Page 83 of Seduction Under the Southern Stars

Linc swallows hard and looks at me. I just smile. His lips curve up a little. Then he looks back at Edmund. “We’d like that very much,” he says, his voice husky.

*

It turns out to be a lovely evening. The seafood kebabs are tremendous, although Edmund burns the sausages a tad. Linc was once left in charge of the barbecue at Greenfield and burned all the sausages black, so I’m able to tease them that they’re like father, like son, which makes them both smile.

Isabel has made a huge bowl of potato salad and a green salad to go with it, and we eat it out on the deck, then have coffee while we watch the sun sink slowly toward the horizon and turn the sky the most beautiful shades of pink and orange.

Marie turns up just after six thirty. She’s a younger version of Isabel, with the same wild curly hair, only hers has yet to show signs of gray. She’s bright and bubbly, an obvious candidate for a primary school teacher. Her eyes are full of curiosity when she first shakes hands with Linc.

It’s interesting watching him with her. I can tell he’s nervous, but he covers it with professional charm, making her smile immediately as he teases her about being a scientist rather than a historian. She teases him back that he’s not just funny, he’s pre-hysterical, and that kind of sets the scene for the rest of the evening.

At one point, while Isabel goes indoors to fetch some citronella candles to keep the bugs away, and Marie makes yet another pot of coffee, Linc visits the bathroom, leaving me alone with Edmund.

“Thank you for this,” I tell him. “It means so much to Linc.”

“The girls like him,” he says. “I’m glad. He seems like a nice guy.”

“He’s a wonderful guy,” I reply. “You should be very proud of him.”

He studies me with a slight smile that reminds me so much of Linc that I almost blush. “He’s clearly very fond of you,” he says.

“Oh, well, we’ve known each other a long time,” I reply, flustered. “We’re almost like brother and sister.”

“I don’t think he sees you that way.”

I rub my nose, thinking of the way he kissed me back in the car. “Maybe not.”

“He told me that you saved him,” he says. “When he arrived at Greenfield.”

“My dad is the chaplain there. It’s his job to provide emotional support for all the students, but he was exceptionally fond of Linc and kind of took him under his wing.”

“What happened? Linc mentioned being sent away, but he didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t like to ask.”

I hesitate, not sure whether Linc wants me to reveal those events. Then I think, what does it matter? We didn’t do anything wrong. “Linc and I were very fond of each other, and my father disapproved, mainly because of our age difference—Linc is four years older than me. It was very innocent—I was only fourteen. My father caught us having our first kiss and went ballistic. He took Linc away that night. We weren’t even able to say goodbye.”

Edmund’s brow furrows. “That’s harsh.”

“It’s very harsh. But it’s a reflection of how much my father liked Linc and thought of him as a son. He saw it as a betrayal of his trust. The worst thing is that he told us all that Linc had walked out. I cried for weeks.”

“And you’ve only just found out that it wasn’t his choice to leave?”

“Yes. I’m very angry with my father at the moment. But I’m trying to understand that he did it with the best of intentions.” I glance at the door, where I can hear Linc talking to Marie. “He’s been through such a lot. He hasn’t told you half of what Don did to him. Although that last assault was the worst, he told me other stories of terrible physical abuse—being beaten with a belt, being kicked, and once Don held Linc’s arm over the stove—he’s still got the burn, just under the elbow.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah. It was vicious. Nancy never tried to stop it; I don’t know why. And then my father abandoned him, too. It’s just… I want you to understand why meeting you is so important to him. His face when you rang him to explain the results of the test was a picture. He can’t believe that Don isn’t his father. He said he wants to get ‘liber sum’ tattooed on him somewhere.”

That makes him smile. “I had a cancer scare a couple of years ago. It all turned out fine, but if I was to get a tattoo, it would say Carpe Diem. Life’s too short for anything else.”

I look up as Linc exits the house and smile at him as he crosses to sit back beside me. “We were just talking about tattoos.”

He stretches out his arms to look at his. “My passport.” He grins.

“Very impressive,” Edmund says. “I’m too much of a wuss to get one.”

“Me too,” I reply.

“Isabel and the girls all have one,” he says as they both come out, Isabel with the candles and Marie with the coffee. “They all got matching butterflies.” The two women reveal them on their inner arm, above the wrist.

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