Rachelle lifted a piece of toast to her mouth, then stopped. “Do you phrase everything as an order?”
“Do you always fight for control, even when something is for your own benefit?”
“I don’t know.” She looked at the bread, then back to him. “My mother blamed the end of her marriage to my father on how controlling his mother was. Delinda had all the money, and she held that power over my father. Not over us, though, because my mother thought we were better off without the money.”
“So your mother raised you to not trust half your family.”
“No. No, she wasn’t like that.” Even as Rachelle said the words, she wondered if there wasn’t some truth to them. She loved her mother and for most of her life had taken her side without question. That didn’t mean her mother was perfect—hell, she’d hidden an affair and the parentage of one of her children. Was it possible that the only way for Rachelle to find her way back to her family was to admit that her mother was human—flawed? “Maybe she did divide us without realizing how it would change all of us. Those of us who stayed with Mom wondered why our father didn’t care more about us. Those who went with Dad wondered why Mom found them easy to leave behind. It didn’t have to be that way.”
“It didn’t, but you are building bridges over that divide. I admire your dedication to your brother, especially since he has little toward you.”
There was no denying that one, even though it hurt not to be able to. “Brett tried to explain our different upbringing to me. He said he and Eric were raised without the laughter and open expression of love that we were.” She placed the bread down on the plate and hugged her stomach. “You don’t want to hear this.”
“Yes, I do,” Magnus said, caressing her arm gently before dropping his hand. “I want to know you, Rachelle. The good and the bad.”
She met his eyes and saw only sincere interest there. However this turned out, Magnus was part of this journey to understand herself. His opinion would help, because it was a fresh look at situations she was too close to. “My understanding of my family has been shaken lately. I used to think my grandmother was a horrible woman, that my father had cheated on my mother, and that Brett and Eric thought they were better than us. Then my grandmother turned eighty and offered all of us grandchildren access to our inheritance on the stipulation that we marry and invite the family to the weddings. I stupidly suggested that my best friend, Alisha, marry Spencer. He needed money, and she’s always been part of our family. I didn’t see the harm.”
“And they married?”
“No, but they did get engaged. Then she met my oldest brother, Brett.”
His eyebrows rose.
She continued, “Exactly. It wasn’t good. Alisha and Brett fell in love just after Spencer found out his father was not my father.”
“So, your mother was unfaithful.”
“Yes, and none of us knew. We all assumed it was our father who had cheated.”
“And then she took half of his children from him.” There was disgust in Magnus’s tone that made Rachelle wish she hadn’t shared the story.
“Her second husband was an amazing man we all loved.” Magnus didn’t need to say anything for Rachelle to see even that in a new light as well. “Which could not have been easy for my father.” As Rachelle looked back with new eyes, the line between right and wrong blurred. “Brett always says that our family’s divide was like cracks in glass that could be traced back to one defining event.”
Magnus took her hand in his.
Although everything Rachelle was sharing had been disclosed to her months earlier, it was the first time she was truly facing it. “My grandfather Oliver killed himself, and Delinda considered it her fault for not preparing him better when he took over her family’s business. When he died, my father, Dereck, took his place, and Delinda was determined he would not fail. Brett says Delinda’s greatest fear was losing her son or one of us the way she’d lost her husband. So she made it her goal to toughen us up. I try to like her, but I don’t know that she’s ever said anything nice to me.”
“I wondered why you wouldn’t tell her where Eric was.”
“I want to see the good in my grandmother, but life is always a battle to her, and we are soldiers she’s trying to prepare for it.” Rachelle thought about what working with so many children had taught her. “Tough love can be a good thing, but sometimes people need a kinder touch. Sometimes you have to consider what the other person needs. My grandmother doesn’t do that.”
“Yet.” His voice dipped.
Her gaze flew to his.
He said, “You’re a natural teacher, little Rachelle. You will be the one to show her.”
Rachelle wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye. “On my cockiest days, I don’t know if I believe I can.”
He leaned over and kissed her. “Then you need to see yourself through my eyes.”
Whether it was the Fernet or the man seated beside her on the bed, Rachelle felt better than she had in a long, long time. “I’m sorry I ruined last night,” she blurted, then blushed.
He chuckled. “I don’t want to leave you this morning, but I must, at least for a few hours. You’ll have a driver and one of my guards at your disposal if you decide to go shopping in town. I’ll be back early, and then you can show me exactly how sorry you are.”
She would have laughed, but the heated way he was looking at her filled her mind with X-rated possibilities. “I always apologize best after being apologized to,” she said cheekily.
He kissed her again and growled, “I’ll keep that in mind.” He stood. “I should go while I’m still able to.”
Rachelle couldn’t stop smiling after he left. She ate everything on the tray, called to check on Eric, then took a long, hot shower. At first she wasn’t sure she wanted to go out, but the lure of seeing a new town in a country she knew very little about was strong. Besides, it would give her a chance to buy lingerie. She’d never been the type of woman who wore it, but Magnus made her feel sexy, and she wanted to explore that side of herself.
Now, all she had to figure out was where a woman would buy lingerie in a small Vandorran town and how to ask to be brought to such a store without looking like she was looking for . . . well, what she was looking for.
The original meeting scheduled for that day would not have been enough to pull Magnus from Rachelle’s side, but early that morning Phillip had texted that he’d received new information regarding the people shadowing her. It was a conversation Magnus didn’t want Rachelle to overhear until he had a better idea of who it was and what they wanted. As was his practice with his father, his goal was to eradicate any problem without her ever knowing.
They met at Phillip’s parents’ home a mile down the river, a place Magnus knew well from childhood. Before Phillip had become a royal guard and while Magnus had still been unhindered by the responsibilities of his title, they had played together. Magnus’s mother had wanted her son to have a normal childhood, at least as much as possible. She’d brought him to this area to encourage him to kayak, ride his bicycle, and make friends. Several of his friends from that time had joined the royal guard, and he was as loyal to them as they had proven to be to him. It was those men Magnus would not only trust with his life, but defend with his own, if need be.
Seated across from him in the living room, Phillip said, “It’s a complicated mess, Magnus.”
“So, uncomplicate it for me.”
“I’ll start with the black card with the white phone number. It belongs to an American security expert, Alethea Narcharios. She’s big-league. Until a few years ago she was testing the physical and online security of major companies. Lately, she’s been a private hire for wealthy families in the United States. My guess is she’s on Delinda Westerly’s payroll. Possibly to protect her granddaughter.”