“Are you better now, Leo?”
“Much.” He held out a hand, and she took it.
“I was so scared for you, Leo.”
“As I was for you when I saw those three men set upon you.” He closed his eyes.
“I’m well.”
“The day I learned what our father had done, Ellen, I realized that suddenly I was head of the family. That I had to pick up the pieces of our lives after he’d destroyed it. I was scared. You, the little ones, you were all so sad, and you needed me to be strong. I wasn’t sure I had that strength inside me.”
“Oh, Leo, that was never your job alone.”
“It was, but I had you and Alex at my side, and with your help, I’ve grown and changed from the selfish man I once was.”
“You have. Arrogant and opinionated but no longer selfish.”
He snorted.
“Knowing my sister was fighting for her life and I could not reach her was the most terrifying moment I have ever experienced, Ellen.”
She burst into loud, noisy tears, possibly long overdue, as she had not wept since Gray had left. Leo pulled out his handkerchief and handed it to her.
“You’re my little sister. I should protect you, and I had already failed in that, and I was about to fail again.”
“No! You have never failed me,” Ellen said.
“Ellen, my sweet, I never considered how you felt about marrying that vile old man.”
“You could not go against Father. I understood that.”
“Perhaps, but I should have tried.”
They sat in silence for a while.
“And now I need to ask you a question, Ellen, and you have to be honest with me.”
“I’m always honest with you.”
“Now we both know that for a lie,” he teased.
She snuffled out a laugh.
“Ellen, do you love Gray?”
Exhausted and heartsick, she told him the truth.
“Yes. But it matters not how I feel because he told me I must stop going out with you and Alex to help others. He demanded that I promise to do so because he cannot live with the woman he cares for plunging recklessly into danger.”
“And you said no?”
“Of course I said no. I will never again allow a man to dictate to me what I must or must not do. You cannot expect different from me, Leo.”
Her brother sighed. “Ellen, could you not have just said you’d try? Gray is a man who likes control and order. You wrestle that from his grasp, and he’s not sure how to function. He is a protector, our detective, which he will instinctively want to do if he cares deeply for someone. You.”
“I like who I am now, Leo. I don’t want to change what I have become.”
“I understand that, and loath as I am to admit that man is good enough for you, I now think he is, and trust me, that confession did not come easy.”
