“How is Kate today?” Dorset asked.
“She is unwell, and sleeping.” Rory frowned.
“The baby is making her unhappy,” Daisy said.
“Both Alice and Kate are expecting babies. Alice is due soon,” Fleur said looking happy about the prospect of yet more children entering this large family.
He’d interacted with the children last night so he didn’t have to do so with the adults, who he knew had questions for him. Questions he would not answer, now or ever. Even Gus would not know the full extent of the life Ash had been forced to live before he escaped.
The room was suddenly silent as Ash watched Daisy walk around the chairs and lean in to sniff the occupant.
“Cam.”
“It’s because I’m eating, isn’t it?” Cambridge Sinclair leaned in to plant a loud kiss on her cheek. Daisy giggled.
She moved on and got every name right. Each recipient kissed her cheek, and then she was next to Ash. She leaned in and sniffed him and then touched his hair.
“Hello, Ash.”
“How is it you know me when you only met me last night?” He kissed her cheek because… well, because the others had and it would have been odd not to. Plus, for that brief moment he felt part of them. As if he had every right to kiss this sweet girl.
And that is why you need to leave here. This is not your life.
“You smell like Gus, and your hair is the longest of all the men here.”
He smelled like his brother. Why did he like that idea?
“Spell ‘impignorate,’” Cam said loudly.
“I beg your pardon?” Ash said when no one else did.
“Our children—well, the older ones—enjoy learning, Ash. We test them as much as we can,” James said.
“Impignorate,” a tall boy who had yet to grow into his limbs said. “It means to pledge.”
“I think they’re brighter than you three ever were,” Devonshire Sinclair said.
It seemed like everyone talked over the top of each other as the meal progressed. People came and went, questions were thrown out at children between conversations. Ash could honestly say he’d never shared a meal like it. Baron entered with children draped over his shoulder and hanging onto each hand.
“Baron has been teaching us how to say hello in his language!” someone shrieked.
Wolf groaned. “Now we shall all have to learn another bloody language.”
Ash ate, watched, and then when he wasn’t sure how much more he could take, because this was not his life and never would be, he rose.
“Come.” Gus did the same and started for the door.
Ash felt their eyes on him as he followed. Did they think he would harm his brother?
They walked out into the courtyard, then through another opening into what seemed to be another enclosed area, roofed in glass. There were a lot of fruit trees planted in a small space, and the fragrance hit his senses.
Gus walked down a row, turned to the right, through another opening, and then there was the sea.
“We will not be interrupted here.”
Ash jammed his hands into his pockets. Now the time had come to say the words that needed to be said, he felt as if they were stuck inside his throat. They stood beside each other looking down at the sea below, the occasional scent of citrus wafting to them.
“Tell me your story, Ash,” Gus prompted him.
