“Surely not now?” Cam added. “The man can barely keep his eyes open.”
“If not now, when? We all know he was trying to leave,” James said.
“Now,” Max added, and the tension in the room climbed. “He will leave without a goodbye; this may stop that from happening.”
“I don’t understand.” Rory started to rise. “What is it you speak of?”
“Sit, Rory…, please,” Max added.
Kate watched as he lowered himself back into the seat. His fingers dug into the armrests as he looked from James to Max.
“He is wounded and weak,” Kate protested.
“I am never weak,” Rory stated.
“There is no easy way for me to say these words, so I shall simply do so. I am your brother,” James said. “We share a father. Emily is your sister, as are my two other sisters, Samantha and Rose, who you shall meet later.”
No one spoke, and Kate was sure the others held their breath as she did.
“You lie!” The fingers dug deeper into the armrest.
“No, Rory. It is the truth,” Max said. “Mother had an affair with James’s father, the then Duke of Raven. I found this out a few years ago.”
“We are brothers,” James said gently, “and we,” he pointed to Max then back to himself, “have been searching for you for some time.”
“I have no wish to be found. Nor do I need family.” Rory looked ready to run.
“And yet,” James replied, “you have it.”
Kate could do nothing to stop her hand resting on top of the one Rory had clenched on the chair. She didn’t know if he realized he parted his fingers and hers slipped between. He then trapped them there. Her eyes caught and held Eden’s. Her cousin’s smile was gentle and knowing.
“And you will come and spend Christmas Day with us. If you are to leave, I would have at least one with the brother I have just found.”
“I am not one for family gatherings, your Grace, and need to get back to France.”
“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.
