And then she looked into his face and saw all-too-human heartbreak. She pushed to her feet and said, “Phoebe, your brother is here.”
Phoebe looked up at him and her little frown drew down further. “Go away, Kit.”
Sarah caught her breath and jerked her gaze toward the new duke. He flinched ever so slightly but did not respond in a harsh way. He very patiently stepped into the room instead and shut the door behind him.
“I cannot go away, dearest,” he said softly, and he glanced at Sarah. She nodded in encouragement. “I have some news for you.”
Phoebe froze, her hand hovering over the tower of blocks she had built. “No.”
Sarah pressed her lips together. It was obvious how difficult this was for Kit. And how horrible it was going to be for Phoebe. The little girl knew it, too, on some base, powerful level, which explained her petulant response. Normally she was exuberant and friendly.
“Phoebe,” she said gently. “Stand up. Your brother has something important to say.”
Phoebe slashed her hand out and the tower she’d built fell, blocks scattering halfway across the room with the force of her angry response. “No! Go away!”
Kit met Sarah’s eyes and she saw the devastation within. That and the helplessness that his sister’s response engendered. She moved toward him even though being close to him had always been a situation fraught with dark emotions.
“She knows,” he said softly, shaking his head. “She knows.”
Sarah glanced over her shoulder. Phoebe was now sitting on the floor, back to them, arms folded across her little chest. “I tend to agree with you,” she whispered back. “I don’t know what your father said to her earlier, but she is a child, not a fool. She knows that the time is near. Seeing you here must make her think her world has changed.”
He jerked his gaze to her and his brown eyes locked with hers, holding there, pleading and pained. “Her worldhaschanged, Sarah.”
Sarah jolted at the use of her given name—he always referred to her formally. That slip was evidence of his state of mind. For a moment all her hesitations about the man, all her memories of an ugly encounter long ago, faded. All that was left was a connection to him, a desire to soothe the anguish that lined his handsome face.
After all, she knew it well.
“Not all her world,” she whispered. “Your job, my job, from this day forward, is to reassure her that her life will be different, but not destroyed. That her home is still here, that she is loved and cared for. That she will not find darkness in all the corners where there was once light.”
He hesitated, then nodded. “Yes,” he murmured. “Let me try again.” He stepped forward and sat down next to his sister. He picked up one of the blocks and smiled. “These used to be mine,” he said, nudging her with his arm gently.
Phoebe glanced up at him at last, her upset tempered somewhat by his statement. “They were?”
He nodded and stacked one on top of the other. “Papa gave them to me, I think. I used to build big towers. Just like the one you just knocked down. I doubt any of mine were as good as that one, though.”
Phoebe smiled just a little, as if that idea that she could beat her big brother at anything was triumphant. He let out a long breath.
“Phoebe… Poppin… Papa is dead.” He said the words softly but firmly. “Do you know what that means?”
She bent her head and her little shoulders began to shake. But she murmured, “Papa said I wouldn’t see him again until I go to heaven. But that he’ll be watching over me.”
Kit let out another shuddering sigh. “Yes, that’s right.”
Her cry echoed in the quiet room, a sound of pure heartache. “But I want to see him now. I don’t want to wait.”
Kit grabbed her, dragging her into his lap, and the siblings wrapped their arms around each other. He rocked her as she cried, and Sarah held a hand to her mouth as her own tears flowed. She was not so far removed from her own loss. This reminded her keenly of a night when she’d watched her own mother’s light go out.
“I know, love,” he said, voice strained with emotion. “I don’t want to wait either. I want him here too. But…but I promise you that I will take care of you, just as he would have done. I will love you just as much. And you can depend on me.”
She pulled back a little. “So I don’t have to…go away?”
He jolted as if he’d been struck by lightning. “Go away? Why would you go away?”
“Because I don’t have a papa anymore,” she explained. “And—and girls without papas have to go away.”
Kit’s face twisted with pure horror and Sarah gasped. Phoebe had never said such a thing to her about these unfounded fears regarding her place in the world. Good God, no wonder she had been so afraid of losing her father.
Kit cupped her cheeks. “Look at me, Phoebe. You never have to go away. You will always be with me and I with you. Ineedyou here.”
