It hurt thinking about them, he couldn’t lie. James and Max also. Plus, his nieces and nephews, in fact every bloody Raven and Sinclair, had come to mean something to him. Especially her.
No, he shut Kate out of his head. He was good at that, closing the pain away inside him.
“Curse them all,” he muttered.
“Come in, you can haul some wood for me. My back, you know, it’s not up for much, and I’ll likely freeze to death if you don’t.”
Rory looked longingly down the street to the stables that he knew stood about halfway. He could be on a horse and out of town in under twenty minutes.
“I’ll need tea also. Nourishment in this weather is important for a woman of my advancing years.”
He exhaled.
“That middle Sinclair came and chopped it,” Mrs. Radcliff said, waving him through and out the back door.
“Middle Sinclair?” Rory avoided looking at the castle looming above them.
“Cambridge. He’s a wild one and always will be, even though that sweet young girl tamed him.”
“Right. I’ll just get that wood then.”
“How bad is your shoulder? Perhaps you should sit here and have tea instead.”
“My shoulder can manage a few logs.” In fact, it burned like hell, but that was a good thing and gave him something else to focus on.
He stepped out the back door and found a small lean-to. Loading some logs in the basket, he carried them inside.
“Just place that there, then come and sit. Tea’s almost steeped.”
“I need to get going, Mrs. Radcliff.”
She made a sucking sound that pulled her lips into her mouth.
“You’ll rest, young man. You’re pale. Why aren’t you up there with your family?”
“I—pardon?”
“I know who you are, lad. You have the look of them.” Mrs. Radcliff got out of her chair with a great deal of effort and moved to pour the tea. Rory hovered, ready to help if she fell.
He could just leave, make a run for it, and she wouldn’t catch him, but… Rory didn’t like to upset the elderly woman. He could take a minute or two, even though it chafed at him, as no one would come looking for him now.
Ignoring the pain deep in his chest, he sat and held out his frozen hands to the fire. Was Kate still in bed? She was healed, at least he knew that, but was she tired, hurting? God, he’d known fear when he’d seen her shot and in the minutes before they’d healed her.
Fear that she’d be taken from him. Fear that the world would never be the same if she was. He’d never be the same.
You betrayed us.
Her words had cut deep, but then the evidence against him had been damning.
Max believed that too, and that hurt. The brother who’d left him, who he’d once again found. The brother he’d almost believed would be part of his life again.You’re an idiot.
Reaching into his pocket, he sought the angel, then remembered. It was now hanging on the tree. At least he would be leaving something of himself behind.
“They think because I’m old I don’t see, but I do. I know what that old besom was before he met his maker. Beast of a man, and no right to bear the title duke. But this new one… well, he’s a good un now those Sinclairs have a hold of him.”
Clearly the late Duke of Raven had been a bastard. Rory was glad he was dead and could cause no more suffering.
“They’re a big, loving family now, boy, and you’d be welcomed into it if you wished it.”
