She shifted so she was laying more on her side, facing him. “May I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Do youwantpeople to see that side of you?”
He shook his head without hesitation. “I do not,” he replied firmly, but then he looked at her, hesitantly, before continuing. “But I do not mind if you see that side of me.”
Ellowyn grinned brightly. “Do you know what else I see?”
“What?”
“You are afraid of nuns.”
He shook his head, smiling, as she burst out laughing. “The Brides of Christ are frightening,” he replied. “I can remembermany a nun taking a switch to me as a child. My mother employed them as governesses.”
“Your mother did not tend you?”
“Nay,” he replied. “My mother was only a mother in the literal sense. She married my father for the Exeter title but there was no affection between them. Once I was born, she considered her duty complete and went on to other pursuits.”
Ellowyn wasn’t smiling any more. “How sad,” she replied. “What of your father? Did he care for you?”
Brandt shrugged. “I was his son,” he stated the obvious. “As long as I did not shame the family name, he was civil, but he died when I was young so to be honest, I do not remember much of him. I do remember that he was very big and very intimidating.”
“Like you.”
“Like me”
“Any siblings?”
“An older sister that died in infancy.”
As Ellowyn gazed at him, she began to feel very sorry for him. His upbringing, his life, had been so unlike hers. The things she took for granted, the familial love and affection, was evidently unknown to him. He was alone.
“Then you have never had anyone close to you?” she asked. “No mother or father to love you? What about grandparents?”
He sighed remorsefully, thinking back to his dark and dismal childhood. “Nay,” he said. “There was no one.”
Ellowyn was deeply distressed. “No home, no one to care for you,” she said, “and then you apparently married a shrew who was also very cruel to you and took your children away. I am so very sorry for you, Brandt. You are a man given so much in this world yet you have so little by way of personal joy. I wish I….”
She suddenly stopped, causing him to look at her. “What do you wish?” he asked.
Ellowyn rolled onto her back, looking away from him. “I suppose I am very sorry for you, ’tis all.”
“That is not what you were going to say,” he said, his voice low and rumbling. “What do you wish?”
“I do not know.”
“You swore you would never lie to me.”
She looked at him sharply. “How do you know I am?”
He met her gaze, a knowing grin on his face. “Because I can tell,” he said. Then, he reached over and tugged on the sleeve of her dressing gown. “Tell me what you wish. I promise I will not laugh.”
She made a face at him and looked away. “I wish… I wish you would go away.”
He laughed softly. “Is that so? Well, I will not. Not until you tell me what you wish.”
She was still making that funny scrunch-nosed face when she looked at him again. “You are a nuisance.”
