by Vella, Wendy
“We are far too old to slide down bannisters, and yet still we do it. It’s something of a tradition in our families, is that not so, Tatters?” Warwick said to the butler.
“Indeed it is” came the serene reply.
“Yes, and I’m always the best, as I weigh less. Dev set out a mark on the floor, and as yet, no one has reached it but I,” Samantha bragged.
“Cam nearly reached it.” Warwick’s smile slipped. “And I too.”
“However, nearly is not close enough is it? It is very nice to meet you, Harry. We shall join you shortly.” She then grabbed Warwick’s arm and tugged him with her. Soon they’d disappeared through an open doorway.
“If you’ll come this way, Mr. Sinclair.” The butler, Tatters, took him up the stairs, and then he was before double doors. Harry had never run from anything in his life before. He had the urge to do so now. This is a mistake. The butler opened the doors.
“Mr. Harry Sinclair,” he announced, which Harry guessed meant he had to enter the room. He stopped two steps inside. Seated at a huge table were Lord Sinclair and a woman; with them were a boy and two girls.
“Well, now this is a pleasure.” He rose and came forward. “But where is your grandmother?”
“She stays at the Grillion Hotel when in London. I did not tell her of this meeting.”
“Next time then,” he said. “Now, this beautiful woman is my wife, Lilly. This is my cousin Harry, love.”
“Hello, Harry, it’s wonderful to meet you.” She had blond hair styled simply and was dressed as any society lady should be; it was her eyes that drew attention. They appeared to be the color of lilacs.
Harry shook his cousin’s hand and bowed before the woman. He could play the gentleman when required, his father had ensured that. Tutors had been a part of his life for many years.
“There are noblemen in every corner of the world, Harry, I will not have my son unable to speak with them as an equal.”
And so he’d learned, and in situations like this was grateful for the years he’d studied.
“This is my son, Mathew, and daughters, Hannah and Meredith. Say hello to your cousin.”
The boy shook his hand, and the girls giggled their way through curtsies.
“We like cousins,” the little girl said with a lisp. “And we shall call you Uncle Harry.” She then smiled at him, and he was sure there would be a few broken-hearted men in her future. Harry smiled back because it would be rude not to do so, and he liked children, even if they had the surname Sinclair.
“Now if you three will visit the nursery briefly, we want to have a chat with your new uncle,” Lord Sinclair said. He then placed a kiss on the head of each child before his wife shooed them from the room.
I am an uncle.
“You’ll forgive the hour of my visit. I have meetings and could fit in no other time, my lord.”
“I am Devon, or my family calls me Dev.”
“Among other things,” his wife added. “And I am Lilly.”
“Yes, thank you for that, darling.” Harry watched as Devon kissed his wife right there in front of him.
“Stop!”
Harry turned as a woman burst into the room, followed by a man. “This conversation will not begin until we are all present.”
“How did you know he was here?” Devon asked. Her reply was to raise a brow.
“Really? You felt him already?”
“It was a strange feeling of anticipation, and I felt I needed to find you. Of course. Essie can’t make it, but she saw us hurrying past her door and asked me to tell Harry she will arrive as soon as she can.”
“This is my sister Eden, the Duchess of Raven,” Lord Sinclair said. “And her husband, James. She is the nosiest among us.”
“The Duke of Raven,” Lilly added.
It seemed the Sinclairs had married well.
“Your graces.” He bowed deeply.
“He has better manners than the rest of you,” the duke said, shaking Harry’s hand. “I was about to leave for a meeting when my wife told me we were needed here. Of course, her wish is my command, so I followed, obedient to the last.”
“Call us James and Eden, Harry.” Eden smiled at him. Her eyes weren’t green, but gray, unlike the others he’d met of her family.
“God’s blood, I have a hunger!” Cambridge Sinclair entered the room next, dragging a woman behind him. “To have been roused from my table without nary a morsel passing my lips, it is amazing I have not fainted.”
“You know Cambridge, and this is his wife, Emily,” Lord Sinclair drawled. “Besides his family, his main love in life is food.”
“Sad but true.” Cambridge shook Harry’s hand, then wandered back out the door. He was then heard issuing orders about needing more food.
“Hello, Harry, it really is wonderful to meet you.” Emily was blonde, slender, and his guess was, a great deal quieter than her husband.
“Right, let’s sit before the others arrive and deplete my food stocks.” Lord Sinclair waved to the table.
“Others?”
“Many more.” Cambridge had returned. Dropping into a seat, he reached for the teapot. “There are plenty of Sinclairs, Harry, but I must add that the Ravens are catching us.”
“Ravens?” Harry shot the duke and duchess a look.
“You’ll understand once the entire sordid tale is explained to you.”
He remembered the conversation between Warwick and Samantha downstairs.
These people were odd, Harry thought. Not like any nobility he’d met before. There was no pomp or manners. They seemed happy to bandy insults like compliments.
Harry liked to be in control of any situation he stepped into. This was not one of those times. It made him feel uncomfortable when people did not behave as he felt they should, especially families, as he had no prior knowledge of how they worked.
“I really just wanted to talk about—”
“Sit, cousin, we need food for that discussion, and with you standing there I cannot eat, as apparently it is rude to do so,” Cambridge said, looking disgruntled.
Harry sat because he wanted to, between Eden and Emily. He would listen and then leave.
“Oh, I did wonder if it was you.” Wolf Sinclair arrived. With him was a beautiful woman with red-gold hair. In her arms was a child only a few months old. He was grizzling. She was jiggling him about, trying to soothe him.
His stomach is sore. Harry tried to ignore the infant’s wails and the acid swirling in his gut. Rose, who had a surprising Scottish burr, was also attempting to soothe the child by singing to him.
That will not work.
“We were unsure if you would come,” Lilly said.
“I would like you to explain to me what you alluded to on my ship, my lord.”
“Dev.”
“I do not have long, as I am to attend a meeting,” Harry lied. “So please tell me what I need to know, as my work cannot wait, my lord.”
“Dev.”
“He is using your title to put us in our place,” Cam added. “He also wants us to know he works, as apparently we don’t.”
“I never said that, Mr. Sinclair.”
“Cam, and you thought it.”
“No, I didn’t. I know of Lord Sinclair’s ships, so clearly he is also a businessman, Mr. Sinclair. I wish only to know what you spoke of on my ship. I will then leave.”
“Cam, and we all work actually, but we’ll get to that later,” he said. “The rest of the family are due to arrive shortly, as we have another member to welcome. A Raven this time.”
“How many more of you are there?” he asked Eden
“A great many more.”
Wolf got to his feet and took the babe from Rose, but the child’s cries got louder.
His stomach is sore! Harry made himself stay seated when everything inside him screamed to get up and see to the child. It was the one thing in his life he couldn’t control, this affinity he had with children.
“I will n
ot be staying to make acquaintances. I wish only to discuss the matter we spoke of earlier. I will then be leaving.” Excellent, Harry. Stay on point.
“We will get to that,” Lord Sinclair said.
“Are you hungry? The food should be arriving soon,” Lilly asked.
“Of course he is, look at him. He’s built like Dev and Wolf,” Cam said.
“Uncanny how the eldest sons all look alike.” The duke was studying him. “I wonder if the rest will follow as you believe it has, Dev.”
Harry felt like he was the only one in the room who wasn’t in on the secret. “What is going on?”
“We can explain.” Eden rested a hand on Harry’s shoulder. The feeling that ran through him was the same sensation he’d experienced when her brother had touched him, or he’d shaken the hand of a Sinclair.
“I really don’t think—”
“Good idea, it’s not something I’ve ever perfected,” Cam said.
“Amen,” Lord Sinclair added.
“It really is not worth tiring yourself out over the matter, especially if your stomach is empty. Now where is the food? It needs replenishing,” Cambridge said.
“I came for answers, not a family reunion,” Harry protested.
“I think you have to meet someone to have a reunion,” Cambridge added. “Don’t quote me on that, but I’m fairly sure it’s cast in stone somewhere.”
Silver-lidded dishes started arriving as servant after servant deposited them on the sideboard and removed the empty ones.
“Can we not just have them on the table, Dev? I have to get up now.”
“We have company, Cam. At least give Harry the illusion we have manners for a minute or two.”
“It can be a little overwhelming, Harry, but believe me when I say these are good people. In fact, I have yet to find any better,” Emily said. “Give them a chance. I promise you will not regret it.”
“I just can’t stop him crying.” Rose looked distressed, and her husband no better. As if on cue, the baby screamed louder, and Harry’s stomach clenched, but he fought it.
“I have tried everything.” Rose looked near tears.
Pushing back his chair before he could stop himself, Harry regained his feet and approached Rose and Wolf.
It will be all right, little man.
“His stomach is sore.”
“How do you know?” Wolf asked him.
“I just do. Give him to me.” He held out his hands, and his cousin handed the boy to him. “What’s his name?”
“Ruben.”
Harry rested the babe facedown along one arm and began to walk about the room, patting his back. It did not take long for the child to stop weeping and let out a large belch.
There now, Ruben, rest easy.
“Christ! So it’s children with you?” Wolf was standing with Rose, watching him. It was he who spoke.
“Pardon?” Harry saw everyone had stopped what they were doing and was focused on him.
“It’s animals with me,” Wolf added.
As if he’d commanded it, the door burst open, and in came a shaggy dog. It made for Wolf Sinclair and settled down on his foot, resting on his leg.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Harry went to hand Ruben back to his mother, but the boy screamed, so he settled him in the crook of his arm once more and continued to rock from side to side.
“Well, it’s not normal behavior, is it?” Cam said. “You the businessman with the ruthless reputation, and someone I don’t believe has a wife or child?”
“I do not.”
“Well, you just took Ruben, an infant that you’ve never met before, from a man you don’t really know, and began wandering about the room patting his back. I’ve yet to see anyone else do that.”
“He was in pain. His stomach was sore,” Harry protested.
“What did you feel when he was crying?” Eden asked him.
“What?”
“Just answer the question, Harry.”
“My stomach hurt,” he muttered.
James started laughing, as did Devonshire Sinclair.
“I fail to see the humor in this situation.”
“Welcome to the family, Harry. You’ll fit right in,” Rose said, moving to his side. She placed a kiss on his cheek and then another on the cheek of her son before taking her seat at the table with her husband at her side, leaving him standing with her child.
“Sit.” Dev waved him back to his place.
With few other options open to him, Harry did as he was told, but only because he wanted to. He settled the babe in the crook of his arm, which Ruben seemed quite happy with, as he waved a chubby fist at him.
“Now, cousin. About these gifts you have,” Devonshire said.
Chapter 5
Maddie woke to her daughter patting her cheek.
“Hello.” She hugged Fleur close, her little body warm as they cuddled together.
“Have we stopped now, Mama?” Her daughter’s words brought tears to her eyes. She’d done everything she could to keep Fleur happy and safe during the three years she’d lived. Vowed that she would never know fear like Maddie had. She’d wanted stability for her, and Jacques had offered that until his death.
“Yes, my darling, we have stopped traveling.” For now.
“Hungry, Mama.”
“As am I. Shall we go and find Uncle Rory and get something to eat?”
“Uncle Rory!” Fleur got out of her arms and began bouncing up and down on the bed. “I like Uncle Rory.”
“As you’ve never met him, I don’t see how you could.” Maddie laughed as Fleur lunged at her.
But she had told her daughter about both her uncles, simply because one day she might have need of their support.
“So big.” Fleur climbed off the bed and began to investigate her surroundings with the resilience of a toddler who had something new and exciting presented to her.
For all that the last few days had been traumatic, the child showed no signs they’d affected her, much to Maddie’s relief.
Getting out of bed, she went to the windows. Drawing the curtains slightly told her it was daylight, just not what the hour was. She looked down at the road below and a carriage that was traveling along it. This was a different world for them, and not just in what they would see.
“Hungry, Mama.”
She found their clothes folded neatly on a chair. Lifting the dress she’d worn to England, she sniffed it, and the scent told her it had been washed. She hadn’t stirred when whoever did this came into their room. Maddie was usually a light sleeper, but exhaustion had kept her slumbering for hours, it seemed.
“Pretty colors.” Fleur was running her hands over the chair covers.
“It is. Now come here and we will wash and dress.”
Getting what they needed out of her bag, Maddie washed both herself and Fleur in the fresh water that had also appeared, and then dressed their hair. Once this was done, she made the bed before leaving the room.
“Did Aimee enjoy her sleep in that lovely big bed?” Her daughter’s bundle of rags that she’d fashioned into a doll was rarely far from her side. Fleur had it tucked under her arm now.
“She did, Mama. This is a big house.” Fleur’s eyes were swinging from left to right as they walked.
She’d been too tired to really see Max’s house last night, but now it was very evident her brother was indeed a man of considerable wealth.
High ceilings, chandeliers, cabinets filled with treasures.
“Good morning, Mrs. Caron.” The man from last night appeared. “My name is George, and I am Mr. and Mrs. Huntington’s butler. If you should need anything at any time, then please do not hesitate to ask my assistance.”
“Thank you, George. And thank you for cleaning our clothes.”
“I shall pass your kind words on to the staff, Mrs. Caron.”
“This is my daughter, Fleur.”
He bowed deeply, making the little girl giggle. Like Maddie, Fleur had not had any
exposure to the wealthy or their servants. This was all a novelty for her.
“Good morning to you, Miss Fleur.”
“Say ‘good morning, George,’” she said in French. Fleur understood English, but was more comfortable with her native language.
“Good morning, George.”
“Could we go somewhere to have food, George? My daughter has not eaten for some time.”
“Of course, Mrs. Caron. If you follow me, I will show you to the parlor where the family are seated eating their morning meal.”
“What is the time please, George.”
“It is nine o’clock in the morning, Mrs. Caron.”
Good Lord, she’d slept for hours.
Holding Fleur’s hand, she walked the long hall, following the butler. Soon she would see her brothers; one she wanted to, the other she didn’t. Last night, seeing Max in her exhausted state had brought the longing she’d carried inside her since his departure from France to the surface. Today she was stronger. He’d left her, and Rory said his reasons were good, but she still felt the pain and anger of his loss inside her.
George motioned for her to enter a room, and inside she found her brothers along with Essie and a boy. Bran was lying on the floor. The dog rose and woofed as he saw her.
“Maddie!” Rory reached her first. His hug was like Max’s. He surrounded her. It was all-encompassing, and she could do nothing but respond.
This was the brother who had not left her. The brother who always kept her safe.
“I have so many questions, but the first is, how do you feel?” He gripped her shoulders, his eyes roaming her face.
Dressed in a deep green jacket, matching waistcoat, and white shirt, he looked a gentleman also. They looked alike, her brothers, with their chestnut hair and tawny eyes. Both big and strong. But Rory had always been the softer of the two. Perhaps that was simply because Maddie knew him better.
“I have never slept for so long, but I feel much better, thank you.”
“I can’t believe you are actually here and that we are all together again,” Rory said. “I’m so sorry Jacques passed away. You should have told us.”
“I needed some time, Rory.”
“Of course. Will you tell me what brought you to us now?”