deal of color in his face and looked ready to explode.
“You lied to my brother, Raine. Lied about your sister, and while I understand you believe your motives were pure, it is you who are in the wrong.” Daniel didn’t usually get involved in people’s lives, and most especially not the lives of noblemen, but this was Abby, and try as he might he could not distance himself from what he felt for her. He would learn to, but not while she sat inches away from him in pain.
“This does not concern you, Dillinger.”
“In that, I think you are wrong, my lord, as like Dimity I am here and you took the action you did because of me. Your sister deserves an apology. I doubt she’ll accept it, as mine usually like to make me suffer for several days, but it is a place to start.”
The earl’s lips clamped together in a thin, angry line.
“Tell her what your father said to you, Raine.” Daniel got to his feet. “Now, if you will excuse me, I need to check on my horse.”
He didn’t look at anyone, just left the room and the deafening silence. Sucking in a deep breath, he walked out into the night and headed for the stables, hoping that at least the idiot said sorry to his sister.
Chapter 27
He’d stood up for her, and to Gabriel. Not many people did that. Actually the two people who had were right here in this inn. Daniel and Dimity. Neither of noble birth; what did that say? Both had now left the room, and she was alone with Gabe, her big angry brother.
She gripped the sides of her chair with both hands to keep from following Daniel. Abby looked at her plate instead of the mess she’d made of Gabe’s shirt. Hopelessness welled up inside her. Desperation that Daniel not leave her again, and yet knowing that of course he would.
Everything was such a mess.
“God, Abby.” The words were a low growl. “Can you ever forgive me?”
Shock held her silent.
“I understand how you must feel about my actions. I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking to have said what I did.”
“I want to forgive you, and as you are my blood, one day in the next ten years I may do so. Now, tell me what Father said to you?”
Gabe was a mess. His necktie was twisted, his hair all over the place, and his chest was smeared in gravy.
“Abby—”
“I am not a child to be protected, Gabriel. When will you see that? I am a woman, with my own thoughts and enough intelligence to grasp many things.” Perhaps there was no need for the sarcasm, but it made her feel better.
“I never doubted your intelligence.” He looked at her, his eyes filled with shadows she could not read.
“You don’t let me breathe.”
“We protect you; it is our way.”
“I understand you think you need to, but surely you can see that it is stifling me.”
He picked up his drink. Abby ignored hers, as her head was just starting to clear and the throb in her temples was not pleasant.
“And yet even though we have protected you, there is Dillinger.”
She was not speaking about that, not to him.
“Tell me what Father said to you, Gabe.”
“His last words to me were that I must ensure you are always happy and marry well to a man of noble blood. I also had to promise to keep you safe at all times. He made me vow to do this as he lay there dying, Abby.”
The breath squeezed out of her lungs.
“I agreed, and perhaps I am overprotective, but when a parent asks something of you with his last breath, you tend to take it seriously.”
“Oh, Gabe.”
They sat there looking at each other, the distance seeming so much more than the few feet that separated them.
“So you see why I am the way I am. I would have always protected you, sister. I love you, and that will never change, but Father added another layer to that.”
“He had no right to do so,” Abby said softly. “He had no right to put that on you, Gabe, or the others. No one person can control another’s destiny.”
His smile was small. “When did you grow up?”
“Clearly when you weren’t looking.”
“Will you try and forgive me… us for what we did?”
“Why did you go to Daniel’s brother and speak that lie?”
Gabe toyed with the stem of his glass, the large gold ring on his finger catching the candlelight.