In something of a shambles, Thorne trailed Dom out to the flat’s foyer and waited while he opened the door.He had no idea what he was expecting, but it wasn’t the slightly stooped, elegant figure that greeted him.
Albert Farthingdale.
His hair was silvery white now, but he still wore it carefully combed and styled in the gentle waves that complemented his lean, angular face.A few more wrinkles showed at the corners of his kind hazel eyes, but the light in them was as bright and shrewd as ever.
Those eyes creased now, gazing at Thorne with a wealth of emotion that nearly undid him.
“My dear boy,” Farthingdale said in the same softspoken, deliberate tones that had soothed Gabriel’s childhood hurts and read him stories when he couldn’t sleep.
Thorne swallowed hard, throat clicking, and Dom gave him a commiserating punch in the arm.“I’ll just leave you to it then, shall I, Farthingdale?”
“Yes, Master Dominic, go.If you please,” Farthingdale replied, eyes twinkling.“We’ll sort everything out.”
“Where are you going?”Thorne asked, suddenly desperate to avoid being left alone with this kindly old man who had never once let him down…and had never once let him get away with anything.
“I have some things to arrange,” Dom said in that vague way of his, and then he was off down the hall, whistling a merry tune, and Thorne was left holding the door open for Albert Farthingdale to enter his flat.
He watched in silence as the man who’d raised him looked around the bachelor rooms with interest.Not that there was much to see; they were lavishly appointed and entirely devoid of personality.Deliberately so.For the first time since he let the place, Thorne found himself wishing he’d put a little more effort into the décor.
“Is there tea?”Farthingdale prompted gently.“I could make some, if you?—”
“There’s coffee,” Thorne blurted.“Or I can ring for tea.If you like.”
“That’s not necessary, coffee would be lovely.You have a very nice home, if I may say so.”
“It’s not a home,” Thorne said, busying himself with the sterling silver coffee service.“It’s just a place to be.”
When he handed over the cup, Farthingdale’s well-groomed white brows were slightly raised.“Indeed.Perhaps you have outgrown this particular place.”
Throwing himself down into his favorite armchair, Thorne picked up his own discarded cup and drank it down to the bitter dregs.
Where was Lucy right now?Was she already gone?Was she out of his reach?
Ridiculous.She’d been out of his reach the whole time, even when she was wrapped in his arms.
“Why are you here?”he asked, blunt and impolite.Almost hoping to offend.
But Farthingdale, as ever, was impossible to offend.He took an unperturbed sip of his coffee before answering, “To see you.To see with my own eyes that you are well, after your ordeal.”
“As you can see, I’m fine.”
“Mmm.Quite.But could you be better?”
Thorne snorted without humor.“That was certainly always Uncle Roman’s question.How could I improve myself, be more, different,betterthan I was?”
“Your uncle asked a lot of you boys,” Farthingdale agreed.“Though no more than he asks of himself.”
“Just like Dom, you always defend him,” Thorne said.It came out in the accusatory tone of an aggrieved thirteen-year-old rather than a mature thirty-one-year-old man.
“I know him,” Farthingdale said simply, meeting Thorne’s stare.“Better than he knows himself, I’d wager.All three of you boys.My boys.”
His voice wavered, and Thorne remembered suddenly that Farthingdale had begun his career in service in his grandparents’ house as a very young man, when Thorne’s father and Uncle Roman were little boys.This man had seen multiple generations of de Veres through triumph and tragedy, and he’d never faltered in his loyalty, or in his steady affection.
He’d tried to talk to Gabriel, after the abduction.But Gabriel had been too angry to listen to anyone or anything.
That hadn’t stopped Farthingdale from writing to him.
Small missives about everyday things: a new walking stick Farthingdale had bought from a local farmer who did woodcarving in his spare time, or a recipe for Eccles cake he’d asked Cook to try.Nothing that required a reply.
