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“I’ve missed you. Stay up late with me, Pen?”
I nodded, and felt my body relaxing. I pressed into him a little, enjoying the hard warmth that met my body, leaning my shoulder against his.
I stole a glance at his profile. He was so handsome. I could smell his already-familiar scent. Part of me longed to rest my head on his shoulder and just close my eyes.
I yawned.
“You’re tired? Do you need to go to sleep?”
His hand had slipped into mine, almost unnoticed. Now he turned my hand flat, and began to rub his thumb slowly over my palm, making small circles. It felt incredible. I made a little sound of pleasure and Vesper gave a low chuckle.
“You like that?”
I nodded, watching his eyes gleam in the firelight. “Tell me about you, Vesper.” I snuggled into him a little, closing my eyes as he massaged my hand. “Who are you?”
He gave a little start. “Who am I?” He laughed. “That’s a tough question to answer in one night, isn’t it? Could you?”
I opened my mouth then closed it again, remembering who I was supposed to be. Pen. The assassin’s apprentice.
“Mmm,” I said, noncommittally. “Tell me something about you then. Just a few things. Like... Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
He was quiet. Then, “I have a sister. A younger sister.”
“I have a brother,” I said thinking of Kaye. It took me a moment to remember Arthur. I thought of him as a brother less and less these days, I realized. “Two younger brothers. One is only a year younger than I am so I hardly think of him as younger at all.”
Vesper nodded.
“Do you get along with your sister?”
Vesper’s hand trembled slightly in mine. “I do. Especially since it’s just she and I now. Our mother passed away a few years ago.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said immediately. “My own mother died when I was very young. How old is your sister?”
Again the pause. “She’s twelve. When my mother died... Well, we didn’t have much to begin with. My sister went to stay with relatives. I work and send money back to her.”
“Do you see her often?”
He shook his head. “Not as often as I’d like.” He met my eyes. “What about you?”
“This is the longest I’ve ever been away from my brothers.”
“But they’re with your father, I suppose?”
My turn to hesitate. “No, he’s dead, too. They’re my half-brothers, actually. But I don’t think of them that way. I mean, as anything but my family. My full family.” Though I knew now that Arthur would never feel the same. But Kaye? I hoped he still did and always would.
“Your father married again? I see.”
“Yes.” I took a deep breath. “Twice.”
He raised his brows. “Three wives, three children?”
“Exactly. My last stepmother, she was very kind. She died giving birth to my youngest brother.”
“You’ve lost a lot of family,” Vesper observed.
“I suppose I have.” I thought of Enid. Lovely sweet Enid, Kaye’s mother. How different things might have been if she had lived rather than died giving birth to her son. Would she have been able to protect Kaye better than I had done? Would Arthur have listened to her as he never had to me?
“You must be a very strong person. To have lost so much. Now to be out here, alone like this, so far from your family.”
