“My sister.” He chuckled. “When you meet Genevieve, you will understand.”
Ah yes, there it was again. The specter of his family. A reminder of just how little she truly knew about the man she had just married. “How many siblings do you have, Mr. Winter?”
“Eleven in all that I am aware of. I would not be surprised if another half dozen rattled loose at some point. Old Papa Winter liked to dip his quill into any inkwell he could find.”
Her cheeks flushed at her husband’s plain speech, and she decided to ignore that particular statement. “How many brothers and sisters do you have, aside from the other Winters?”
“The respectable Winters, you mean?” His tone was grim. “Amongst the disreputable bastards, there is one sister, Genevieve. Then there is Devil, Demon, Blade, and Gavin.”
The name Devil brought with it memories of the hulking man who had escorted her to Dominic’s office that first night. “Do you have two acquaintances named Devil, or is the ferocious, scowling beast skulking about The Devil’s Spawn your brother?”
“I will have to tell him you think him a beast. He will be pleased.”
“But heisyour brother, is he not?”
Now that she thought about it, the two men shared similarly massive, muscular builds. Both were tall, with dark hair. Both menacing.
“He is my half brother. Our mothers were Covent Garden doxies. Apparently Papa Winter had a certain preference. Young, pretty, and desperate.”
“Where are your mothers now?”
His jaw tightened. “Gone.”
She could not be certain if the glimmer in his dark eyes was grief or something else, but she felt the need to offer her sympathy. Life in the streets of London could not have been easy. “I am sorry.”
“I do not require your pity, Duchess. Our mothers sold us to one of their patrons for a bit of coin. Neither Devil nor I have mourned their passing.”
“Sold you?” Adele had never heard of such a thing, the selling of children. Surely it could not mean what she feared?
“To a man who wanted to…” He stopped, shaking his head. “It matters not. Devil saved us both before it went too far.”
She wanted to know more. Indeed, Adele was startled to realize she wanted to know everything there was to know about him. He intrigued her. He terrified her. He…made her feel things she had never felt before.
He was also the father of her child.
A child whose existence she had yet to inform him of.
Adele was going to tell him, she decided. But then, the carriage rolled to a stop outside a coaching inn, and he threw open the door to the conveyance as if he could not wait a moment longer to remove himself from it.
An icy wall of winter’s wind hit her.
Fitting.
She held her tongue and followed her new husband into the inn.
Chapter 10
His wife was asleep.
Floating hell.
His first evening as a married man was not progressing as Dom had hoped it would when he had gone to the public rooms for ale. He had been doing his damnedest to be considerate. A new state for him, it was certain. She had suggested she needed some time to attend to private matters.
One pint had turned into another. Then another.
Until he had decided it would be prudent to return to his bride.
To hissleepingbride.
