“I’m not fond of the resemblance either,” Cade said dryly, keeping his pistol aimed at the other man.
“What was our father like?” Bastien asked abruptly.
This was a very strange conversation. “Jago Evans was a violent, selfish bully. He threw me out to die when I was five years old. I’ve done my best to be completely different from him. You should try to do the same.” Cade frowned at his half brother, sensing something off balance in the other man. “Why did you ambush us? To kill? To capture? To torture?”
“I’m . . . not sure why I’m here.” Bastien looked baffled, and Cade was beginning to wonder if he was quite right in the head. No wonder he hadn’t sensed the Scorpion’s distinctive energy this time.
Bastien turned to look at Madame LeBlanc. “I wanted to see my aunt Agnes, who has been avoiding me for some time.”
“Because I don’t like your behavior, Claude,” Madame LeBlanc said tartly. “You have become far too fond of hurting people.”
Bastien nodded as if that made perfect sense and turned his gaze to Andre. “I also wanted to see my young cousin. Why are you fleeing to Britain, Andre? I had hoped you would enlist your talents for France.”
“Really?” Andre said coolly. “I thought you wanted to see me arrested and interned with the rest of the British men unlucky enough to be caught in France when war broke out again.”
“I wanted that once, but it would be a waste of your talents.” Bastien still seemed disoriented. He swiveled around and glared at Tamsyn, who had just finished putting the other three men to sleep. “Most of all I want to know what your little witch did to me!”
“I’m not a witch but a healer,” Tamsyn replied in a calm voice. “I tried to remove the anger that makes you so dangerous and unpleasant, but I didn’t have time to be thorough. I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job. Do you want me to correct any imbalance I caused?”
“Can you do that?” he asked doubtfully.
“I believe so, but there might not be time. We have a boat to catch and the tide waits for no one.”
“Please,” Bastien said, his voice between an order and a plea. “Try!”
Cade swore silently, knowing that Tam would not leave until she had repaired the damage she’d done. “Madame LeBlanc, how much time do we have?”
The older woman said in a worried voice, “Perhaps half an hour. Is that long enough, Lady Tamsyn?” Cade guessed that she wanted Claude healed, but even more she wanted her grandson safe.
“It should be,” Tam said, but she didn’t sound sure.
“If we combine energies to support you, might that speed up the process?” Cade asked.
“I’m sure it would!” Tam replied.
“Please do it,” Bastien said, a crack in his voice. “It’s . . . hard to live with my mind in a storm.”
“Very well then, Monsieur Bastien,” she said. “Take a seat on that rock and let us begin.”
CHAPTER28
Ignoring the pistol Cade still had trained on him, Bastien obeyed Tamsyn and settled on the chair-height rock she had indicated. She was profoundly grateful to be able to correct the errors she’d made earlier when she had been mostly concerned with getting Cade out of the fortress. Touching another person’s mind was a grave responsibility and she had betrayed her gift by forcing a change on him, and worse, not doing it well.
He asked uncertainly, “What will you do?”
“I’m not going to turn you into a different person,” she explained in a reassuring voice. “You will still be yourself, but with pain and broken edges soothed and healed. It will be disorienting but not physically painful. Is that acceptable to you?”
“I won’t recognize who I am without pain,” he said starkly. “But yes. Do it!”
She placed her palm on his forehead and began a preliminary assessment. When she’d worked on him at the fortress, his mind had been like a thicket of thorns, filled with anger toward the world. She hadn’t had time to discover why then, but now she sorted through his feelings and found fury at his official father, who tolerated Claude because he needed an heir, but who had despised his bastard son for his lowborn smuggler father.
With his mother dead in childbirth, Claude had been raised mostly by men. His tutors had often been brutal. Though he’d received a decent education, he’d had very little kindness or understanding.
His anger had served him well when he started to work for the French government because he was excellent at seeking out and destroying traitorous Frenchmen and dangerous English spies. His work was legitimate, but as his aunt had said, he took far too much pleasure in inflicting pain, as he’d done on Cade. Remembering Cade’s agony caused Tamsyn to freeze for a moment, but she reminded herself that she was here to heal, not to execute vengeance.
Her hasty earlier work had reduced much of his anger but had left his mind and emotions unbalanced. No wonder he was confused.
Cade’s hand came to rest on her right shoulder, and a moment later Madame LeBlanc took gentle hold of her other shoulder. The rush of energy she received from them clarified what she needed to do, and she began to smooth away the confused edges of his emotions. Bastien needed balance. Peace. More awareness of the needs of others.
