoring him. “We will elaborate further one day.”
“Allow me to explain before Cam elaborates and we grow bored,” Wolf said. “Sinclairs save Ravens and then often marry them.”
The Ravens in the room groaned, Harry noted, as Cam explained you were either of Sinclair or Raven blood in this family.
“I have no plans to marry.”
That had them all laughing.
“What is so amusing?” He didn’t like to be laughed at, possibly because it rarely happened.
“None of us did,” Essie said.
He didn’t want to feel comfortable with them. He was betraying his father by sitting among them. Betraying the promise he’d made to never make contact with the family who had broken his father’s heart.
Never trust a Sinclair.
“I really must leave.” Coming to his senses, he rose and handed the now slumbering infant to his father. “His stomach was sore. You need to put him in the position I did when that happens again.”
“We will, and thank you.” Wolf gripped Harry’s shoulder, and he felt the sensation again.
“Thank you for all you have told me, and I wish you well. I will not see you again, as my ship is to sail soon.”
“We are your family, Harry,” Dorrie said, stepping into his path as he made for the door. “As such we love you and will always be here for you.”
“No!” The word ripped from his chest. “I have no need for that love. The Sinclairs betrayed my father.”
“Not these Sinclairs,” she said, touching his arm. “These Sinclairs want you to be part of our lives.”
“My life is in France.”
“With whom? Are you married or promised to someone?”
He looked down at the lovely young woman and thought, she could be the sister I never had. He fought against the emotion.
“I am not married nor have a woman in my life.” He could not lie to her.
“We are not normal, Harry, but then neither are you. Living as part of our family will mean you can be who you were meant to be.”
“I know who I am. The man my father raised me to be. Now, I’m sorry, but I must go.” He stepped around her and to the door. His chest felt tight, and he needed to leave and go back to his life. This was not for him.
The door opened as he reached it.
Harry looked at the butler, then lifted his eyes to who stood behind the man, and found her.
No!
She was with two men who could only be brothers, and another dark-haired, green-eyed woman. Essex Sinclair was his guess. The daughter of Madeline Caron was in one of the men’s arms.
“This is our sister Essex.” Dev came forward to make the introductions. “And these are the Huntington brothers, Max and Rory. Essie is wed to Max, and Rory betrothed to Kate.”
He’d heard of Maxwell Huntington; there were not many who hadn’t. He was a powerful man with business interests that stretched far and wide.
“And this is their sister, Mrs. Madeline Caron. Hello, Maddie, it is wonderful to finally meet you,” Dev said, leaning in to hug the woman Harry had saved yesterday. Harry saw she was uncomfortable with the gesture, body stiff, holding herself away from Dev.
Confusion as to how the Huntingtons fit in with the Sinclairs and Madeline Caron to them had Harry struggling to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.
If Maxwell Huntington and the men he’d just met were in any way related or close to her, why then was she in that state in Calais? Terrified and alone.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Head whirling, he shook the hands held out to him.
As yet she had not looked at him, but the color riding high on her cheekbones told him she was as shocked as he at finding him here.
The next few minutes could only be described as mayhem as everyone surged forward.
Harry moved left until he could reach the wall, wh
ich he needed in that moment to hold himself up, and watched the goings-on. Half of the party had moved to one side of the room. The Huntingtons, Madeline Caron, Rose, Emily, Samantha, and the duke. The Sinclairs stood before Harry.
He needed to get out of this room, and yet his legs appeared to refuse the commands they’d been obeying since he’d taken his first steps.
This was all insanity, surely? Was he dreaming? Shaking his head, he attempted to focus. He watched the duke greet Madeline. She looked nervous, the duke happy.
“I am your brother, Madeline.”
Christ! Suddenly it all clicked into place. She was of Raven blood? Sinclairs marry Ravens, usually after saving them.
He’d saved her. It means nothing. He was to leave London, and she had just arrived, Harry reminded himself. He was not part of this… whatever the hell this was.
People laughed and talked all over the top of each other, and as someone who had been raised in silence, he found it deafening. He saw by the look on Madeline Caron’s face, she felt no different.
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he saw the room burst to life in color. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was a shock.
“Close your eyes, count to ten, then reopen them. There are too many people in the room for that vision now, Harry, if you are unused to it.” Dev gripped his arms. Standing before him, he then counted softly so only Harry could hear.
“Open them now.”
Thankfully his vision had returned to normal and with it, his heartbeat.
“Better?”
“You have that?”
“I do, and Wolf. We see in color sometimes. We have control of it now, so Wolf and I can move between both. Do you see the white when someone is near death or sick?”
He couldn’t speak as his throat was dry, so Harry nodded.
“I will teach you how to control it, if you’ll let me.”
“I should leave. I can’t be part of this.”
“No, you should stay. I will get you a drink. You look like you need one.”
“It’s morning” was all he found to say. He lived his life on board ships with sailors, for God’s sake; he drank any time of the day. A sailor, a ruthless businessman, and someone who was not often thrown off balance, and yet today he was that and so much more. He felt like a child taking his first steps.
