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A muffled sob escaped Kate’s lips before she pressed them shut, her hand tightening upon Augusta’s.
Sarah offered her sister a tentative smile, then she gently placed her hand upon Dorothea’s. “Thea?” she whispered, waiting until the girl looked at her. “Keir knows you’re grateful. He often helps people because… it’s simply who he is.”
“He’s a hero,” Dorothea whispered, and her gaze once more strayed to the window and the rider beyond.
“Yes, he is.” Sarah knew it was true. After all, Keir had initially come to England to saveher. The Dowager Countess of Whickerton had called upon him, asking him to aid her in freeing Sarah from a forced match. That was how they had met almost two months ago. He had come to London andkidnappedher from her parents’ home the night before her wedding.
Involuntarily, Sarah smiled when she thought of the night he had stolen her away. He had been a stranger, and she had been utterly terrified of him. So much so that she had fainted, waking later to find herself on top a horse and in herkidnapper’s arms.
Thus, their story had begun.
Blinking his eyes open, Loki lifted his head to look at Dorothea. Her little face still held something deeply melancholic. As though, the often-times haughty feline understood the girl’s need for distraction, he rose, stretched and then jumped across onto her lap.
Dorothea’s eyes went wide, and she stared at Loki, her hands in midair as though she were uncertain what to do with them.
“He is very friendly,” Sarah tried to reassure her. “There is no need to worry. You can pet him.” Sarah refrained from mentioning how ferocious Loki had proved when he had thought one of his clan threatened, namely her. Indeed, he was almost as fiercely protective of her as Keir.Perhaps he might extend his protectiveness to the girls, Sarah thought.Indeed, they could do with a loyal companion!
Dorothea petted Loki while Augusta watched her little sister with envious eyes. “His eyes glow in the dark,” Augusta remarked in awe. Then she reached out a tentative hand to let him sniff it. When Loki licked it affectionately, the girls burst out into giggles.
Soon, all gloomy thoughts had vanished, and the girls laughed and chatted happily. “Thank you,” Kate whispered, leaning her shoulder against Sarah’s. “A part of me still cannot believe,” her voice choked with tears, “that you came for us.” Her gaze fell from Sarah’s eyes and drifted to the bruise forming upon her left cheek. Kate’s husband had struck Sarah there the night before when she and Keir had helped Kate and her daughters escape their gilded cage.
Sarah grasped her sister’s hand. “Of course, I did.” She smiled at Kate, ignoring the apologetic expression upon her sister’s face. After all, Kate was not responsible for what her husband had done. “I could not have done it alone, though.”
Kate’s gaze strayed past her to the window. “Thea is right,” she murmured, her eyes fixed upon the shadowy figure outside. “I need to thank him. If he had not come…” Her voice trailed off, and her arms tightened around the sleeping child she held cradled against her chest. “I would have lost you as well,” she murmured to the babe, and a lone tear fell from her eyelashes and down onto Frederica’s cheek.
The little girl stirred for a moment but then continued to slumber peacefully. Augusta and Dorothea had settled down as well, Loki curled up in their arms, their eyes closing as exhaustion overtook them.
“That will never happen,” Sarah said firmly, needing her sister to know that she was no longer alone… and never would be again. “I won’t allow it.” Kate looked up and met her gaze. “Hewon’t allow it.”
A tentative smile came to Kate’s face. “I did not know you would accompany us to Scotland.”
Sarah exhaled a sudden breath, realizing how trying the past few hours had been for her heart. “I didn’t think I would. I thought I would have to bid you farewell.”
Kate swallowed, and again, her gaze traveled out the window. “You thought you’d have to bidhimfarewell.”
Forcing back the tears that threatened, Sarah nodded. “I… I knew he cared for me, but… but he never spoke of… He never said he…” She closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath. “Of course, neither did I.”
“He asked you to come?”
Sighing deeply, Sarah nodded. “He did. He said he did not want to say goodbye just yet, perhaps not ever.”
Kate smiled at her. “It is obvious that he cares for you, Sarah, and deeply. I saw it that first day when you came to Birchwell. It’s in the way he looks at you, speaksofyou andtoyou. He respects you, admires you.” Her lips twitched into a tearful smile. “Loves you.” She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, regret upon her face. “My husband never did.”
Sarah grasped her sister’s hand. “Today is a new beginning. Today you’re leaving behind all the heartbreak and regret, all the pain and suffering of the past. Today, you’re taking your first step into your new life.” She nodded at Kate encouragingly.
“You’re right,” her sister murmured, a brave smile coming to her face. “I have my daughters with me again, and soon, they’ll be safe. We’ll all be.”
“Yes.” Sarah wrapped an arm around her sister’s shoulders, her eyes drifting to the smile that briefly danced across Frederica’s face as she slept. “We’ll all start over in Scotland.”
“He’s a good man,” Kate murmured, a touch of disbelief in her tone as she looked out the window at their protector. “I… I’d forgotten that men like him existed.”
Sighing deeply, Sarah nodded. “I’d forgotten it, too.” But then Keir had come, reminding her what it meant to have someone to lean on, someone who made you feel safe and protected, someone who… cared for you. Though he had frightened her in the beginning, it had been Sarah’s experiences that had put her on her guard, not Keir himself.
The forlorn expression upon Kate’s face pained Sarah. No doubt her mind was consumed by thoughts of her husband and what he would do now that she had so openly disobeyed him. Sarah, too, struggled to put that thought from her mind. Would he come after them? How could he not? After all, everything Lord Birchwell had ever wanted was an heir, and thus far he only had three daughters.
And with his wife gone, that would never change.
“He hates me,” Kate suddenly murmured into the stillness, her voice hard with anger. “He never cared for me, not truly. He never looked at me the way Keir looks at you. Not for a single moment.” A heavy sigh left her lips, and yet Sarah could sense that there was more than regret in her sister’s heart. “I deserved more.”
