Adam stepped back.Ellie whirled to grip the railing, forcibly trying to steady her breath.
Constance shouted loudly back into the parlor.“Stuffy!Come see!”
Neil popped into view in his worn blue robe and gray striped pajamas, toweling his hair.“What’s that?”
“Lord Jagannath must have made it to his aunt’s house.They’re putting on a show!”Constance grabbed him by the arm and hauled him out onto the balcony—which had grown rather crowded.
With a whistle and a bang, more color burst to life in overhead, orange and red joining shimmering falls of green and yellow.Constance’s heart-shaped face was lit with the dancing hues, her eyes wide with childlike joy.
Neil stared up at the show from behind her—and worry twisted through Ellie’s gut.He knew that Ellie and Adam were involved with each other… but she hadn’t exactly advertised what the two of them had gotten up to during those stolen nights in Cairo.
Knowing Ellie had romantic feelings for his best friend was one thing.Learning that they had done debauched things together while deliberately remaining unmarried was something else entirely.
For a moment, Ellie wondered what it would feel like to lose her brother over that.What if by letting him see who she really was—and what truly mattered to her—she risked having him shut her out of his life forever?
Neil wasn’t just her family.He was her friend.Her colleague.The first person in the world who had shared and understood her scholarly passions and her boundless curiosity.Their relationship hadn’t always been easy, punctuated by periods of hurt and confusion… but through all of that, there had always been an immense and unmistakable bounty of love.
The notion of having all of that torn from her waswrenching.
Emotion roiled through her with the power of a storm, threatening tears.
Neil’s mouth tightened with concern.Ellie could read the question in the angry look he shot at Adam.
Has he hurt you?
She had to choke back a wild laugh at his assumption—and at his quick instinct to protect her.
She shook her head, reassuring him.Neil warily accepted it.
With the memory of that terrible fear still twisting through her, Ellie reached out her hand.
Neil blinked down at the gesture—and pulled her gently to his side.
Ellie found herself securely wrapped in her brother’s arm.She let her head fall to his shoulder, soaking up his steady warmth.
The shocking impulse toward tears flooded up in her again, but different now.The tide was warmer and richer, woven through with gilded threads of affection.
Ellie felt the truth in her bones.She wouldn’t lose Neil over the question of who she needed to be.Some of her choices might be harder for him to understand, or could drive him to worry… but he wouldneverwalk away from her.
She tightened her grip on his waist as though her arms could communicate what words would never be big enough to hold.
Ow, Neil mouthed softly, wincing at the pressure on his wounded side.
Sorry,Ellie mouthed back with a wince.
He shook his head ruefully—and subtly tightened his warm hold on her shoulder.
Ellie leaned against him as he gazed up at the fireworks through his spectacles.
Like a compass needle returning to the north, her eyes moved to where Adam stood by the rail.
He was watching her and Neil, smiling with a warm understanding that only Adam Bates would have so quickly, intuitively grasped.
He punctuated it with a casual fist to Neil’s shoulder.
Neil startled—and then smiled at him as well, the expression more tentative but unmistakably genuine.
“Beautiful,” Constance breathed in front of them, absorbed by the colors blooming across the sky—prayers made light and shot into the stars.“It’s beautiful.”
