Scent Of Danger (A Sinclair & Raven Novel Book 4)

by Wendy Vella

  “Of course.”

  “I heard what happened to Emily, and that you saved her. But you were thrown from that carriage and—”

  “You should not have listened, Warwick.” Releasing the twins, he stepped closer and grabbed his brother. Lifting his hair, he noted the plugs of wax in his ears. Like Eden, Warwick’s strong sense was hearing.

  “I have them in.”

  “I see that, and I’m sorry you heard what was said, but I assure you all is well now, and both Emily and I are unhurt.”

  He nodded, then faced forward once more. It was a burden they carried, because Cam remembered when he was aware of the difference between him and others. It had not been a happy moment. It would take time to adjust, but with the help of he, Dev, Essie, and Eden, they would get through it.

  “That man is riding his horse without holding the reins!”

  Looking to where Dorrie pointed, Cam found Captain Sinclair approaching. He was indeed riding without holding the reins, and the horse was magnificent. Huge, with a long dark mane, he had hooves the size of ham hocks. Cam had first seen the animal the day Emily had been abducted.

  Man and horse stopped beside them without the rider issuing the horse a command.

  “Captain Sinclair,” Cam acknowledged. “I hope you had no adverse effects after the rescue.”

  “Wolf,” the man said, dismounting. “And no. It took a while to warm up, but other than that I am well, thank you, Mr. Sinclair.”

  “Cam.” He held out a hand. “As I was not myself that day, please allow me to thank you again on behalf of Miss Tolly.” Those eyes, Cam remembered, saw like his brother did. They too were piercing in their intensity. Just how much they saw was yet to be determined.

  The horse stood still as a statue now. Still enough to intrigue Warwick, who instantly went to pat him.

  “Apollo will not harm him.”

  “I can see that.” Cam watched his little brother stroke the soft muzzle.

  “Apollo! He is god of so many things,” Somer shrieked.

  “Yes, music, poetry, and medicine just to name a few,” Dorrie added.

  “Very good, girls. Please allow me to introduce you to your younger cousins, Wolf. Girls, this is Captain Sinclair, but he is known as Wolf. Master Warwickshire Sinclair, Miss Somerset Sinclair, and Miss Dorset Sinclair.”

  The captain bowed, and when he rose his smile showed off a row of white teeth.

  “How wonderful, I have little cousins as well as big ones.”

  “And you, Wolf. Do you have sisters?”

  “Yes, two actually; they reside in Dorset with my mother,” he said, smiling at Dorrie. “Both are younger.”

  “Would you like to come and meet your cousins properly. All are inside,” Cam added.

  “But we are to go to the park!” Somer squealed.

  “You forget your manners, Somer.”

  The little girl hung her head.

  “Sorry, Cam.”

  “No apology necessary, Miss Somer. I love the park also.”

  “Come with us then, Captain Sinclair!” This time it was Dorrie who squealed. His sisters rarely spoke in gentle voices.

  “Wolf.” He smiled at the children.

  Cam raised a hand to quiet them. “We shall introduce our new cousin to everyone first, and then go to the park. Captain Sinclair is of course welcome to accompany us, but you will not force him to do so.”

  “Cam?”

  He turned to find Essie approaching. She’d likely come to find him and talk about what had just happened, but he didn’t want to discuss it, because he wasn’t sure what the hell was going on—only that something had changed since Emily’s attempted abduction, and now he was aware of her as he’d never been before.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “My sister, Wolf, Mrs. Huntington. I believe you met her the other day.”

  “Yes I did, but we were not formally introduced. A pleasure, Mrs. Huntington, and thank you for your care. I took the tonic you sent around to my lodgings and felt much better for it.”

  “Wolf is coming inside, Essie. So let’s get along, as my extremities are freezing,” Cam said, nudging the children forward. He wondered at his reception from everyone when he returned. His words had likely shocked them all.

  “We shall hand Apollo to a groom upon arrival, Warwick. Don’t fuss,” he told his little brother, who was showing signs of not moving.

  “We are very bright,” Somer said.

  “Somer, I have told you that makes you sound like a braggart to anyone but family,” Cam said.

  “But Wolf is family.”

  “She has you there,” the captain said.

  “Look at Myrtle, she is pressed to Wolf!”

  Cam looked at the dog, and as Dorrie had said she was indeed pressed to the man’s leg.

  “How strange, she rarely likes people she does not know,” Essie said.

  “Animals like me.”

  “It sounds like you will fit right in, Wolf, as we have peculiar talents also.”

  Cam felt it again, a gentle stirring of the air around them, like one force meeting another. It seemed their strength was about to grow again.

  “Ask us something, Wolf. Anything, and we shall answer it!”

  Cam rolled his eyes as Somer skipped to his side, grabbed his hand, and swung it several times. Cam picked her up and threw her in the air. She squealed, as he’d known she would.

  “When was Julius Caesar assassinated?”

  “44 BC,” Warwick said before one of the twins could answer. “You need to try harder than that, Cam.”

  “I’m easing you into it.”

  “What does in hac causa mihi aqua haeret mean?”

  “Your Latin is very good, Cam.”

  “It has to be, these three challenge us constantly, Wolf.” Behind them, Cam could now hear the twins and Warwick conferring, their fertile brains working through the answer to his question.

  “And I am Essie. How did your name change from Christian to Wolf, cousin?”

  “I was born Christian, but my father called me Wolf from a young age, as I used to howl like one, and I have used it ever since.”

  There was something of Dev in him, Cam thought. The way he tilted his head and walked.

  “The Romans say that the water stopped for them,” Somer said. “It is when you can no longer go on, and reach a point when your muse has stopped, or you are at a stand.”

  “Good Lord,” Wolf said, looking at the children. “You are indeed very bright.”

  They smiled.

  “How many ribs does a horse have?” he then asked.

  “That actually may stump them,” Cam whispered. “I’m not sure they’ve studied animals overly.”

  “Eighteen pairs,” Warwick said slowly, and Cam could almost see his mind working. “But some have been found with nineteen.”

  “Of course, occasionally I’m wrong.”

  “Very good. How many teeth?” Captain Sinclair questioned.

  The twins were not pleased their brother knew the answers and they did not. They would be requesting more literature to read.

  “Forty,” Warwick said.

  “And now we have arrived.” Essie urged everyone through the front door, a door Cam had not long exited.

  He felt it again, the tension at seeing Emily. He hoped this settled down, because it would be bloody annoying if it did not. There was also a question over how everyone would treat him after his outburst; he guessed he would soon find out.

  “Are the families still in the duke’s study, Buttles?”

  “No, Mrs. Huntington, they are now taking refreshments in the cerulean parlor.”

  “Blue,” Somer whispered to Captain Sinclair. “Cerulean is a big word for blue.”

  The children ran on ahead, knowing this house as intimately as they did the others the family owned on the street.

  The adults followed at a slower pace. The cerulean parlor was indeed full when they entered, and Cam found Emily seated with Sa
mantha and his little siblings. Before them was a large tray of food.

  “While I think you could have chosen a more private setting for your words, Cam, I believe they were accurate,” James said, coming to meet him and drawing him to one side.

  “I’m sorry for speaking them in the manner I did, but not for the content. There is something riding Emily, to make her behave the way she does. I just don’t know what.”

  “Why does Emily’s behavior concern you so much?”

  Why indeed.

  “Perhaps you need to give that some thought, and I shall consider what you have said.”

  “Ah—”

  “We shall let the matter rest for now, Cam.”

  Relief had him exhaling loudly. He wasn’t going to give the matter any thought, because he didn’t care about Emily’s behavior, he cared about the way she treated her family. Cam felt better after thinking it through.

  “James, this is Captain Sinclair. He is known as Wolf,” Essie said, making the introductions.

  “Another one.” James sighed. “Just when I thought we were gaining on them.”

  “Pardon?” Wolf looked confused.

  “The Ravens have fewer numbers than the Sinclairs, Captain. Seeing as I have recently found a brother and sister, I had hoped our numbers were gaining on them, but with your arrival, I fear that hope is now dashed.”

  “He has two sisters,” Essie said.

  “I suggest we are beaten, brother,” Max added, coming to shake Captain Sinclair’s hand. “I am Max.”

  “Of course our intellect far outstrips theirs, so it is not too much of a concern.”

  “Tsk tsk, James, we all know that for a tall tale. Why, marriage to my sisters increased the intelligence in your family tenfold,” Cam added.

  “And where are you staying in London, Wolf?” Dev asked.

  “I have lodgings, but am seeking new ones.”

  “You can move in with me if you wish?” Cam said.

  His cousin looked shocked. “I-I…. You can’t possibly want that. We barely know each other.”

  “You are blood, Captain, and if that were not the case, then your actions the other day would have assured me of your character. The bed is yours should you need it.”

  “But surely you wish for your privacy?”

  Dev snorted.

  “You have met my family. As you can see, privacy is not something I am used to.”

  “I should be obliged, just until I find other accommodations, Cam.”

  “Excellent. Move in when you wish.”

  “I will, and thank you.” He and Cam shook hands, and soon he was deep in conversation with Dev.

  “Tell me about your vision, Wolf? You can speak freely here, everyone is aware of what we have.”

  Cam moved closer to be part of the conversation, for now putting distance between him and Emily.

  “It is not easy to speak of, as before today, only my two sisters would understand.”

  “Of course, it is not an easy burden we carry,” Dev said. “But it is something that we have learned to live with. I am sure you used your senses while doing your duty to your country?”

  Color flushed Wolf’s cheeks.

  “Many times. But my strongest sense is the affinity I have with animals. I can feel what they feel.”

  “This I have witnessed,” Cam said, and explained to Dev how Wolf’s horse had moved without his guidance on the reins.

  “Myrtle certainly seems to like you.” The dog was still pressed to his side.

  “I see well at night, and long distances. The colors come in flashes, but I cannot control them. Usually when I am near a sick person, or someone gripped by a fierce emotion.”

  “And your sisters, Wolf? Do they have a developed sense?” Eden came to her cousin’s side. No doubt she had heard everything anyway.

  “One has a developed sense of taste, the other hearing.”

  Eden clapped her hands together in excitement. “How wonderful, another like me.”

  “There is no one like you, my darling,” James said, joining her.

  They talked about their senses, and the uncle and aunt that they did not know, and began to acquaint themselves with Wolf Sinclair.

  “He is like Dev,” Essie whispered as she drew Cam to one side. “In mannerism and demeanor.”

  “Very much.”

  “Are you all right, Cam?”

  His sigh wasn’t loud, but she heard it.

  “What happened in James’s study is not like you, Cam. Yes, you can be loud and demonstrative, but usually it is in fun, or a verbal debate. Rarely have I seen you angry, at least not in a long time.”

  They both knew when he had been angry. His behavior had nearly destroyed the family he loved. He would never, ever forget that.

  “I am tired, Ess. My body still hurts, and I am not myself.”

  She rose to her toes and kissed his cheek.

  “Yes, you are all those things, my dear brother, but there is also something else bothering you. Something to do with Emily. But I will not push; you will talk to me when you are ready.”

  Essie left his side to go to Max, and Cam found his eyes searching for Emily. She was laughing, her pale face suddenly alive as she played with the little ones. It hurt his chest to see it, and he hoped like hell that was because he had consumed two macaroons in quick succession upon entering the room.

  What had she meant by saying the word guilt?

  CHAPTER NINE

  Emily would not look at Cam, in case she stormed across the room, which would be extremely painful given the state of her body, and fired a volley of insults at his head, which would achieve nothing except cleansing her spleen and shocking everyone else in the room. How dared he say the things he had... even if there was some truth to his words, she admitted silently.

  “You may all dance about her, but I will not. She has been with this family long enough now to feel one of us.”

  When had he realized how she felt? Him, of all of them, had cut to the core of her insecurities. Emily had never voiced her thoughts, because they would have been selfish and ungrateful, but she’d felt them.

  “Equal in every way that matters, as Max does, and yet she still acts like a visitor.”

  It had been her own private battle, something that waged silently inside her. A feeling of being inferior, of being a burden to James, and then Max. And that she would continue to be so into her old age as she had no means of support. Not exactly true, as she was earning some money, just not a great deal.

  James insisted on giving her money, but she rarely spent it on anyone but Samantha.

  “You are secretive and contained, and rarely let anyone watch over you.”

  Cam had left the room after speaking these words, and the silence had been loud enough to make Emily wince. No one had spoken for several long, drawn-out heartbeats, and then everyone had talked at once, as if Cam had not just exposed her with those words. Emily had left the room on the guise of collecting Samantha to take tea with them all, but in truth, she’d needed to escape before they all started asking her questions about what Cam had meant.

  She’d felt their eyes on her when she left, and Max had opened the door, his hand lingering on her shoulder.

  “Are you all right?”

  She’d managed a nod, and may even had said “yes,” but the truth was she had been shocked.

  “I hope you are feeling better today, Miss Tolly?”

  Emily got to her feet as Captain Sinclair appeared before her.

  “Thank you, Captain, I am much better. And I must also thank you for helping in my rescue.”

  His smile was just like Cam’s, although a touch more somber.

  “I’m afraid I can only take credit for the transportation. It was Cambridge who took the risks. He leapt onto your carriage, and then dived into the water to save you. It was an act of incredible bravery, and I’m just pleased you are both here today to speak of the matter.”

  Emily looked to where Cam
stood a few feet away. As if sensing her regard, he turned and their eyes caught. She pulled away first. He was the reason she was alive today; it was a sobering thought, and shriveled her anger toward him.

  “Yes, it was a brave act indeed.”

  “May I have a word, Captain?”

  “Of course. Excuse me, Miss Tolly.”

  Emily watched him walk at Essie’s side. The two of them were soon talking to Eden. The rest of the family were scattered around the room. Had they all treated her gently... different from each other? Not confronted or questioned her because they feared she would not cope? Had her behavior allowed them to see her as weak and vulnerable? If so, then she had misled them, because she was neither. Shy, yes, guilty, definitely, and also intimidated. She was the baseborn child of a duke and a maid; her life before coming here had not been spent in a grand house, eating with the best silver service with servants to see to her needs. She constantly feared she would disgrace herself, and in doing so had portrayed herself as timid.

  “I call Roman gods. In French.”

  Emily turned at Warwick’s words, glad to have something else to occupy her thoughts. She was well used to the Sinclair children. They played word games continually, and their siblings were constantly tossing out words for them to spell or mathematical equations for them to solve. They were not a normal family, she knew this, and knew there was much to them that she had yet discovered; or perhaps it was fairer to say she had never asked. Was Cam right, should she try harder to show this family she felt one of them? Did she feel that way? Was she to live in the shadows of its members her entire life?

  Her head ached from all the conflicting emotions. She needed her room, and the quiet solitude it offered, but then wasn’t that where she usually ran?

  “I shall take Roman,” Emily said before she could stop herself. Her French was better and she’d been studying Roman gods with Samantha.

  “And I shall take gods,” a deep, familiar voice drawled.

  Of course he had said that. Emily made herself look at Cam as he sat on the arm of the chair opposite. The one his twin sisters and Samantha were all wedged in, like peas in a pod.

  “We shall need a shoehorn to get you out of there,” he teased the little girls, who giggled.