"He rejected his own child? What a terrible thing to do."
"Pedro faced worse."
"Why?"
"He had to live with him."
Anne couldn't imagine such a parent. "How did you meet Pedro?"
"In Mozambique. I was sixteen and hoped if the duke saw me in military glory, he would... Christ, I don't know what I expected. After being sick as a pig on the journey to the other side of the world, I disgraced myself in the first skirmish."
"How did you manage?"
"Pedro saved me on the battlefield."
"He was there." Anne pictured a younger Pedro clashing through the enemy line, fighting to get to his baby brother. The image fit the dashing count so well, it made her sigh.
"For the first time…" Cris took a long, quivering breath. "I wasn't alone."
She pressed his hand affectionately, and he pulled her closer, wrapping her in his arms. Anne hugged him, patting his back. Griffin had never embraced her, and she respected his natural reserve. But tucked against this brother who needed as much warmth as she, she wished to have insisted more.
"See," Anne said. "Everything will be all right."
Chapter 15
Pedrodescendedtheridgeto Barca D’Alva. Each jostle of Erebus's gait on the rocky ground felt like the horse stepped on his wound, pain coursing from his hip to his shoulder. He shook his head, blinking to keep his eyes open. He needed to lie down. At least Anne and Cris would be safe on the yacht. Would she be waiting for his arrival, pacing the yacht's deck?
Elms opened to show the marina. The sun hovered above the Douro's silvery water, and theDawn Chaserfloated as if on a mirror, her oblong shape an elegant addition to the sprawling landscape, the majestic hundred-foot vessel lording over the smaller boats.
A few yards more, and he would find his bed, perhaps glimpse her face.
A honeyed voice drifted in the breeze. Her voice. Heart leaping into his chest, Pedro straightened in the saddle, straining to see. Sunlight filtered through the willows, veiling the river. A shaft of champagne in between the branches. Anne. She waited for him.
A few feet more. Just a few.
Erebus picked up speed, breaking through the line of trees.
A couple embraced atop the wooden pier. Anne and his brother. Pedro sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, his vision blurring around the pair. Cris engulfed her, his right hand covering her head, his left at her mid-back, his face buried in the soft place where her neck met her shoulder. Anne's pulse would beat there, the skin warm and fragrant. A river breeze blew strands of their hair together, light and black.
Pedro shut his eyes, pressing the reins until his fingers hurt. Why could his brother enjoy another's touch? How unfair he was so free with his affections, with his body. Cris thought nothing of allowing others too close, making himself vulnerable, while Pedro's skin crawled with the mere threat of being touched by another. He shouldn't feel rage. This was Cris, the only blood relation that mattered to him, and she was a girl that, except for her connection to a man he hated, wasn't his.
How would they receive his return? Did they wish he had perished in the skirmish? With a smile that showed his teeth, Pedro crossed Erebus to the pier. "I'm glad you enjoyed my absence."
She startled and moved away from Cris, a blush covering her cheeks.
"Thank God!" Cris laughed his booming, easy laugh and grabbed Erebus's reins. His brother's eyes were red-rimmed. Worried?
Pedro dismounted. When his boots reached the ground, his hip stung as if the blade had pierced him anew. He leaned over the horse's flank while black dots burned inside his eyelids.
"You are hurt." Anne's gaze trembled from his face to the russet stain on his shirt.
Pedro splayed his palm over the wound. "It's nothing."
Their eyes met, hers so blue it warred with the summer sky, the blue of unfulfilled dreams. Even in borrowed boy's clothes, cheeks smudged with dirt, hair a mess, she dazzled him.
She moved closer, her hand reaching out for him. What would it feel like? Her touch? Right now, with his side bleeding, she could scourge his skin, and he would welcome the pain.
The realization staggered him, and he gulped a breath.
