“He did his best,” Dominic said, setting his jaw.
“You really can’t stop defending him, can you?”Thorne found himself genuinely curious.
“It goes both directions,” Dominic said sullenly.“When Roman goes on a rant about your latest misadventure, I defend you.”
Despite knowing that was an unfair position for Dominic to be thrust into, the thought of it made Thorne feel… He didn’t know.Grateful, perhaps.
The atmosphere between them lightened gradually, like the sun rising in the sky to stream into the open window.It was good to understand, finally.Good to be able to lay some of his longest-standing grudges and resentments to rest.
Perhaps he ought to feel self-loathing for the fact that he’d been too furious and blinded by emotion to see the truth when it would have made a difference to the way his life unfolded, but Thorne found he couldn’t.His recent experiences, living those few precious weeks as Gabriel, had produced an aching, grudging sympathy for that past version of himself.
He’d been young.He’d been in pain.And he’d felt hideously, horribly, entirely alone.
“Have you ever thought about the fact that Roman was eighteen when his brother died,” Dom said musingly, “and he was given guardianship of the next Duke of Thornecliff?Eighteen.Younger than you were when you were taken.”
Thorne held up a placating hand, amused that their minds had been running along such similar lines.“Enough.I concede, out of the three of us sad bastards, Roman wins the prize for being saddest.”
To his surprise, Dominic grinned and waggled his brows impishly.“Maybe that would have been true, once upon a time.But just recently?You’ve got him beat.”
Black weariness swept over Thorne once more.He picked up his cup of cooling coffee and tossed it back, grimacing.“Yes, well.If my mood isn’t to your liking, you may feel free to leave at any time.”
He’d made the same comment, or something similar, several times since Dominic had followed him to London and installed himself in his blandly luxurious apartments on Piccadilly, but this was the first time he’d said it knowing that Dominic wouldn’t take him seriously.Knowing that Dominic understood he didn’t mean it.
“Oh, I don’t think I’m the one who will be leaving,” Dom replied in an annoyingly mysterious tone.He brandished the forgotten paper in Thorne’s face until Thorne took it with a huff.
“For God’s sake,” he complained, “where is this piece of gossip I absolutely must see?Let me read it so we can dispense with this paper and all your hinting.”
“It’s not gossip.”Dom stood and leaned over to point to the piece that ran alongside the gossip column.“It’s this.I think you’re ready to read it now.”
Thorne’s throat clenched shut.Lucy’s story, the one she’d used to subtly steer The Gentle Rogue’s actions so she could know how to find him.The story inspired by Thorne, though she hadn’t known that when she began it.The story that had parallelled their story, with a highwayman who fell in love with an innkeeper’s daughter.
The story she’d finally finished.
Thorne’s eyes raced over the small type, devouring Lucy’s lyrical prose, hungry for the sound of her voice that came through in every line as though she was whispering it into his ear.
When he got to the end, his mind was a blur of racing thoughts and unanswered questions.He went back to the beginning and read it again, more carefully this time, but he reached the same conclusion at the bottom of the page.
Jumping up from his seat, he opened his mouth to shout for his valet only to find the man already laying out clothes on the bed.Dominic leaned against one of the bedposts, looking smug.
“I took the liberty of ringing for Avery,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.“Thought you might be in a hurry to leave, once you’d finished reading.”
Thorne strode over to his cousin; it took everything he had not to grab the man by the lapels and shake him for emphasis.“You saw it too.And you think?—”
Dominic arched a brow.“You mean, did I see that the innkeeper’s daughter found out the highwayman’s secret identity and proclaimed her love for him no matter his name?Then when he callously sent her away, she took to the high seas herself, to become a pirate queen?And do I think that means Lucy loves you, no matter what you call yourself, and is about to board a ship leaving England?”
“It doesn’t change anything.”Thorne felt numb.He let Avery help him into his clothes mechanically, with barely any awareness of what his body was doing.“I don’t know why you think I’m going after her.”
“Because you’re letting Avery dress you?”Dominic’s tone was mild, but it still made Thorne flinch.“You have to go after her.”
“She doesn’t want me,” Thorne said desperately, shaking Avery off when he was too slow about tying his cravat.“She only thinks she does.”
“God, you’re impossible.”Dominic propped his hands on his lean hips, exasperated.“Luckily, I already knew that about you.So, I called for reinforcements.”
“What do you mean?”Thorne asked warily.
There was a discreet knock at the outer door of the apartment.
“And his timing is impeccable,” Dominic grinned.“As usual.”
