Roderick's Purpose - Ellie St. Clair Page 0,18
us back to the Highlands.”
Doc’s deep, nearly black eyes, well sunken in his gaunt face, turned to him now. He gave out a bit of a rueful laugh, shaking his head. “An officer of the law is accompanying… us… back to Scotland.”
“He is,” Gwen said, and Roderick felt a strange sense of pride for the way she would not let herself be cowed by the man, though he supposed it was because of Doc she was this way. It wouldn’t have been easy to be raised by such a man, though it seemed she had come out with strength rather than a broken spirit as others would have.
Roderick finally felt it was time he interjected in the tense exchange between the two of them.
“We leave in the morning,” he said. “We do not have much farther to travel until we make the docks and the ship that will take us home. It won't be long now until you’ll be back on Scottish soil, Doc.”
He put his fingers on the back of Gwen’s arm and gently steered her stiffened body out the door and into the room beyond. When she reached one of the oak ladder-back armchairs against the wall, she nearly collapsed into it, her strength having apparently been drained out of her through the exchange.
She looked up at him, though her gaze was unfocused, her thoughts seemingly elsewhere.
“That… that man in there,” she began. “He looks so different, so sick, so old. And yet when he opened his mouth…”
“He’s the exact same man he has always been?” Roderick asked with a bit of a smile.
“Yes,” she said, smiling back at him. “Fortunately or unfortunately, he is.”
They stared at one another for a moment, and he felt that pull to her that he continued to try to ignore. The train ride over the prairies had been an interesting one, to say the least. Roderick was a man who liked most people, but when he didn’t, he never saw the need to hold his emotions or his thoughts in check. He saw the world in black and white, good and evil, but this woman — she perplexed him. One moment he enjoyed her company, found she was quick-witted with an easy laugh. The next moment he was reminded of what she had done in her life, the actions she had taken, the people she had hurt, and he was brought to anger once more. The truth was, he was just as frustrated at his own emotions as he was with her and how she made him feel.
Unsure of how to deal with his conflicting thoughts, he had spent much of the train journey so far in the company of other passengers, although he had kept a close eye on her, not that there was much opportunity for her to escape. Nor was she likely to, as he had what she wanted — her father. Once word had gotten out of who she was, however, most other passengers had taken a rather wide berth of her. A few had tried to speak to her, but Roderick had managed to head them off. He was playing a strange role of both captor and protector.
Now, he felt some sympathy toward her and what she was going through after he saw her come face-to-face with the man who had raised her. It couldn’t have been an easy life. “Gwen,” he said gently, a surge of pity coursing through him. “I’m sorr—”
Before he could finish his sentence, however, she waved away his kindness with a flip of her hand, apparently not wanting any sympathy.
“Ah, well,” she said, though he wasn’t fooled by her levity. “Soon we will be home and you shall be rid of the both of us. Now, where am I to sleep tonight?”
A bit of regret churned within him at where he was about to lead her, but he knew there was no other option. “Follow me, lass,” he said. “Your, ah, room, is right this way.” He took her down the corridor, past empty cells until he came to the last in line.
“I am to sleep in a jail cell?” she asked, turning to him, her eyes wide and flashing with sparks.
“It’s clean,” he said defensively. “And I’m sure you’ve slept on worse before, camping out as you did.”
“I slept on the forest floor,” she said with indignation. “’Tis a bit different, Roderick. Is there nowhere else I can spend the night?”
“Well…” he tried not to take a step back. “You are