Page 16 of Tarnished Reign

Orphan.

The word rings out, dreadful and certain in my mind.

Alone. Confused. Scared.

I can’t eat. I curl up on my side, and my eyes slowly grow heavy.

“Dreenana, throw the ball,” Cade begs. “Throw it high.”

I do. I throw the ball gently, but upward so he must jump to catch it. He manages to cup it in his hands and shrieks in excitement.

The next throw he misses. The ball drops on the grass, and he clasps his hands behind his back, as if he’s upset with himself.

“Hey, bug, why don’t you throw it to me?”

He grins and picks the ball up. He throws it, and as I catch it, he claps and jumps up and down.

“Shall we go make supper?” I ask.

My father and Hana are in the lounge, drinking, even though it is early. It’s one of their regular cocktails with friends sessions, and I’m looking after Cade. “Yes, please. Can we make macrani cheese?”

I love the way he says macaroni. “Yes, bug. Macrani cheese it is.”

“And chocolate chip ice cream?”

“At the same time or after?”

“After, silly.” He giggles.

I laugh too, and he pulls me in for a hug. I hold him to me, his warm skin and hair smelling of summer and the outdoors.

When I let go and step back, I’m shocked to see it’s Sian I was hugging not Cade.

“Where’s Cade?” I ask.

“He went to buy some cheese.”

“Alone?” I demand. “He’s too young.”

“No, he went with your dad.”

“Oh, okay.” Why is she here? Then I realize I’m back in England. In Sian’s family home. A forty bedroom stately home with almost sixty rooms in total. In summer they let people come and look around for a small fee and have country fairs on their land.

Sian and her daddy are seriously wealthy and very much old money.

He has a title, and one day she’ll inherit it.

I like being here with them. I worry about Cade, but Sian distracts me, and everything feels soft and unreal as the light turns golden.

“Come and look at your room,” she says. “We got you new furniture.” She leads me to the stairs climbing to the spare room they’ve allocated for me.

It’s in their wing of the house, so it will be closed to visitors, and it’s mine for whenever I come to stay.

“Daddy says you should let us adopt you,” Sian says with a tinkling laugh.

I look up as we climb the stairs, and her father is standing at the top looking down on us.

He holds his arms out for a hug as we reach him. Sian hugs him first, and then he turns to me, grinning. “Adriana, my darling girl, come and give an old man a hug.”

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