by Vella, Wendy
“Did I suggest otherwise?”
“Oh, very well.” Nicholas gave in. “I can come for an hour.”
He made the hackney stop at a sweet shop, where he purchased toffee wrapped in large bows. Then a smaller bag for him and Max to eat on the journey.
Minutes later, they were traveling down the street to Dev’s house. The same street the rest of the family all lived on. It was a complicated family structure, but one that worked for all concerned.
“Lord Braithwaite, Mr. Huntington, good evening,” the Sinclair butler greeted them as they entered the house.
“Good evening, Tatters,” Max said. “It is a trifle damp out there. Are the family all present?”
The butler did not blink at the name the family had shortened his surname to. He’d been born Hildebrand Tattersly, but the children had decided on Tatters.
“They are, Mr. Huntington, and I shall bring something for you to dry yourselves with.”
“And set another place, please, as Lord Braithwaite is to going to eat with us.”
“Of course.”
“Hello, Max. Nicholas?”
Warwickshire Sinclair now stood before them. Tall, with the look of his brothers, there were glimpses of the man he would become.
“I have no wish to intrude, but Max insisted I join your sisters’ celebrations.”
The boy rocked back on his heels like his eldest brother often did and studied Nicholas with a frank gaze. It didn’t unsettle him; he sat in the House of Lords and dealt with people every day in some capacity or other, but still, there was no doubting who his brothers were.
“You are family, therefore you are always welcome anytime.”
“Well said.” Max ruffled Warwick’s hair.
And it really was that simple to the boy, as he’d known no different. But Nicholas had. For a while he’d been rudderless and without family or friends... by choice, but when he reflected back on that period of his life, he did not like what he saw.
The changes he’d undertaken would not be reversed, he knew that, but sometimes when he was with his family, he felt vulnerable. As if one day all this would be taken from him in punishment for his past sins.
Foolish, he knew, but there it was.
“Come, it is always good to have another man about, considering the number of females in this family. Isn’t that right, Warwick?” Max said.
“Yes.”
They followed the butler up the stairs and through the grand house that his sister shared with her husband, his three siblings, plus Lilly and Dev’s children.
Loud voices greeted him as Tatters opened the door.
“Lord Braithwaite, Mr. Huntington, and Master Warwickshire,” the butler said. No one heard, as they were doing what they did best: speaking over the top of each other.
“I hate that name,” Warwick muttered.
“I think it an excellent name. Mine is common, yours is not,” Nicholas said to the boy, who stood at his side.
“Really?” Warwick looked at Nicholas, hope in his eyes.
“Nick, Nicholas, Nicky.” He shuddered for effect. “Hardly inspiring when there are at any given time at least a dozen of us walking about the streets of London.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
“Shall we trade names?”
“I don’t think so,” the boy said, then walked away with a small smile on his face.
“Uncle Nicholas is here!”
This shriek came from his niece Hannah. A combination of her parents, she had her father’s dark hair and mother’s smile. Nicholas placed his gifts on a side table and then bent to greet the child. At five, she was showing signs of her mother’s beauty. It always surprised him how much his nieces and nephew loved him. There was Mathew, who was serious like his father at seven, and Hannah, then the baby, Meredith, at three years.
He didn’t delve into why their love of him was surprising too much, as he was sure it was because he didn’t believe himself loveable. All Nicholas knew was that he would sell his soul to the devil to keep them safe. They were part of him now, and he loved them fiercely.
“Nicholas, I am relieved to see you. What has you here tonight, and with Max?”
Turning with Hannah in his arms, he looked at his sister. Elegant, happy, and extremely beautiful, Lilliana was his younger sibling, and someone he owed much to. It had been his job in life when their father passed to care for and love her. He’d failed miserably. He now made sure she never had reason to doubt her big brother’s love and support.
“That’s a fierce look.” She came forward and kissed him, then her daughter, who was settled against his shoulder. “Is all well with you?”
“It is. I met Max while attending to some business. He told me you felt something was wrong and that you called, but I was not home.”
“It’s true I was worried, but now I am not, as I can see you are well.”
“What alerted you to the fact you believed something was wrong with me? I don’t think that’s happened before,” Nicholas asked her.
“It has, but I ignored it before. Now I don’t have to.” She kissed his cheek again.
“If I say sorry once more, will that help?” The guilt was never too far away.
“I need no more apologies for past sins, Nicholas. We’ve been over this multiple times. Now tell me what has happened, as I can see in your eyes something has.”
“Nothing that you need worry over. We will talk more later. I hope you don’t mind, but Max insisted I come for the celebration.”
“As long as there is enough food for me, Braithwaite, you can stay.”
These words were said by Cambridge Sinclair. He was one of the middle Sinclair siblings, of which there were seven. Tall, of a build like Nicholas where they did not carry any extra weight, he was a man with a wicked sense of humor who had also forgiven him for his actions many years ago. Married to the gentle Emily, the Duke of Raven’s sister, he was not always a comfortable man due to his openness, but an honorable one. If Cambridge felt something needed saying, he said it.
“Cambridge.” Nicholas shook the hand he held out. “I shall not eat too much, I promise.”
“Cam.”
“Of course.”
The Sinclair green eyes studied him, reminding him of the ones he’d looked into earlier that evening.
“If I have moved on, then perhaps you should also?”
That was another thing these people had that was not a comfortable trait. Directness.
“Pardon?” Nicholas played for time, and yet he knew exactly what Cambridge alluded to. He and this man had history, dark, ugly history. One of them had put that behind them. It wasn’t Nicholas.
“Leave the past there, Nicholas.” Cambridge slapped his shoulder, then moved away. “I have and give you permission to do so.”
Excellent. He’d been in the house no more than a handful of minutes and had experienced more discomfort than he had in the past month.
Not exactly true, he thought, remembering a pair of lovely green eyes again. Alice.
“Nicholas.” His brother-in-law, Devonshire, Lord Sinclair, head of his family, greeted him next. Looking into his vibrant green eyes, Nicholas hoped Alice had made it home safely.
“Good evening, Devon.”
“Nicholas.” Eden, Duchess of Raven, another Sinclair, and the only one with gray eyes, was next to greet him.
“Good evening, Duchess, you look beautiful as always.”
“Does she, I hadn’t noticed.” The Duke of Raven arrived at his wife’s side.
He was Nicholas’s cousin and had been part of the reason for his change. Part of the reason his eyes were opened to the man he had become. Nicholas would be forever grateful to the duke for that.
“We are waiting on Wolf and his family before we begin the meal,” Eden said. “And can I just say, thank you for what you said to Warwick when you arrived.”
“What did he say?” Dev asked.
“He said Warwick should be p
leased with his name as it is original. Our youngest brother seemed extremely happy after that.”
“Did he? Well done, Nicholas,” Dev said.
“’Tis nothing.” He brushed the words aside. “Are Wolf’s sisters enjoying the season? I have yet to meet them.”
“I’m not entirely sure enjoyment is the term,” James drawled. Quiet, powerful, the man, along with Dev, was the foundation to which these families were tethered. “I believe Wolf is looking a little strained as of late with Alice’s antics.”
Alice was a common name; no need at all for his heart to start thudding hard inside his chest. Surely there were any number of green-eyed Alices trotting about London each day?
Dear God, he hoped so.
“Antics?”
“Alice is... was quiet, studious, and bookish. But she keeps slipping out of the house without telling him where she is going. Simply put, it is not pleasing her brother.”
His necktie was suddenly strangling him.
“I think Alice is just unused to the way of things in London,” Essie said, coming to greet him. She was after Dev and Cam in the Sinclair pecking order. The gentle Sinclair, he’d always classed her. The healer, she had an ability that he had never understood, but was grateful for the few times she’d healed his ailments.
“Where does she slip out to?” he made himself ask.
“Bookstores, lending libraries, and I think she went to a lecture.”
Essie’s words made him relax. Alice Sinclair would not have been in that part of London today. Absolutely not.
“London is not a place to walk about unescorted, no matter what part you are in,” James said. “My sympathies lie with Wolf. Having three sisters and a wife, I feel his agony.”
“A pooh to that,” the duchess said. “We cause you no trouble but are merely high-spirited.”
“Best day of my life when I handed her over to you,” Dev added, which earned him an elbow in the ribs from Eden.
“I’m hoping Miss Penny has made a large cake for the twins’ birthday,” Nicholas heard Cambridge say.
“Hello.” Two Sinclairs and one Raven were next to greet him. The surprise when he looked at them was that they were no longer children. Just as Warwick had changed, so had they. When had that happened?
Dorrie and Somer Sinclair were twins, and James’s sister Samantha was at their side as she usually was.
“Happy birthday. I hope you both don’t mind that I’ve invited myself to your party?”
“No!”
He’d noticed they often talked as one.
“Can I ask how old you are, or is that rude?”
“Fifteen.”
“Are you really? I’m not sure when that happened.”
“Neither are we,” Dev drawled.
“I have something for you both.” Nicholas retrieved the boxes of toffee and handed them one each.
They were extremely happy with the gifts.
“You will eat those after your meal,” Dev said.
“He has eyes everywhere,” Dorrie muttered, clutching her box to her chest and then walking sideways past Cambridge so he didn’t see it.
“I seem to have blinked and they’ve become young adults,” he said to Lilly as they headed to the dining room.
“Indeed, and Dev and James’s headaches are just starting.”
“It seems Wolf and his family have arrived. Prepare yourself, all is not well in his world by the sound of the argument taking place,” Eden said, and Nicholas wondered how she’d heard anything above the noise the families were making. For that matter, how had she heard the conversation he’d had with Warwick?
There had always been something a little odd about this family; he’d just never been able to pinpoint what exactly that was. They heard and saw things long before anyone else. And Cam often sniffed the air like a dog. Nicholas had gotten used to their odd ways, but he did wonder about them.
“Brace yourselves, they are close,” Eden said dramatically. “Everyone take a seat and talk, make it look like we haven’t been listening to their conversation.”
“We haven’t, my love. You have.”
Eden poked out her tongue at the duke in a very unduchessy way. Then they walked into the dining room and began to seat themselves.
Nicholas wasn’t sure why he felt suddenly tense, but he did.
Chapter Four
“Oh dear, it seems Alice has been testing Wolf again,” Eden said from down the table next to her husband.
“Perhaps he should send her back to the country until she understands how to behave in London?”
“She is not a dog, Nicholas, in need of training.”
“I understand that, Lilly, but if she does not grasp the dangers of walking about London unescorted, then she is a danger to herself.”
This Alice was definitely not his Alice, he was sure of it.
“She is used to her freedom in Briarwood, the village they were raised in.”
“Which is vastly different from London,” Nicholas pointed out.
“Alice is a wonderful, determined young lady who has been well received in society, with many young men enamored by her. It’s my belief that soon she will not have time to be bored,” Eden added.
Nicholas hid his shudder. Debutantes were a frightening group of young women, eager and controlled by their mothers. He often felt like a rare and hunted species around them.
“Wolf just said he’s thinking of putting another lock on her door... the outside.”
How did Eden hear this? Nicholas hadn’t heard a word.
“I’m sure given time they will work things out,” James said.
Suddenly he heard the voices approaching, the rumble of Wolf and the lighter tone of a woman.
Rose Sinclair, the duke’s other sister and Wolf’s wife, was first to enter the dining room. Pretty, with red-gold hair, she was the most recent addition to the Sinclair/Raven clan. Next came a woman he had not met before—a sister—then Wolf.
It was the last person to enter the room who caught and held Nicholas’s gaze.
It’s her.
The breath he’d just taken seemed to lodge in his throat as he studied the woman.
Alice Sinclair was his Alice. The thought made him want to get to his feet and run from the house. He took the few seconds before she looked his way to compose himself. She didn’t have the same luxury.
Shock had her eyes widening. Color flooded her cheeks, and Nicholas wondered if her reaction would alert others to the fact something wasn’t right. She rallied, her mouth snapping shut as the green eyes narrowed. Shooting a look left and right, she mouthed something to him.
Not one word.
Had she actually just dared to threaten him? Her face suggested that was the case.
Disturbed that she was here, in the room with him, and far more disturbed that she was family in a roundabout way, he took a large, fortifying mouthful of his wine.
What the hell did this mean? She was in his vision, and then his arms, and now here she was again. Had he been a man with a delicate constitution, this would put him in bed for weeks.
Their eyes caught and held, and Nicholas felt the pull of attraction they’d shared earlier. His face remained composed. If his gambling days had taught him nothing else, they had taught him to hide what he felt.
“The point is, Alice, it’s dangerous out there. You cannot simply wander about the streets of London as you did in Briarwood. I wonder how many times I must say this before you understand it,” Wolf Sinclair said.
Big like Dev, Wolf was a quieter and yet no less determined Sinclair male. Pressed to his ankle was the shaggy Sinclair dog, Myrtle.
That was another odd occurrence about the Sinclair family. Animals seemed to be overly fond of Wolf. Nicholas’s horse was no different. If they were riding together, he was jostling with others to get close to the man.
“I merely slipped out to visit the lending library, Wolf. I am here, safe. Stop fretting.”
She shot
Nicholas a look on that lie. He kept his gaze impassive.
Her hair was as black as midnight, like the rest of her family’s, and if he had to use only one word to describe her, it would be “disturbing.”
He’d known hers was a delicate beauty today in that street, even though he couldn’t see her as clearly as he could now. In his dreams she had been beautiful too. Like an angel, actually.
He also now knew what she tasted like, and the feel of her pressed to his chest. Neither of these were comforting thoughts.
Christ, she’s Wolf’s sister.
He of all men had no right to touch such an innocent.
Lush lips and hair, and a sweetly curved body. Her dress was lemon with a satin ribbon beneath her breasts. The perfect dress for a sweet, innocent young lady. Nicholas dragged his eyes away. Her nose was definitely not overlong as he’d first thought.
She was not for the likes of him. Nicholas had to forget about his visions and what had happened today. Nothing would come of it, and he did not want her family alerted to any part of it.
“I am not fretting,” her brother gritted out. “I am attempting to explain to you that London is not a safe place. Even your sainted Barty would not like to hear his future wife is gadding about London in such a manner.”
She was to be married to someone else! The thought made Nicholas feel slightly queasy, which in turn made him angry. He did not know the woman. Yes, he’d kissed her, and yes, she had a lovely mouth, but that did not mean he wanted anything further to do with her.
“He is not sainted, and I always take care.”
Wolf had a strained look around his eyes as he glared at his sister. A captain in the army, now retired, he’d been wounded, and it had taken many months and loving care from his family for him to recover.
“You were my sensible, studious sister. God’s blood, you will be the death of me,” Wolf growled. “I will again attempt to explain the right way to behave in London—”
“Again?” Alice looked pained. “I could recount this lecture word perfect already. And I am studious and sensible, I just wished to visit the lending library.”
She lied without blushing. It was a trait her future husband, the sainted Barty, should be aware of, or the woman would make his life a misery.
