“I am your other half first and foremost, Dorrie. Anything you tell me will stay between us, as I know you held your council when we discussed my feelings for Gus.”
“I saved him,” Dorrie whispered. The relief at telling Somer was instant.
Her twin lowered the file to the blanket and then kneeled before Dorrie.
“Go on.”
“It was that day I went out to follow Lord Seddon. I felt that sudden flood of panic and the acid in my mouth. When I looked for the cause, I saw him. He’d been shot in the leg. There was another man nearby, pointing a gun at Ash.”
“Good Lord.”
“I deterred the man, then took Ash into my hackney. I returned him to his ship. The next time I saw him was when he walked into the church on Raven Mountain.”
“Good Lord.”
“Is there nothing more you can say than ‘good Lord’?” Dorrie snapped.
Somer’s dark brows drew together, and Dorrie knew that look. Shock had moved into anger.
“And you are just telling me this now?”
“You were a trifle busy getting married.”
“And you thought I would not be there for you? That I would not wish to hear about this monumental thing you had done?”
Somer raised her hand as Dorrie opened her mouth.
“I understand not mentioning it when it first happened, as I too would have blistered your ears for the rec—”
“If you say I was reckless, that will be a gross double standard. You were exactly that the day you and Samantha—”
“We are not discussing me,” Somer snapped, knowing exactly what she was about to say.
“Oh, so now you’re married you are everything that is respectable and cautious, are you? You led that man who wanted to harm you away from Gus, who, I might add, could have aided you in dealing with him!”
“I was saving him!” Dorrie was on her knees now, as was Somer, and they were inches apart, yelling at each other.
“Why are you two shrieking at each other?” Harry arrived. In his arms was the latest member of their clan, Elizabeth, Alice and Nicholas’s daughter.
“My twin sister is an idiot,” Somer said through her teeth.
“And my twin sister thinks now she is married that she suddenly has a fully formed brain in her head,” Dorrie snapped back.
“What has you both coming to these realizations?” Harry teased as he rocked from side to side, patting Elizabeth’s back. The child lay along the length of his arm. He may have the gift of sight, but he also had the ability to calm children. It was a wonderful thing to see, and if she was feeling more harmonious she would acknowledge it.
“She”—Somer jabbed a finger in Dorrie’s chest—“is keeping secrets from me.”
“Shame on you, Dorrie,” Harry said.
“She”—Dorrie jabbed her back—“was too busy finding connubial bliss!”
“And you did not think one of us could offer a stand-in set of ears for whatever it is you have kept from your angry twin sister?” Harry asked.
“No.”
“Just no?”
“She knew you all would have been furious with her had she told you,” Somer said.
