“See for yourself.”
Lochlan uncovered his eyes and burst out laughing. His tunic hung down so far that it might as well have been a dress on me, the sleeves were so long that my fingertips weren’t even visible,and I had to hold the pants with both hands to keep them from falling down.
“I didn’t think I was all that tall.”
“Maybe I’m just that short,” I teased. “There’s a reason I always pretend to be a young boy who hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet. We don’t have any rope here, do we? I need a belt.”
“No belt or rope,” Lochlan said, stifling a yawn, and returned to the wardrobe. “Try these instead. They’re from when I was younger.” He handed over a pair of much smaller pants and covered his eyes again.
The new pair of breeches fit much better, and, by tucking in the hem of the long tunic, the pants managed to stay up. The top was still very baggy, but comfortably so, and I felt much more relaxed than I had when wearing the dress. “All done,” I told him, rolling up my sleeves. “Thank you. I know it must be weird to see me wearing your clothing.”
He uncovered his eyes and took in my appearance. “Not weird at all,” he said quietly. “I actually like it.”
I grinned, squatted down beside him, and held my hands out to the flames. “There you go, being all nice again. So tell me, how did you turn out so well with Roderick as your father?”
“He wasn’t always this awful,” Lochlan said. “I know it’s hard to believe, but he used to be fun. He told a lot of jokes, and he and my mother seemed happy, at least to me.”
“What happened with your mother?” I asked, still watching the dancing fire.
Lochlan rubbed his hands together, then stretched them back toward the flames again. “When I was about six or seven, my mother didn’t want anything to do with Roderick anymore and she left. She tried to take me with her, but Roderick said he wanted me to stay and I told her the same thing. I know it probably sounds crazy to you, but he really was different back then, at least with me. He would play with me and we would goto the creek and talk all the time. I had a lot of good memories, actually. Your friend Brent used to live near us and Roderick would take us fishing. That’s where I knew him from, but…I’m always ashamed of what my father became. I try not to remind people.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. No wonder Lochlan had stayed with his father for so long, still clinging to the hope of what used to be.
“He got worse over time,” Lochlan went on. There was a hollow look to his face that made me wonder if he was simply tired or disliked talking about his childhood. “But in my youth, he used to encourage all my interests. He bought me my first knitting needles and everything. He paid for all my medical training and dance instruction, too. I thought at the time he just wanted me to be happy. I didn’t know he was involved with the slave trade to the extent he was. He would just say he had some business deals. Then he started changing.”
“Couldn’t you have gone to stay with your mother once that happened?”
“I tried once. But by that point, she had a new job and a new family, and I didn’t get along with her husband and son. I still don’t.” Lochlan stared hard at the leaping flames then added, “Elvin is my half-brother. That’s how we know each other.”
“What?!” My jaw fell open. “Elvin?”
He let out a breath of laughter and rubbed his eyes. “Yeah. That day he came to the knitting booth, I could tell how much you two disliked each other and I wondered if he’d say something. I didn’t want you to find out from him and associate me with him. I didn’t want you to dislike me.”
“You’ve never been as obnoxious as Elvin. Did you know he’s a bounty hunter with the Syndicate like me?”
“I knew. Sometimes it almost felt like a competition—Roderick was raising me and my mother was raising Elvin, and they were trying to see who did things better.”
“You win,” I told him. “There’s no competition. You’re the winner. None of the other bounty hunters like Elvin, except the man who assigns new missions.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “That’s good to know. I really don’t want to wish him any ill, but being in the middle of my parents’ feud gets wearisome.” His shoulders relaxed. “I like being with you, where I can just be myself and I don’t have to put on an act.”
Another rumble of thunder vibrated the windows.
“I used to resent my mother a lot when I was younger,” Lochlan went on. “She was always strict on rules and Roderick felt like more fun. When it came time to choose who I wanted to live with, it felt like an easy choice, but I think things would have turned out very differently if I’d gone with my mother.” He stifled a yawn. It had to be getting close to dawn, though I wouldn’t be able to tell when sunrise would be with the storm like this.
“Can we look at the papers now?” I asked. “We’re dry, so we won’t damage them.”
Lochlan rubbed his eyes again and stifled another yawn. “I don’t know if I can get it all out and unlocked right now.”
“Please.”
Lochlan wearily dragged himself over to the wall and began knocking on the panels, squinting in the darkness, and I went with him, watching for the magical time when the papers with information about my sister would emerge.
I’d never seen Lochlan look so tired. His eyes were bloodshot and his eyelids kept drooping, and his entire body seemed limp. He was doing so much for me, and the papers wouldn’t evaporate overnight. Even if we did get the trunk out, the lighting was so poor that we wouldn’t be able to read them.
“Let’s wait till morning,” I finally decided. “I can take the first watch. You get some rest.”
“There’s no need for a watch,” Lochlan protested. “I already locked the door again so we’re safe, and you need sleep too.”
