by Wendy Vella
“And yet she has asked specifically that you be there to help her, so I think we can dismiss that.”
His eyes ran over her face as she looked up at him, settling on her lips. He wanted to kiss her again, and this time he wanted to take his time doing so.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She turned away.
“Rose, I want to talk to you about those incidents—”
“They were random, and I have no wish to discuss them further.”
“What if they are not random?”
“Then they are due to my cousin, and as he is a fool I shall deal with him.”
“How? If he is behind them, then he has money to pay those men to abduct you on his behalf. How will you stay safe?”
“I’ll buy a pistol.”
The thought of Rose holding a pistol was not a vision he liked to contemplate.
“Have you held one before?”
“No, but I’m sure I could learn.”
“And you would actually shoot someone to defend yourself?”
“No, and I have no wish to, it will simply be used to deter anyone who attempts to harm either me or Kitty again.”
“You little fool,” Wolf whispered. “It is naive to believe that simply pointing a gun at someone will be the end of the matter. I could disarm you in a matter of seconds.”
The anger in his words had her eyes widening, but she did not back down, and if he was honest he had not expected her to.
“It matters not, as I am not your concern. Now, you will excuse me, as I need to help Mrs. Sinclair.”
Before he could stop her, she’d hurried to Em’s side.
“James’s house is closest,” Dev said.
No one argued, and soon they were walking in through the front door.
“Hello, darling, how exciting that I am soon to be presented with another niece or nephew. Come this way, I have prepared a room.” Eden met them with a smile that went a long way to calming the group.
They climbed the stairs, and Cam lowered Emily gently on the large bed, then held her hand tight.
“Right, you men, out now,” Essie said, shooing them along.
“I’m not leaving her!” Cam looked fierce. The face that usually wore a smile was grave with worry.
“As we have already delivered five babies in this family, I feel we are qualified to tell you that yes you are, and your wife is in good hands,” Eden said in a firm voice.
“I will be all right, my love,” Emily said. “And you will only worry if you are here with me, and in turn cause me to worry for you. Go now, and let your family care for you.”
Cam was torn; it took Wolf and Dev to drag him from the room after he had spoken gentle words to the woman he loved. Wolf collected Samantha with his free hand and towed her behind him. His last sight was of Rose bustling around the room preparing things.
She wants a pistol!
Tucking Samantha into his side, Wolf reassured her that all would go well as they made for James’s study. Brandy was brought. Cam paced, and the others took up positions around the room. James arrived, and then Whiskers, Samantha’s dog, who hurried to sit pressed to Wolf’s leg.
“Is your stomach sore, little man?” Wolf stroked the stiff white fur. “What have you been eating?”
“Something rotten no doubt that he dug up in the backyard after it had been fermenting for several weeks,” James said, looking resigned.
“A little boiled chicken with rice will help, but plain only.”
“He told you all that?”
Wolf raised a brow but did not reply to James.
“She says it will go smoothly, and that women do it every minute of every day, but they are not my wife,” Cam said, pacing back toward Wolf.
“And yet all she said is correct,” Dev added.
The door opened again after another scratch, and seconds later in came his ugly little black dog.
“He is so ugly he is cute,” Samantha said, dropping to her knees to hug the little beast.
“He’s a fiend,” Wolf said, stroking Whiskers. “He chews Milton’s shoes.”
“He only chews your butler’s shoes?”
“Yes, so a special shelf has been built to keep them out of his reach.”
Samantha laughed as he’d wanted her to. “And now I will go to see about chicken and rice for Whiskers, and then to my rooms to see the twins and Warwick and reassure them. Please let us know when the baby has been born, James.”
“Of course I will.” The duke kissed his sister. “But it will take some time, love.”
Hep, as his little cousins had named the dog, had only one master other than Apollo, who was the dog’s best friend, and that was Wolf.
He now slept at the foot of his bed, which no one knew. Nor that when his nightmares woke him, the little dog was there, his warm body helping chase away the bloody visions of war.
“Why Hep?” James asked. “I mean, he is plain enough, could you not have given him a more elaborate name?”
“I wanted Ares, as I have a horse called Apollo who loves the little fiend, and he was Apollo’s brother, but Warwick wanted Hep, which is actually short for Hephaestus,” Wolf said as the little beast walked around Whiskers, who was now sitting on his right boot. He then leaped onto Wolf’s lap so he could glare down at the other dog. Hep did not like to share.
“Ah.” James nodded. “Rejected by his mother, he was thrown off Mount Olympus due to his deformity. Makes perfect sense now. Obviously he has his master’s winning personality,” he added as Hep circled three times, turned his back on everyone, and settled with his nose pressed into Wolf’s stomach.
“So, the piano teacher appears again,” Dev said from his position behind James’s desk. “I find that interesting.”
“I don’t, as she was coming to give Samantha a lesson.”
“Dear God, how do you handle this!” Cam snarled, pacing away from Wolf again. “How do you allow your wives to have more than one child?”
“It has been thirty minutes, brother. If you are to pace and snarl for the entire labor, I shall be force to render you unconscious.”
“I wouldn’t mind you trying,” Cam said with a nasty glint in his green eyes.
“It is not us who suffer, Cam, remember that. It is hard to feel hopeless when the woman you love is in pain.”
“God, is she?” Cam crumpled into a chair and put his head in his hands. “I can’t stand to think of Em hurting. She has already suffered so much in her lifetime.”
“Perhaps pain was not the right word.” James glared at Dev, who raised a hand in apology. “It is a natural process, Cam, and Emily will be fine, I am sure.”
“You are to be an uncle.” Wolf smiled at James.
“That I am... again.”
Max arrived then and took the snifter of brandy his brother handed him, drinking it in a mouthful.
“I’m sure that’s meant to be savored,” James said.
“I arrived home to a note that I was wanted here due to the imminent arrival of a niece or nephew. Can I just say that while I love this family and all it stands for, I did not have this constant anxiety when I was an island.”
“Isolated?”
“Exactly.” He nodded to Wolf.
“The good with the bad, Max,” Dev said. “I have lived this my entire life.”
“Emotions are messy things,” James agreed. “I remember when I started feeling, it was not pleasant.”
Wolf listened as the men talked about the people they’d been and now were, and thought about the changes that were occurring in him. Was it simply time to change, or had Rose been the catalyst?
“Do you have anything to add to all this baring of souls, Wolf?”
“No.”
“You’re changing, cousin.”
“I’m healing,” Wolf clarified.
“Perhaps, but then why now? What do you think brought about this emotional change in you?”
“How do
you know I’m changing emotionally?”
Dev snorted. “Just a few weeks ago we discussed your head, and since then you’ve started to smile and laugh. You get involved in conversations, and the stoic, solemn man you had become is changing. Yes, you probably still strike the fear of God in those you have business dealings with by glaring them into submission, but we see the changes, and can I say I like them.”
“I smiled.”
“Rarely.”
Wolf grunted something unintelligible. He may be starting to feel again, but he wasn’t ready to speak on the matter.
“I think there are many factors,” Cam said, pacing back toward Wolf once more. “But the piano teacher is a catalyst.”
“No, she is not.”
“Did you tell them what we discovered at the Watch House?”
Wolf narrowed his eyes, attempting to threaten Cam into silence, but the expectant father had paced away again.
“You went to the Watch House?” Dev asked.
He gave in and told them what he’d learned.
“It’s a smoky business,” Max said. “Why two men, and why so close together?”
“Very smoky, and let us not forget the arrow,” James said.
“I thought we’d decided that was a random attack?” Wolf looked around the room.
“Perhaps, but then I’m still not sure why someone would randomly want to shoot an arrow in such a crowded place unless their intent was to maim or murder.”
“We have enemies,” Dev said, “let none of us forget that.”
They discussed the matter from all angles and came up with no answers, and left Wolf with acid in his gut. They then moved on to business matters, namely the mill. Food came and went, and no one left that office. Cam was incoherent with worry as the hours ticked by, and the tension in the room grew.
“Something is not right,” Cam said suddenly. “Do you both feel it?”
“Labor takes many hours, brother,” Dev replied.
“But do you feel it!”
Wolf did, and had for some time, but put it down to Cam’s worry.
“What’s wrong?” James was out of the chair in seconds, Max at his side. “Tell us!”
“I don’t know, but something is happening, I can feel it,” Cam rasped. “And it is not just emotion speaking. I—we must go to her.”
They reached the door as it opened. A pale-faced maid appeared.
“You are needed.”
They ran then, through the door and back up the stairs. The door to the bedchamber was open, so they entered.
“After the babe came she started bleeding, and I cannot stop it.” Essie’s face was clenched with worry and her dress covered in blood. Beside her stood Eden and Lilly, who looked no different. Fear was thick in the room, so thick Wolf nearly choked on it.
“There is no time to lose. I must heal her, but to do this I will need your strength.” Lilly stripped off her gloves and climbed onto the bed.
Emily lay, eyes closed, pale and lifeless. Wolf saw blood everywhere he looked, so much of it that he was plunged back to the battlefield. He heard the cries and gunfire, and felt the searing pain of a bullet ripping through his thigh.
“Emily!” Cam’s cry jerked him back. His heart pounded furiously inside his chest as he wiped sweaty palms on his thighs.
“I won’t let you leave me.” Cam climbed on the bed, lifting Emily into his arms. “Hang on, my love.” He kissed her waxen cheeks, taking her hand in his, the small slender fingers engulfed in his larger ones.
“Everyone link hands!” Dev roared, taking charge. “James, stand at Lilly’s back and hold her. Max, you watch her; if she faints, be ready.”
Wolf battled the nausea that followed a panic attack and did as he was asked.
Dev wrapped his hand around the arm Lilly placed on Emily’s stomach, and his other hand he held out to Wolf, who gripped it hard, needing to feel the contact, needing it to ground him in reality. Eden took his other hand and joined with Cam. Essie gripped Lilly’s other wrist and closed the circle by clutching Cam’s other hand. They were connected, with James and Max standing silently should they be needed. They may not have strong senses but there was no doubting the power of the Raven connection. Having them in the room increased their strength.
“All right, my love,” Dev said to Lilly.
Wolf watched as she laid her hands on Emily’s stomach.
Sensation moved through him like a thousand bee stings.
“Come on, Em,” Wolf said softly, forcing himself to focus on her color. He switched his vision as he knew Dev had.
“Her color is stronger,” Dev said softly, switching his gaze from his wife back to Em. Wolf focused on the patient.
“She’s not leaving me!” Cam’s cry tugged more emotion from Wolf’s chest. He felt his pain.
“No, cousin, we won’t let her,” he said, watching Em’s color grow brighter. “She’s coming back to you, Cam, her color is strengthening.”
“Your eyes,” Cam rasped. “So bright.” He looked from his brother to Wolf.
Slowly the blood stopped flowing and Emily grew stronger.
“Enough!” Dev roared as Lilly swayed. “Her color is too weak.”
Max caught her as she slid sideways. Dev broke the connection, and Wolf sucked in a deep breath as he switched his vision back.
Dev took Lilly from Max and left the room.
It always shook him to be part of something like this, but that on top of what he’d felt just moments before left him reeling.
It awed him that his strength helped to heal, helped save lives. In Wolf’s darkest moments he had taken strength from the knowledge that this was part of who he was. This kept him tethered to reality. His family had held him here when the darkness had wanted to take him in the early days of his return to London.
“Cam?” Emily opened her eyes.
“Here, my love, where I will always be.”
“The babe?” She tried to rise, but he held her still.
As one they all looked around the room and found Rose in the corner. She was pale, her eyes huge as she clutched the child to her chest.
Chapter 15
“Dear God,” Eden said, taking in Rose’s pallor. She looked shocked as she tried and failed to understand what she had witnessed.
“I-it is a girl,” she stuttered, staggering forward. She laid the precious bundle down on her mother’s chest. “C-congratulations.”
“Rose.” Wolf reached for her, but she stepped away like a startled rabbit and ran from the room.
“I had not realized she was there. Dear Christ what must she be thinking?” James rasped.
“I will speak with her.” Wolf left the room and ran down the hallway. He found Rose at the bottom of the stairs.
“Rose.”
She didn’t turn, just kept walking to the door.
“Rose, please stop. I do not have the strength to run after you at this moment.” Wolf stood behind her, not touching, but close enough that he could hear the rasp of her breathing and feel her fear.
“Will you let me talk to you, Rose?”
“I-I must go.”
At her side, her hands formed fists, the knuckles white. He leaned closer and slid his hands down her arms, wrapping them around hers. He wanted this contact with her. Right now he had no defense over that need.
“I know you can make no sense of what you saw, but I would like to help you understand if you will let me.”
She managed a shaky nod, so Wolf released her. Taking her arm, he led the way to a parlor. Once inside, he shut the door. Rose hurried away from him across the room. Did she fear him now? Believe he and his family could hurt her? He followed slowly, stopping only when he was close enough to see the shock in her eyes.
“You’re shaking.” Wolf took her into his arms, pulling her close. She resisted, but he persisted, and soon she rested against him.
“I should not let you do this.”
“And yet we both need it.”
> Her sigh was soft as she laid her head on his chest in defeat, and the rightness of that moment vanquished the last of his darkness.
Her hair was silky under his chin, and he inhaled a deep breath of Rose. The fresh spice of her scent was intoxicating.
“You’re shaking too.”
“I know, so you are steadying me also.”
“I watched you before you all… I cannot name what happened.”
“Every person in that room is good and kind, Rose. No one would hurt you or is capable of evil.”
“I-I know that. But I saw you when you came into the room. The blood, it took you to a dark place, didn’t it? It triggered a memory from your days in the war?”
“It did.”
He did not speak of that time, and yet right at that moment he wanted to. Was it the exhaustion, or was it her?
“Things trigger my memory. Blood, noise, a smell, and it will take me back.”
“I cannot imagine how you and those men suffered. To be injured so far from home must have been devastating.”
Her hair had come down, and Wolf touched it, sifting his fingers through a handful before moving on to explore more of her.
She did not fight him, simply let him hold her against him, and it was heaven, Wolf realized. He touched the soft skin of her neck, stroked and soothed. Let his other hand settle on her back, anchoring her to his body.
“How do you know I was injured?”
She moved her head slightly but did not let him go. Her fingers gripped the front of his shirt.
“The duchess told me that day in the marketplace.”
“Did she now.”
“Yes, but she spoke only out of concern.”
“I have no doubt.” He also had no doubt that Eden, like the other members of his family, believed this woman meant something to him, which was why she had spoken of it.
“About what you saw in that room, Rose—”
“I felt no evil, only goodness. It was like being encompassed in a thick, soft blanket. I felt safe in there, and secure. A blanket that had a charge of lightning running through it. Which I’m sure makes no sense, and yet I-I can describe it no other way. I didn’t understand it but I felt the bond you all share... the love. It encased me.”