“Maybe it’s time you did,” he said quietly. “You know everything about us. Seems only fair we know something about you.”
“Tell us about your niece,” Alex urged after shooting his uncle a look.
Bram hadn’t moved, just kept his eyes steady on Mungo’s face.
“Fenella is my brother’s eldest daughter,” he said. “When she was born, I was close with her, although she has no memory of that. I left when she was just a wee lass to travel after things became strained between my brother—her father—and me. It was easier that way.”
“How could it be easier to walk away from your family?” Leo frowned. “Were they horrible to you? Did they beat you?”
“Do you think I’d allow anyone to beat me?” Mungo sounded outraged.
“No, which is why I’m surprised,” Leo added.
“That wasn’t it at all. I was just... different from the start. Ididn’t fit into their world anymore. One day I realized I likely never would.”
“Different how?”
He looked at the faces before him and thought, I brought this on myself. I should have said nothing.
Nightingales were tenacious when they got a sniff of something. With so many family members, secrets were scarce because they would hound the harborer of those secrets until they yielded.
“Must you gnaw this to death?”
“Of course,” Alex said. “But first, do you have an elderly gentleman in your life who has passed? I’m sure it’s you he’s wanting to talk to, and since no one has ever come through for you, I’m excited.”
To anyone else this would have been an odd question, but when you lived with a family of clairvoyants, you got used to such things.
“I’ve no one I wish to speak with,” Mungo said quickly, heart pounding uncomfortably hard inside his chest.
“His name starts with an M. Malcolm—no,” Alex muttered. He then looked hard at Mungo, as if reading something on his face. “Mungo,” he whispered. “You carry his name.”
He could just refuse to comment. It wasn’t like they ever expected civility from him. Loyalty and protection, always, but civility, no.
“So why am I seeing…. Wait.” Alex closed his eyes. “They called you Little Mungo when you were growing up, didn’t they?” He looked delighted by that.
“I was named after my grandfather.”
“I can’t imagine anyone getting away with calling you Little Mungo,” Leo said.
“They didn’t for long.” The words were a growl.
“I wonder why he is showing up now? Something feels off. I just can’t work out what,” Alex added.
“We will discuss the other matter while you try to get information from Big Mungo,” Bram said.
“Only fair considering the times you’ve questioned us. Relentlessly, I might add,” Leo said.
“And I’ll add that if you do not tell us everything, I will set the younger members of our family onto you,” Bram said.
Mungo knew how persistent the little ones could be.
“It’s not a big deal, Bram.”
“It’s a huge deal that you felt you couldn’t bring your niece to meet us.”
Mungo sighed loudly. “I’m sorry, and it’s not that I didn’t think I could bring her here. I’m not keeping secrets from you deliberately.”
“Then what is it?” Bram demanded.
