Page 134 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8
He hadn’t expected her curiosity, didn’t know quite what answer to give her. How much he wanted to share. ‘Since…after,’ he said simply, hoping she’d understand.
Her hand fell to her side, and he resisted the urge to take it. To hold it. Show her inside. Bring her into a place he’d invited no one else. Not his pilot. Not Esther. Only him.
He swallowed it down. The thrill tickling across his skin at the idea of being alone with her.
But he would not weaken.
‘After your time on the streets?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ he replied.
‘And you chose a castle in the Scottish Highlands?’ she asked. ‘Far away from any city? Away from people?’
He did not enjoy people. The night they had met, the only night he’d ever attended an event where his work was being sold, Esther had arranged it all. All so that he would be anonymous within the crowd. Would be asked no questions. He didn’t like questions. And yet Aurora had asked more than anyone.
He nodded. It felt too intimate to tell her why he’d chosen this place when it had been decrepit and unwanted, its roof leaking with every storm. He didn’t want to tell her that he’d hoped rebuilding this place, piece by piece, stone by stone, would fix something in him.
It was restored to its former glory now. Beyond it. But it hadn’t fixed him.
‘How many staff do you have?’ she asked, looking over every grey stone distorted to black with history and age, lined with moss.
‘None.’
‘None?But it’s huge.’
‘The pantries are stocked monthly,’ he said. ‘It’s all I need.’
‘That’s not very much,’ she said.
‘I am a man of little need,’ he reminded her. ‘I only take what is necessary to survive. To create my art.’
‘Why would you live like that?’ she asked. ‘You’re rich?’
‘Because I want to,’ he answered shortly. His riches allowed him luxuries, he knew. But he used only what he needed. Employed the staff he required as a necessity. And his team on the ground was only himself and his pilot.
‘But that will change now you are here,’ he assured her. He’d change it for her. The baby. ‘I’ll employ a team to cater to your and the baby’s every physical need.’
What about her other needs? Her wants and desires.
He swallowed thickly.
He would not meetthoseneeds.
‘A team?’ she asked.
‘A chef, a cook—whatever else you want, Lady Aurora Arundel.’ Her name felt exactly how he knew it would. It crowded his mouth. Heated his blood.
‘It’s a title, passed down from generation to generation. It has no real meaning anymore.’
‘It means everything,’ he corrected her. ‘A name of nobility. A rich history of wealth and privilege.’
‘You can talk.’ She chuckled. ‘Staff or no staff, you still live in a castle.’
‘It was not always so,’ he reminded her, and he didn’t know why. Why it was important for her to know he was not one of them. The rich. The elite. The privileged. The ignorant.
‘I know.’ She scraped perfectly white teeth against the lushness of her bottom lip. ‘I’m sorry. It must have been so hard for you,’ she said. ‘Out there.’
‘I have known harder.’
