Danny gaped. “I’ve never heard you so outspoken.”
“Unimaginable that a gentleman besides Father wishes for a mind to be put before the sex?” Don’s expression was grim but fierce. “I was there that horrible day when the inspector returned you to us, remember? Seeing how strong you were then made me strive to be stronger myself.”
Danny’s heart squeezed. Her brother was the first of her family to see her that night, and the first who’d offered comfort the only way a scientific twelve-year-old boy knew how. He’dbrought her to his personal library and spent hours sitting beside her while she’d forgotten the scars and fears in the details of the world.
He thought she was strong. The truth was, she’d grown strong because he’d shared his strength.
“Don—”
“Prepare yourself, sister.” Don smiled, bypassing the gratitude. “I believe a being’s worth resides in nothing of physical substance. I can’t. You know, you’veseenwhere I go every night.” His gaze went to the line of spruces at the other end of the lake, where the first signs of nocturnal life rustled in the needled limbs. “I learn more about myself by watching animals go about their lives, predictable but adaptive, relentlessly pursuing that which they need to survive.
“As people, we forget how much we’ve been given. Observing animal behaviors, cataloguing their struggles and triumphs, my greatest hope is one day others will read my notes and think on how they may better the world for more than their own pursuits, so we may all survive.”
What an unforgiving speech. Only her brother could turn the eating habits of a flying mouse into a campaign to save humanity.
“That”—Danny found her throat was tight—“should be your speech to the House.”
He laughed. “Think anyone would listen?”
“Iwould.”
“You are a rarity, dear sister.” Don tapped the front of his journal with a concluding rap of knuckles. “Now go win your duke.”
Danny’s heart clenched even as her cheeks hurt from smiling. “So much for not telling me what to do.”
“I’m your older brother.” He grinned, tapping his journal a second time. “I can’t go completely against my nature.”
*
Percy bolted tohis feet and left his seat by the fire to cross to the window, feeling her presence before she threw the first stone.
Chest tight, he opened the window and looked down at an apparition in dark skirts and whispered her name.
“Danny.”
The smile she offered him was guarded. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t.” God, she was beautiful with her hair unbound, her cheeks flushed from exertion. “What are you doing here?” In the middle of the night, after traversing miles alone through the woods.
“I...” She shook her head. The tip of her boot made circles in the grass. “I only meant to check how you were feeling.”
“Me?” It would serve him right to be bleeding out in a gutter while rats gnawed on his entrails. “Youwere the one injured.” He ran a hand through his hair, willing his brain to come up with something comforting to say. “I assume you couldn’t sleep?”
Fuck, he sucked at this.
“I mean,” he tried again. “I am here if you wish to talk?”
“Because I was cornered by two armed men?” she said, with a wry twist of her lips Percy didn’t understand. “Not to worry. Happens to me on a regular basis.”
He dropped his hand, only to realize it was shaking in anger. “Don’t joke about this. You could’ve been hurt. You could’ve...”Hecouldn’t say the word. The thought of her death enraged him, broke him. Only seeing her now, standing outside his window with bright eyes, dimmed the chaos building inside.
If she was here, did that mean she hadn’t decided to abandon him? Their benign parting words at her family’s townhouse had left much unsaid, including her wishes going forward.
Percy cursed himself again. He was not a bloody house pet that could be left out in the cold. He was a proper stray, unwanted except for when a kindhearted person offered a scrap of affection before returning home.
As she should do now, for her own good.
“Stay there. I’ll be down in a moment.” He didn’t wait to see if she listened. Being two stories up and having no mighty oak tree to shimmy down, Percy made his way to the back of the house and out into the yard via the servants’ entrance, each second with her out of sight a second more for his gut to twist into knots.
