Page 93 of Ne'er Duke Well
“What do you know?” Lu asked sharply. “What do you know about anything? You’re not from here—you don’t know us—not Freddie—or me—”
“Lu. Little one. It’s all right.”
“No,” she said. “No! You made me—you made meleavehim!” The words came out furious and torn.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I didn’t want you to take ill too. I wanted to protect you. Lu, I never left him alone. Not for one minute. I promise you.”
His fingers cupped her thin shoulder, and she reached up and flung off his hand, her body rigid and trembling.
“Iprotect him.Itake care of him.” Her teeth sank into her lower lip.
“You do,” he said. “You have done. You’ve done a good job, Lu.”
Her small square hand—so like Morgan’s—came up to cover her eyes. She sobbed, once, and then stopped on a gasp. “He’s going to be all right?”
“Yes,” he said. “Yes.”
He folded her into his arms and this time she let him.
“I won’t leave you either, Lu.”
“How do you know?” she said into his chest. “How do youknow? Our mother died. Our guardian. Great-great-aunt Rosamund. Everyone left.”
“I won’t leave you,” he said fiercely. “We’re a family, Lu. Me and you and Freddie and Selina. The Ravenscrofts. That infernal kitten.”
He’d been so afraid. He realized that with sudden clarity. So afraid that he couldn’t make Lu trust him, that he couldn’t force the Court of Chancery to make the children his. But more than that, he’d been afraid of what would happen if hedidget them. If Lu trusted him. If Freddie loved him. How could someone like him deserve the keeping of two small, fragile, beloved children?
How could he keep himself from breaking them? How could he protect them from any kind of hurt?
He couldn’t. He saw that now, as clearly as he saw Freddie, deeply asleep in the too-big bed. They would be hurt. They would get sick. They would be afraid.
And he would love them through it. He would sit up all night, watching the shadows on their faces change with the slow crawl of the moon. That was what mattered.
That he loved them. That he stayed.
“You can hug me back, you know,” he said into Lu’s tangled hair.
There was a long pause. And then, very decisively, Lu said: “No.”
A laugh unspooled itself from his chest, an unfettered exclamation of delight loud enough that Freddie, in the bed, turned his head toward them and coughed.
Lu ducked under Peter’s arm and sat gingerly on the bed beside Freddie. She stroked back his hair and deftly tucked his blankets around him.
He cracked open one hazel eye. “Lu,” he sighed. “Finally. Thirsty.” The eye closed again.
Lu didn’t look up from where she stared down at her brother, but Peter could see the fat splotch a tear made in Freddie’s hair. “Didn’t you hear him? He needs more tea.”
“I heard him. I’ll ring for it.”
“He’ll want Peter too.”
Peter blinked at her. “I’ll stay. Of course I’ll stay.”
She angled a glance up at him through dark curly lashes. He had the distinct impression she was biting her cheek to keep her lips from curving into a smile. “Not you, you idiot. His cat.”
He reached forward and pulled the stray pin out of her hair, stuffing it into his pocket. “I’m going to tell Selina to fire your fencing master if you don’t rename that fuzzy monstrosity.”
He was certain she was biting her cheek now. “You shouldn’t have given him to us if you weren’t prepared for the consequences.”
