Page 76 of Thomas
Thomas exhaled slowly with his palms set neatly in his lap. The audacity of this creature was limitless. “I have a question for you,” he said, ignoring the grossly presumptuous remark. “Which is why I accepted your request today.”
“Oh? Please, ask away.”
“Last spring, when I told you that Dawn and I were going to the coast to be alone together, did you pass that information along to anyone else? Particularly, anyone from my family or estate?”
“Last spring?” Wyatt blinked, flustered. “God knows what I did lastweek,let alone last spring. I have no idea?—”
“Think back on it,” Thomas urged him. “It is of the utmost importance.”
Taking the moment seriously, Wyatt set his teacup down and sat back against the couch with his arms folded. “Hm, last spring, you and Dawn… May I just say that I did not find her to be suitable for you at all?—”
“Right, of course not.”
“It’s just that she was so dreadfullymouseyand quiet with all her reeeaaading. Ugh. You deserved someone with a little more spark and excitement. A little zing!”
“Someone like you?”
Wyatt smiled. “Well, yes, naturally. Anyway, I think I do recall your father coming to campus—the one with the absurdly blue eyes. He said… he said they were looking for you? That they were worried and some such and wanted to find you. So, I might have mentioned that you’d gone to the coast with your little mouse and that they could probably find you there. Doesthat satisfy your queries? You know that I do love to satisfy you, Anton.”
The limit of Thomas’s patience snapped like a twig. “You wretched, selfish and thoughtless creature.”
“E-excuseme?”
“What business was it of yours to disclose where I’d gone and with whom?”
Wyatt sat straighter, regaining his bearings. “As I said, your father indicated that he wasworriedabout you! Why wouldn’t I tell him if I knew?—”
“Because the consequences of that choice are irreparable, Wyatt! Dawn and I were planning to run away that weekend. We were secretly going to elope to London and build a life together there. But you pointed them after me and everything fell apart!”
“How wasIto know any of that?” Wyatt exclaimed, his eyes wide as he leaned forward. “You didn’t say it was a secret! I assumed I was helping and that there was cause to be worried about you. Why ever did the two of you hash such a preposterous and dramatic scheme anyway?”
“It was neither preposterous nor dramatic,” Thomas said sternly. “We were in love and my father had refused to give his consent for us to wed and bond. We wanted charge over our own destinies, but instead… instead…” Thomas lost his breath. He shook his head with his palm plastered to his face.
Instead, everything fell to ruin.
“What happened after your younger father caught up with you?” Wyatt asked. “I assumed he did. You didn’t return to university, and you disappeared for months on end—and Dawn as well.”
Only Thomas’s elder father had shown up to the cottage where he’d been apprehended. Thomas hadn’t seen him, but remembered the pressure of his aura in one of the cars waiting atthe end of the drive. This information about his younger father’s involvement was news to him.
Thomas swallowed and it went down thick. He’d grown rehearsed in conveying his experience now, having told both Cameron and Dawn. With each telling, a small space had opened up between his present self and the devastation of the event. It still hurt to speak the words, but the pain was less raw now.
“My fathers had me imprisoned beneath our castle for three months,” he said plainly, then took a hefty breath. “They chased Dawn’s family out of Eden and essentially tortured me until I was compliant to their will.” It all flooded back to him, but not as intensely.
He reminded himself that he was sitting in Cameron’s home and he wassafe. In Ashford House, he was treated with respect, kindness and, unfathomably, love. Yes, it had been his fathers’ intention to capture, weaken and profit from him, but in his estimation and by some unforeseen miracle, he’d landed softly.
Thomas understood that he could have been handed over to any number of vile, arrogant and awful purebreds within Eden, and the suffering would have continued. But he’d been lucky. Instead of being tormented further, he was unexpectedly healing. Day by day. Little by little.
“Imprisoned for three months?” Wyatt balked, his voice rising. “What the devil? It sounds positively criminal!”
“You told them where to find me,” Thomas reiterated. “It wasn’t your business to tell.”
Wyatt’s spine stiffened. “Why shouldIbe blamed for this?”
“I’m not blaming you, per se. I just need you to know that when you disclosed that information, it changed the trajectory of both mine and Dawn’s lives.”
Wyatt frowned with his eyebrow raised. “It sure as hell sounds as if you blame me! I thought I washelpingyou, Anton.”
“You were not.”
