Page 72 of The Outlaw and the Heir

"Interesting," I said as I grabbed the reins and led my horse through the gate. She gently led hers through as well so I could close it behind them. "If I'm not mistaken and misreading, I do believe you repeated yourself with a different emphasis."

"Well, let's make sure no one ever calls you a fool."

"I hear that accusation quite often, actually. Around here as well, just so you're not mistaken."

She snorted, waiting until I had mounted my horse. “Then perhaps those that say it are the real fools."

"Well, Ambrose probably said it at least once, so I'll be sure to tell him you said that."

"He would probably agree he was a fool if he heard I was the one who said it."

"And your father has certainly given me a look that says he's probably thinking it."

"Actually," Elizabeth said and I didn't have to look at her to know she was smiling. "You might be surprised what my father thinks about you."

"If I even ended up on your father's radar beyond an extra pair of hands he...obtained from Rapture, I’d be surprised, let alone him having anything close to a positive opinion."

"Believe it or not, it came about because of Joseph."

"Oh, well, I'm sure his opinion is bound to be full of cheer and positivity."

She laughed. “He's also been sour in face and words; don't let him get to you."

"If I let every person with a foul attitude and a dim view of me get to me, I’d have collapsed in on myself a long time ago," I assured her.

"Well, perhaps there is something you might be able to teach my brother," Elizabeth said, glancing over at me. "Sometimes I fear he takes too much to heart. It would do him good to have someone who can teach him to ignore a few things here and there."

"I wouldn't worry too much. He has thick skin. It's not as thick as he pretends, but it's not as thin as you fear."

"I suppose."

I couldn't tell if I was defending him or reassuring her. It wasn't like I was an expert when it came to Ambrose, not compared to her anyway. Then again, there were parts of ourselves we kept from our loved ones more than we might someone we didn't know. If you spent enough time around people, you built up a certain expectation in their minds about who you were and how you were going to react to something.

I had no siblings, but I knew that, in many ways, the sibling bond only encouraged that kind of thing. As the youngest, Ambrose had spent his whole life under his brother's shadow and constantly trying to keep Elizabeth safe and happy. He had undoubtedly sacrificed a great deal of himself along the way, putting others first even as part of him seemed intent on trying to prove he could stand alone. His brother wouldn't care about that sort of thing or even try to see it, but Elizabeth was different. She was also his sister, whom he felt beholden to in ways that prevented him from opening up to her.

Not that he had told me any of that, but I watched, and I noticed things. It didn't hurt that he had been easing off on being a hard ass with me, and I was able to see the person under all the masks he slipped on without realizing what he was doing. Elizabeth hadn't been wrong in saying he was mostly heart because he really was. I could understand, perhaps better than most, what it meant to bury your heart away from the world because of what the world could be like if you wore it on your sleeve, but it was still a shame because I suspected there was a lot more warmth inside him to be found.

"In any case," she resumed as we trotted along, her eyes sweeping the horizon as we approached a large outcrop of rocks. Not the same one Ambrose and I had altered our relationship on all those weeks ago, but similar in size and how it stretched out of sight. "Joseph was, unsurprisingly, speaking ill of you. Called you a nosy fool."

"Ah, back to that. I suppose he's not too far off. My mother liked to say I was too curious for my own good. Of course, that was when I’d asked her why she couldn't have more children shortly after she received the news that if she tried to have another, she wouldn't live to bring the child into the world. A rather touchy subject to be poked so tactlessly by a child."

"Children don't understand the concept of tact," Elizabeth said with a laugh. "And for the record, my father silenced Joseph in a way that only our father can do."

"By staring at him?"

"By telling him the only foolish thing is to believe the first thing you assume about someone is how they are. And that often the greatest fools are hiding more knowledge than they might appear to have."

"Oh...well, that is...I'm not quite sure how to react to that, actually," I admitted with a nervous laugh. "That sounds like something your father would say...but not about me."

"There is a lot more to my father than most people, even his children can see. Joseph is too stuck on trying not just to take our father's place but also to prove he can be better than him in the long run. And Ambrose is too busy trying to prove he's worthy of our father's respect to see him as a person. In many ways, our father is as trapped in his position as I am. There are expectations and unwritten rules attached to our roles, just like my brothers. Unlike them, however, my father and I know all about that, and we've accepted it."

"This from the woman who managed to bully her overly protective brother into letting her roam free."

"Bully is such an ugly word."

"Let me take a guess: you’d prefer to use negotiate instead."

"Aggressively negotiate, but yes."

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