CHAPTER FORTY-SIX #3
Before he could argue his case, she pulled him toward the bench at the foot of the bed. “Now, come, tell me: How are you? Has the army treated you well? You look good. This insignia looks important.”
Ethenn glanced at the Order of the King patch on his coat and smirked. “Lots has happened,” he said. “Too much to tell tonight.”
“Are you happy?” she asked.
Ethenn opened his mouth to reply, but the words caught.
Was he happy? He couldn’t say he was. Despite his love for Ilain, their relationship was complicated.
His feelings were deepening while hers were .
. . Well, he didn’t know what she felt for him.
Perhaps something, but it wasn’t yet love.
That wouldn’t come until after their Bonding.
Unable to explain such things to his sister but not wanting to disappoint her, he said, “I think I will be. Soon.”
She squeezed his hand. “How long will you stay?”
“In town?”
She nodded.
“Just the night,” he said. “But, Rin, I’m going to come back for you.”
Terrina’s brow furrowed.
“I’m in the middle of a mission now, and there are some things that need to be figured out. But as soon as it’s all taken care of, I’m going to come back for you.” He glanced at her growing stomach. “And the baby,” he concluded.
Terrina’s dark eyes clouded with something he couldn’t read.
“I’m going to get a promotion of a sort soon,” Ethenn explained. “I’ll be able to provide for all of us. You can raise your child however you like—far away from here. We’ll be together, and you won’t have to worry about anyone making you do anything you don’t want to do ever again.”
“Ethenn—”
“Trust me, Rin,” he pressed, tightening his grip on her. “We can be a family again.”
His sister pressed her lips together, seeming to struggle for words.
Then the bedroom door opened.
Ethenn and Terrina shot out of their seats as a servant stepped in. And behind him came Bastien Muirren.
Ethenn’s heart stopped beating. It was impossible.
The night he’d come to rescue Terrina four months ago, Bastien found them.
He’d entered the room then, like he did now.
He’d rushed in and, finding a strange man with his wife, flew into a rage, even as Terrina screamed that it was her brother.
Ethenn and Bastien fought. They’d tumbled out onto the balcony.
And as Ethenn’s anger flashed hotter than ever before, he’d kicked Bastien over the rail to fall crashing to the stones below.
Ethenn had killed Bastien. That’s why he joined the army. That’s why he ran.
Yet, here his sister’s husband was—fully alive.
However, tonight, Bastien didn’t stride into the room. The servant wheeled him inside on a chair made with wheels like a wagon. His once proud and handsome face bore still-healing scars, soft red lines across his umber skin. Otherwise, he appeared hale and whole.
A tremble worked through Ethenn as his skin began to heat.
Bastien was supposed to be dead. His sister should have been free, a wealthy widow living a life of luxury, but instead, she remained shackled to the scoundrel who’d stolen her freedom.
Just as Bastien and his servant noticed Ethenn’s presence, Terrina rushed forward. “Dear,” she said, setting a hand on Bastien’s rigid shoulder, “my brother has come to visit. Isn’t that nice?”
A long, tense silence stretched. Terrina excused the servant, and he shut the door behind him. Her fingers massaged Bastien’s shoulder, even as the man glared at Ethenn.
“Bas,” Terrina whispered.
Ethenn bristled at the nickname.
But Bastien softened. “Welcome, Ethenn,” he said tightly. “Let me apologize before anything else is said for our . . . misunderstanding when last we met.”
And yet still, Ethenn couldn’t breathe. He’d killed the man. He’d solved his sister’s problem. And yet, the bloody man survived.
Terrina straightened. “Ethenn,” she said, a strange authority entering her voice.
She had one hand on her husband’s shoulder and the other on her pregnant belly.
“Bastien didn’t realize who you were the last time you met.
I explained everything to him, and he regrets his hasty actions.
He recognizes that he was just as much to blame for his accident as you. ”
Ethenn held Bastien’s coal-black gaze. “You should be dead,” he said flatly.
A haughty expression lifted the older man’s brow. “Some men have all the luck,” he said.
Terrina’s hand tightened on his shoulder.
Bastien adjusted in his seat. “I wasn’t as gravely injured as you presumed,” he explained.
“While I am still recovering, the doctor assures me that I’ll walk again.
Though likely with a cane. I am an old man, after all.
” He said the last bit with a wry grin, glancing up at Terrina, who smiled fondly at him.
Terrina turned back to her brother. “Despite our strange start,” she said, “Bas and I have come to an understanding over the last several months.”
“Being at the mercy of others forces you to obtain perspective,” Bastien said dryly. “At least, when your nurse is Rina.”
Terrina giggled lightly. “I helped Bas see that his purchase of me was due to infatuation and not love,” she said. “But together, we decided that we’d try to find love anyway. Especially for the sake of our little one.”
A strange expression came over Bastien’s face as he gripped Terrina’s hand, which still rested on his shoulder. Ethenn couldn’t determine whether it was regret, agitation, or hope.
Ethenn refused to believe any of it. “He bought you, Rin. You’re just another of his acquisitions.”
Bastien’s jaw tightened. “I would request your respect while a guest in my house,” he said threateningly. Though Ethenn didn’t know what the cripple thought he could do to him in that chair. But then it wasn’t Ethenn who was at the man’s mercy.
It was Terrina.
The merchant might have duped his sweet sister with his lies, but Ethenn wouldn’t be fooled. However, he wouldn’t let his sister be punished for his actions either.
Bastien Muirren was a clever bastard. His manipulation and underhanded scheme were lauded in the shady corners of Trollenston.
The man had shown up to some of Ethenn’s fights in the past, spending illicit evenings in The Wanderer.
He couldn’t believe that the man had sought redemption.
Not when he had possession of his beloved sister—his only remaining immediate family.
“What will it take?” Ethenn asked.
“Pardon?” Bastien replied, eyes narrowing.
Ethenn nodded to Terrina. “I want to purchase my sister back,” he said. “What will it take to have you sign her under my headship?”
Terrina gasped in disbelief while Bastien blinked shrewdly.
“You want to purchase her from me?” he said.
Ethenn held his gaze with unfaltering intensity. “Name your price.”
Bastien cocked his head. “It isn’t just my wife you’d be taking. It’d be my child.”