Page 48 of The Alliance

“But Alfie’s my brother! He doesn’t count as ‘others’ surely?”

That cringe was still lingering in Lew’s expression.

“If we tell Alfie, we’ll have to tell Dee at the same time. If she finds out that your sibling got to know early and she didn’t…”

I nearly cringed along with him at that thought. I doubted Dee would take well to being snubbed.

“That’s okay,” I said, and twisted round in Lew’s arms, looking up at his strong jaw. “We can tell them all at the same time. No favourites.”

“They’re all going to be excited, Morgan. Who wouldn’t be?”

I nodded. Lew didn’t quite understand my worry. He’d been raised here, with this large, rowdy, affectionate family. It wasn’t that my family didn’t love me because I was sure my mother did, but they had also been distant and disapproving.

I wasn’t sure whether that still applied.

Alfie wasn’t like that, and he’d be thrilled for us, but the rest of them… how different were they going to be now that my father was no longer their elder? I couldn’t be sure what was their innate personality and what they’d been forced to do to please him.

Being a wooden puppet, closed-off and proud, hadn’t really been natural to me. It had taken me a long time to feel secure enough with Lew and hisclan that I could become more myself. I wasn’t sure how much my birth clan would change, now that they could.

Lew bent his head down towards me and kissed me slowly, teasing my lips and sliding his tongue into my mouth. His taste burst across my tongue and made me press harder against him. He kissed me slowly, not trying to do anything other than that.

I would have been happy to lay down and bare myself to him, just like I always was, but he didn’t move me across to the bed.

In fact, he broke our kiss with a chuckle.

“We need to go down to dinner, mate. No sex right now.”

Disappointment flared inside me, but he was right. Maybe after dinner?

He nipped my bottom lip and whispered, “Soon,” and then he stood back and took some deep breaths, trying to get himself under control. I glanced at myself in the mirror again. There was no point in changing my shirt again. I’d go with what I was wearing.

When we got downstairs, we were just in time to see Laura arrive with her mate, Marcia. I wavedand Marcia beamed at me. She looked so happy when she smiled that it couldn’t help but make me happy, too. Her cheeks were so round that they squeezed her eyes shut and she radiated contentment and compassion.

Before she could even get her coat off, Dum appeared out of nowhere and rushed over, saying, “There you are! We wondered whether you’d arrive in time.”

Sure enough, without even looking round, I knew I’d hear Dee. She said, “How’s our Honey-Cakes?”

Marcia turned her beam on them. “He’s fine, thank you. He sends his regards.”

“Well isn’t that sweet of him?” said Dee.

“Did he send anything else?” asked Dum.

Laura snatched up a bag they’d both grabbed at, and bared her teeth at them. “You can have a honey-cake after dinner, not before.”

“But everyone else always steals them,” whined Dum.

“Youalways steal them,” Laura corrected.

I figured they’d have that argument for a while yet so I glanced at Lew and he shrugged. Wewalked hand-in-hand into the dining room and settled down.

By the time we were seated, I was sick with nerves. The only thing holding me together was Lew’s warm hand wrapped around mine.

Everyone else entered and sat, chatted and smiled, and I could feel myself retreating into my wooden mask, just like I had at the Somerville castle under the disapproving gaze of my father.

Lew clutched my hand tighter and I saw Alfie send me a few sidelong glances, but thankfully he didn’t ask me what was wrong. I hated being the centre of attention, and especially hated it when it was sudden. Just saying what we wanted to say was going to be A Lot for me.

Everyone settled and Nana stood.

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