Page 18 of Moonstone Landing
Brioc stifled a grin. “I did not ask you, either.”
“You never had flowers delivered to me. But had I started to sneeze in the garden, you would have asked me about it.What can I do for you, Hen?That’s what you would have said.”
He settled on the ottoman beside her. “So you are going to reject him out of hand because you did not like his flowers?”
“I am going to reject him because he is in love with Lady Anissa Deverell, and she is in love with him. But he thinks this bond of brotherhood with Robert is more important than his own happiness. Besides, he thinks I will be dead before the year is out.”
Brioc’s breath caught in his throat. “Will you, Hen? Is this what your doctor told you?”
She nodded. “But wouldn’t it be a jest on all of us if I lived another twenty years?”
Brioc said nothing.
He would wait for her. Twenty years. Fifty years. A hundred years.
Someone knocked lightly at her door.
She had settled her brother and his wife in a guest chamber down the hall and put the girls in a connecting room next to them since Anne was still nursing baby Chloe. The Earl of Ashbrook was also settled in a bedchamber at the other end of the hall.
They were all too far away to hear him and Hen chatting.
“Who could that be?” she grumbled, rising from her chair. She had changed out of her gown and into her nightrail and robe, going through her usual routine that he found so familiar and surprisingly comforting to him.
She opened the door cautiously, obviously surprised to find Ashbrook there.
Brioc cursed under his breath. “I am going to chase the bloody bounder out.”
Hen cast him a frown, which he took as a plea to keep out of it.
“Why are you here, my lord?” she said with commendable indignation.
“Come now, Hen. Surely, we need not be so formal.”
Brioc noticed that she clutched the door a little tighter.
He was going to flatten the bounder if he tried anything untoward with her.
“That begs the question. Why are you here?”
“Because we need to talk.”
Hen stepped forward to block his entry. “Anything you have to say to me can be said tomorrow morning within my brother’s hearing.”
“No, this cannot. I need to know how you truly feel about me, Hen. You were infatuated with me as a little girl.”
“But you never liked me, nor do you particularly like me now.”
“That isn’t true. I do like you. I can no more bear to see you suffer alone than your brother can. Why will you not accept to marry me? I can give you everything.”
“Can you give me love?”
He blushed. “I…yes…if this is what you must have. You are Robert’s sister…I can…”
“Stop, please. You love my brother, not me. I love him, too. He is a wonderful person, is he not? A true and loyal friend and the best brother a girl can have. Be a good friend to him when the time comes, but do not destroy your own life to accommodate his. What you need to do is grab your happiness with Lady Anissa. Do not be an idiot and delay proposing to her. Love is precious. Do not throw it away.” She shoved him gently out the door. “You are a dear friend to us, but I want you gone first thing in the morning.”
She shut the door in his face, then turned to Brioc. “I am going to stay here until I take my last breath. No one can make me leave, not even you. So don’t you dare start haunting me. You will never chase me away.”
“I like having you here, Hen. But are you being fair to your brother? He is mad with worry over you.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, wanting to be possessive and keep her with him but knowing she would be better off with her loved ones around her.
