get home. “She told me that at some point, in some moment, I would know. I know now.”
“Come dear.” Jules helped me up into the sleigh. “You’re not thinking clearly. You’ve had a fright. We all have.”
But she didn’t understand. How could she?
For the first time in years, I knew exactly what I wanted.
I wanted Gabe.
****
Gabriel
“So, you saved the boy today.”
I tore my gaze from the dancing flames in the hearth to watch Oliver sweep into the sitting room, a book in hand. Most of the afternoon I’d been alone. Servants had seen to my comfort, making sure I’d had a warm bath, a hot meal, and mulled wine. I’d been tucked into bed like a child and told to rest, while the fireplace in my room blazed with so much intensity, I could barely breathe.
After hours of tossing and turning, I’d finally given up, left my bed, and had gone in search of Ginny. But the house was quiet, still, as if holding its breath. So, I’d found myself alone in the sitting room, while the family and servants nursed Ben back to health.
“Well done,” Oliver added.
I watched him warily. “It wasn’t planned.”
“Of course not.” He settled in the chair across from mine, the burning hearth before us. “Didn’t mean to imply it was, but it has gained you William’s good favor. Only Rafe left to win over.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be amused or shocked by this comment. “Not you?”
He shrugged, settling his book on his lap. “I have no issues with your person.”
How very strange he was, but I liked him. I liked his honesty. Appreciated the fact that he had not pre-judged me. “I heard you’re studying to be a doctor?”
He nodded absently.
“Did you see to Ben? How is he?”
“He’ll be fine enough in no time at all, not that they’ll rely on my diagnosis.” He stretched his legs, crossing them at the ankles. “I believe four doctors have been called already.”
“Four?”
He nodded. “Parents, in particular, are rather hard to please.”
I could imagine. If that had been Izzy…
Hell, I’d never allow her to ice-skate. It was too damn dangerous. “Yes, I can imagine.”
Briefly, I closed my eyes. My body and mind felt exhausted, yet restless. My daughter wouldn’t recognize me, and I had yet to even be in her presence here, but I knew without doubt I would give up my life for her. I would give up my life for Ginny. Gladly. For, I also knew that without them, I had no life. Yes, my heart would beat, my legs would move, my brain would think, but I would not truly be here, in this world, in this moment full of possibilities, without them.
“Dreadful weather we’re having this year.” Oliver flipped open his book, pages full of detailed drawings of the human skeleton. “I believe everyone will be taking dinner in their own rooms tonight.”
It felt as if he forced himself to converse. As if he’d read a book on the subject, and was practicing. “Can you explain to me, Oliver, how you lost Ginny?”
He glanced up, a look of confusion in his gaze. “Ginny? Right. We’re supposed to call her Ginny now. Will take some getting used to.”
I waited patiently.
“We didn’t lose her, exactly.” He placed his book on the small table between our chairs, and stood. “I sent Ginny away.”
My confusion mounted. He must have been a child. Only a handful of years older than Ginny. It made no sense. “How? Why?”
He moved to the sideboard and poured a glass of gin. “Our father was a very violent, angry man, Chambers.”
“I know the kind well. Go on.”
He headed to the windows, gazing out onto the darkening afternoon. It was snowing again, large flakes that brushed against the windows. “He was bad, but he wasn’t as evil as our stepbrother.”
I stiffened. I’d heard they had a stepbrother who had died years ago. He wasn’t as evil as our stepbrother. A shiver of unease whispered through my body. “How evil?”
He turned to face me. “He was a little older than James. He was a terror who delighted in torturing us, then making it look as if we had exaggerated, or if it hadn’t happened at all. When James was home from school, it wasn’t as bad. But when he left…”
He took a long drink. The horrors they must have experienced. Had the man harmed Ginny? Where had her father been? Their stepmother? Why hadn’t anyone stopped him?