wry smile. “My first marriage was made just as quickly, and I had no doubts about my love then. I have no doubts here either.”
Jane kept an arm around Lydia’s shoulder. “Now, tell me about this little orphan, Isla.”
Aiden watched the Hunt family depart as he, Brock, Joanna, Ashton, Rosalind and Regina all waved goodbye. Being the quiet brother, Aiden saw and heard much from those around him.
He knew Isla’s leaving was breaking Rafe’s heart, the widening distance between the rake and the orphan making its mark on the man to the point where Aiden wondered how no one else could see it. It was as plain as the fact that Brodie, his wild and reckless brother, was making the worst mistake of his life by not going after Lydia.
Aiden was able to slip away unnoticed and went to the stables to have a horse prepared, and then he rode out into the twilight. There were only a handful of places Brodie would go, and he knew them all.
Half an hour later, Aiden reined in his horse and dismounted near a small waterfall deep in the woods a few miles away from the castle. He looped the reins of his horse around a low-hanging branch once he spotted Brodie.
His older brother was sitting on a tall rock near the base of a shallow waterfall. His knees were bent, and he rested his forearms on them, looking very much like the young boy who used to hide here when their father was still alive. With stealthy steps, Aiden crept up behind him.
“I knew you would find me,” Brodie replied without turning. “You always do.”
Aiden climbed up on the rock beside him and watched the clear water cascade into the pool below before it joined the stream. “And I knew you would hear me. You always do.”
“She’s gone, isn’t she?”
“Aye. And Isla with her.”
Brodie dropped his head between his knees.
“Then all is as it should be.”
“Is it?” Aiden asked. “I see only broken hearts and broken people.”
“We’ve always been broken,” Brodie replied. “That hasna changed.”
Aiden cocked his head to one side. “Hasn’t it, though? Rosalind ran away vowing never to return. Yet she’s here, with a loving husband and a child on the way.” Brodie continued to stare at the water, so Aiden continued. “Then there’s Brock, so fearful of his temper, yet he’s calm and happy with Joanna and soon to be a father as well.”
“That doesna mean you and I will be the same,” Brodie muttered.
“Maybe not me,” Aiden agreed. “But you? That woman loves you. I know you all think me damaged and that I canna and willna ever be whole, but I see things more clearly than you ken. I see life all around me, see the way it pairs things together, the falcon and his mate, the otters in the river, the wee creatures in the ponds. Animals know their mates. Men are the ones who hesitate, who let clouds gather to cover what fate has shone a light on for us. You have a mate, brother, and you have no reason to turn away from her except for your own fears.”
Brodie sighed. “I don’t trust myself, Aiden. I fear everything about life, at least the parts that matter. I am a coward, and I am cruel.”
At this Aiden laughed, but he felt a pang of guilt for it given the dejected look on his brother’s face. “Brodie, you are no coward. You leave when you know it’s the only way to survive. Not every fight is worth using one’s fists. You fled because it spared Lydia having to choose between you and her father. She knows that. And you are not cruel. You speak in haste and can say things that wound, but you are like a badger with an injured paw. You lash out with no true desire to hurt others, only to protect yourself. That can go away in time. And with love. Both of which you have within reach.”
Aiden saw the light of understanding creep across his brother’s face.
“You are a man who survives,” Aiden added more quietly. “But you canna survive with a broken heart, and you canna survive without her in your life.”
Brodie was quiet a long moment before he straightened his shoulders, and then he looked up at the glorious skies above them.
“You’re right. Perhaps it is time I stopped running away from everything and started running toward something.”
“Someone,” Aiden corrected as he and Brodie climbed off the rocks. “And