Sinclair and Raven Series: Books 1-3

by Wendy Vella

  “Eden, love. Tell me what you feel?” Essie said.

  “M-my h-hands,” she whispered.

  “Arsenic makes the hands and feet tingle.” Essie wiped away a tear as she stood and looked down at her sister.

  James was numb with fear as he watched Eden struggle to breathe. The pulse on her wrist seemed to grow weaker with every breath she drew.

  “How long, Essie? How long before we know if it has worked?”

  Essie grabbed her sister’s other hand and kissed it.

  “The poison shuts down her system. Her stomach will cramp and we shall know soon if—”

  “She will live,” James vowed.

  No one spoke as they watched Eden silently struggle to breathe as she clung precariously to life.

  “Can you not do something—your senses, surely they…?”

  “None of us have the power to heal by touch, James,” Essie said quietly. “It is the one sense we do not have.”

  “And now, your Grace, we shall see to your arm,” Bertie said.

  “My arm?”

  “‘Tis bleeding, your Grace. Miss Essex will make a paste and bandage it.”

  He let them tend him, yet he did not move from his place beside Eden.

  “The bullet has gone straight through, James.” Essie’s words did not register with him as he watched his fiancée. James was sure her breathing was growing weaker. She was so still, all color had leeched from her face. Tangled and messed, her hair lay around her head in a dark cloud. Eden was never still; even when she was sitting, often her hands moved or her feet tapped. She was the fire to his ice. The one who was filled with life, the one who had taught him how to love.

  “Now take this, your Grace, ‘tis merely a warm drink to stop the infection, nothing more.”

  He took the drink Bertie handed him yet still his eyes stayed on Eden. At some stage over the next few hours someone pushed him into a chair beside her, but he still held her hand and looked at her face. He heard them murmuring, watched Essie touch her cheek and check her pulse. Dev looked at her, his eyes filled with grief, yet James wouldn’t move. She would live, she had to live. If she died she would commit him to a life of hell.

  “Her breathing has grown shallow.”

  James watched as Essie stood over Eden, checking her pulse. Behind her Cam and Dev, their faces solemn, watched over their sister.

  “No,” James said softly. “No, she is not leaving us.” He climbed onto the bed and lifted Eden into his arms.

  “All of you touch her. Your skin to hers. Now!” he roared, when they failed to move. “The power of this family can heal her. I believe in you all. Now hold her, damn you. Give her your love and strength.”

  Dev grabbed Eden’s arm. Pushing up her sleeve, he wrapped both hands around it. Cam reached for a leg, clasping her ankle in his hands. Essie gripped Eden’s other hand.

  “Focus,” James said quietly, and then he began to talk to Eden, urging her back from the hell she had slumped into.

  “Do you remember when we talked of the places we would go in our heads when we were frightened or alone, Eden? You told me you rode along the cliffs, and I climbed the castle’s highest turret.” He listened to the small wheeze of her breath before he continued. “I can’t go there anymore, love, because you are my happy place. My reason for waking, the reason I now exist. Yes, I have Samantha, but you, my love… you are my everything.” Grabbing a handful of her curls, he wrapped them around his fist. “In the short time you have been in my life I have known such happiness. You have filled all the dark places in me, given me hope and shown me how to laugh. You meet me head-on, love, challenge and chastise me. I know now what it means to find that one true love and to lose you would be to spend the rest of my days wandering in purgatory, waiting to meet you again. Don’t leave me, Eden,” he said, burying his face in her hair and releasing the tears that burned behind his eyes. Cradling her against him, he rested on the pillows, his cheek pressed to her chilled one.

  Please don’t take her from me.

  He felt it then, the surge of heat that travelled through her body, and then he felt nothing.

  James woke as he moved his arm, causing a red-hot ember of pain to slice through him. Eden! Opening his eyes, he looked down to where she lay on his chest. Placing two fingers on her pulse he felt it, strong and steady. Touching her forehead, he noted it was warm but not hot.

  “Eden!” he rasped, tilting her head up so he could look at her face in the firelight.

  “What!” Dev struggled to his feet from his position near the fire. Essie followed; Cam kept snoring.

  “She is breathing well, and her skin feels warm,” James said, easing into a sitting position and then getting off the bed so he could get a better look at her.

  “She’s stirring,” Dev whispered.

  “Come on, love, open your eyes,” James urged her.

  They fluttered open and closed again, then they opened and she looked at him.

  “James?”

  “Yes,” he rasped, kissing her cheek as her fingers slid into his.

  “I heard your words but I could not speak, the p-poison, it was so hard to fight through—and then I felt so warm, as if warm water were travelling through my body.”

  “James made us all touch you,” Essie said. “The heat came from all of us, Eden, even James.”

  “This time you saved me.”

  “I could not have lived without you.” James bent over her, his face close. “You are my life.”

  “I love you, Duke.”

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  He then moved back, allowing her family to hug and kiss her.

  “James, don’t leave me,” she whispered when they were finished. Her eyes were closing as he moved to her side once more.

  “I’m here, love, where I will stay.” He took her hand, slipping her fingers through his. She gave him the sweetest smile and then fell into a deep, healing sleep, and for the first time since she had been taken, he drew in a breath, knowing that she was here safe and well surrounded by the people who loved her.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Does she look like him—Tolly?”

  James drew his gaze from the dismal surroundings outside the carriage window to look at Eden. She sat opposite, dressed in a blue sprigged muslin dress with darker blue matching velvet pelisse buttoned up over her splendid breasts. Her bonnet was of the same fabric and hid her glorious hair, and he was pleased to note some color in her cheeks, although she was still too pale for his liking. Her eyes had smudges beneath, telling him that although she strenuously denied having trouble sleeping, in fact she was.

  “Yes, very much so, love. But we will not hold that against her.”

  “She shall not pay for her father’s sins,” she said, waving one delicate gloved hand in front of her.

  “Something like that,” he muttered, grabbing her hand and tugging her across the seat to fall into his lap.

  “James, your arm!”

  “My arm is fine and you, madam, are too far away over there,” he whispered against her neck. She wriggled as his breath tickled her skin, before settling against him with a sigh.

  They had returned to London one week after arriving at Oak’s Knoll with Eden unconscious in James’s arms, and he relived that memory daily. He had nearly lost her, and that would never be allowed to happen again. He would ensure it.

  “You should have on your sling.”

  “Slings are for ladies,” James said in a mock growl.

  “Two weeks.” Eden sighed.

  “And you will be my wife and share my bed.”

  “Yes,” she said again in that soft tone that made his bones melt.

  She had woken the day after regaining consciousness as if she had never been poisoned, determined to carry on as if the little matter of a near-death experience were nothing overly worrying. However, her body and James had thought differently. He had refused to let them leave for London that day, instead making her stay
in bed and traveling three days later. Even then they had stopped often. She was still feeling the effects of the poison and tired easily, and James watched her closely, much to her annoyance.

  “Essie is doing well. Don’t you think?”

  “Very well, but I imagine she is more like me than you, and therefore has the ability to hide her feelings.”

  “I am such an open book, then?”

  “To me you are.” He kissed the top of her nose.

  He had apologized for his behavior the day before Tolly took her from him, and she had of course accepted, with the proviso it did not happen again.

  “It’s disturbing to love someone as much as I love you.”

  “Disturbing in a good way I hope?” James could never get enough of this woman. Touching a soft cheek, he traced the contour, mapping each curve.

  “I love my family, but this is vastly different. With you it’s almost painful, and when I thought Tolly would take you from me….” She closed her eyes. “Oh, James, the pain—”

  James pressed a finger to her lips to silence her. “No one is taking me from you, as no one will take you from me. We are two halves of a whole, sweetheart. I’m afraid you must accept the fact that you are stuck with me from now until I haul in my final breath with you weeping at my bedside.” He said the words to remove the fear from her eyes.

  “Ha, I shall be counting your money!”

  “No, you won’t.” He pulled her close for a long heated kiss. “Because you will be inconsolable.”

  “I will.” She touched his cheek. “Don’t leave me.”

  “Never,” he vowed. “Because this disturbing, wonderful love we share will never die, my sweet.”

  They sat in silence for the remainder of the journey, Eden’s cheek resting on his chest, his arms holding her close.

  “The carriage is slowing, James, let me up.”

  Placing her on the seat beside him, James climbed from the carriage then reached for Eden’s hand, and together they walked to his sister’s front door. Images of his last journey here had his fingers tightening.

  “I hear her footsteps.”

  James simply nodded, now used to her and the Sinclair way. He watched the door open, and his sister’s pale face appear.

  “Y-your Grace, my brother?”

  “I am afraid your brother is dead, Emily,” James said, stepping through the door as she stumbled backward. Eden beat him and slipped through to reach for his sister.

  “It’s all right, Emily, we are here now, you are not alone.”

  James watched Eden gather the woman in her arms.

  “Edward is dead?”

  “I am so very sorry, Emily, but yes he is, dear.”

  Eden guided Emily to a small chair, with James on their heels. It seemed to be the only room in the house and he saw a neatly made bed, small table, and washstand.

  “Now,” Eden added, lowering Emily into the chair. “I think we shall just take you home with us. This is no place for a young lady to live, especially alone.”

  “Oh, I—”

  “James, find something to carry her belongings in.”

  He didn’t argue. Eden had the fire in her eyes and her back was straight with purpose. She had not asked him, but he would not have protested if she did because he agreed with her. This was no place for his sister to live. In minutes he had located what was needed and handed it to Eden.

  “Now, Emily, what do you want to take with you when you leave here?”

  Wide-eyed, Emily looked from James to Eden then around the room. “But, I cannot come with you—surely? It would not be right.”

  “I’m not sure why,” Eden said calmly. “James is your brother, I am his betrothed, and you shall not be living with just him, there is your half sister, Samantha.”

  “I-I have a half sister?”

  James saw the hope flicker through her wary eyes.

  “You do, and she is in need of an elder female to watch over her until I move into the house.”

  James didn’t think he was doing a bad job with Samantha, but kept that thought to himself.

  “Come along now, Emily,” Eden said. “It need be only temporary if that is your wish, but you cannot stay here alone, it is not safe.”

  Eden’s words seemed to galvanize Emily into action. Regaining her feet, she proceeded to grab several things and place them in the bag Eden held open. He watched as she tilted her head to one side, studying four books laid one on top of the other. James had seen Samantha do just that when she was thinking.

  “M-my mother use to read this to Edward and me when we were little.” She took the book at the bottom.

  Edward. His brother’s name had been Edward.

  “Excellent. Well then, you had better bring it because one day you may wish to read to your own children,” Eden said, taking Emily’s coat off the hook and wrapping it around her shoulders. Her bonnet was next.

  James watched as Eden tied the worn ribbons beneath his sister’s chin. Humbled that this amazing woman now belonged to him, he stood silently, letting her take charge.

  “James will take care of the rest of the details, Emily. We shall leave now.”

  “I—I—”

  “Don’t look back, Emily, the future is forward and in that direction lies happiness and love.”

  “She’s right,” James said, taking his sister’s other arm and nodding to where Eden stood. “She gave me both, Emily. Let us share some of that with you.”

  “All right,” his sister said with a small wobbly smile as she climbed into the carriage, and not once did she look back.

  ...

  The marriage of Miss Eden Sinclair to the Duke of Raven took place in the church at Raven Castle, much to the horror of the Countess of Wynburg, who had imagined a grander church with many many guests.

  “We wish to replace the memories of what last took place in here with new ones, Aunt. Surely you can understand that?” Eden had explained to Lady Wynburg. And eventually she had, sending out invitations, organizing a banquet after the ceremony that would take place in the castle, and everything else that went along with a wedding.

  The day was fine and the sun high as guests filled the small church to the rafters. James stood with Cam at the altar, waiting for Eden to arrive.

  “I hope you are only minutes away, my love,” he said, hoping Eden was close. “As I cannot endure to wait much longer.”

  The sound of chatter reached his ears, and then Dorrie, Somer, and Samantha appeared in the doorway of the church behind Warwick, who was the ring bearer. Cam chuckled as he watched his little brother’s tongue stick out of his mouth as he concentrated on walking slowly down the aisle without dropping the pillow that held the rings.

  “Look at those three, one would not guess the trouble they cause us,” he said as they watched the little girls trail slowly behind, throwing petals on the floor.

  James tore his eyes from the children as Eden appeared on the arm of her brother. He slowly let out the breath he had been holding as she stepped inside the church. She was dressed in ivory satin, the gown seeming to float around her as she walked. In her hand was a small bouquet of flowers with matching ribbons, and her face was hidden from him behind a lace veil. His chest felt so full of emotion it nearly choked him.

  “James!”

  Dragging his eyes from his betrothed, James looked down at his sister, who now stood before him, her face tilted back and the ring of flowers on her head in danger of falling to the floor.

  “Eden looks like a princess!” she whispered loudly.

  Righting the flowers, James agreed. “She does, Samantha. Do I look like a prince then?”

  “Delusions of grandeur, James,” Cam muttered, taking Samantha’s hand and leading her back to where his little sisters now stood.

  James smiled as Eden reached him. Behind her, Emily and Essie took their places with the children.

  Dev lifted Eden’s veil and then he saw her, his beautiful girl. Her brother kissed her cheek
and then shook James’s hand.

  “I’ll kill you if you hurt her, Raven.”

  “I would have it no other way, Sinclair.”

  The service was conducted without mishap, the children perfectly behaved except for a few grumbles and fidgets, and then the minister said, “You may kiss the bride.”

  And he did. It was a slow meeting of two souls. A kiss that sealed their love and the happiness yet to come. A kiss that spoke of their relief that finally they were bound together by more than love.

  “Is it true?”

  “Yes, and now we must live happily ever after,” James breathed against her lips.

  “There may be a few things to disturb that, Raven,” Dev muttered, trying to part Warwick and Dorrie, who were doing battle over something. “But I applaud the concept.”

  He couldn’t help it. James wrapped an arm around his new wife’s waist and then threw back his head and laughed, right there in front of the guests. Happiness bubbled through him and for the first time in his life he gave vent to it.

  “Is he all right?”

  “Yes, darling,” he heard Eden answer Samantha. “He is merely happy.”

  “I am,” James wheezed. “I really am.”

  “Well I should bloody well hope so, as you just married me.”

  Eden was smiling at him, and James knew that this, what he felt now, would be with him forever.

  …

  Seeing Danger

  Chapter One

  “Seems a carriage has hit a cart, my lord, filled with—ah—”

  “Filled with what, Bids?” Devonshire, Sinclair, prompted his driver through the opening above his head.

  “It's a sort of—um—mess, my lord.”

  “A sort of mess?” Dev smiled at his driver's obvious reluctance to use the word shit in his presence. He listened as Bids cleared his throat several times, followed by a lengthy silence before finally he spoke.

  “I believe, my lord, it is some form of animal excrement.”

  Leaning back, Dev propped his feet on the opposite seat.