Passion and Pleasure in London by Melody Thomas

Author:Melody Thomas
Language: ron
Format: mobi, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Rory didn’t stay the night at the inn as he’d originally planned. He paid his room tab and left shortly after his arrival, compelled by an urgent need to return to Granbury. He had meant to be gone a few days, but even that small span of time suddenly seemed too long and he rode his horse through the night.

He found the house completely lit when he arrived at Granbury Court just before dawn.

Mrs. Casselberry met him at the door and took his coat, her expression harried. “My lord. I’m so glad you have returned. It’s your grandfather…”

A sudden burst of fear pressed against him, raw and stinging his mind. It spurred Rory up the stairs two at a time to his grandfather’s chambers.

Once in the sitting room the scent of flowers overwhelmed him. To him, nothing on earth represented a more tragic dichotomy of life and death than watching a flower in full bloom wither and perish.

Without stopping, he crossed the sitting room into his grandfather’s private chamber. Unable to move farther, he remained unobserved in the doorway. His feet had stopped. Trevor sat in the chair next to Lord Granbury’s bed, his head lowered as he stared at his hands. Father Flannigan stood in the shadows of the tester. And for a dragging moment, the expression on the priest’s face deprived Rory of the power of thought. Then Flannigan lifted a lamp from the nightstand.

“He’s awake, my lord,” he said.

Rory’s gaze shot to the frail figure on the bed. His grandfather’s eyes were opened and watching him.

“Trevor,” Granbury wheezed, “give me a word alone with my grandson.”

Trevor’s head swiveled around to Rory. But he did not argue as he slowly stood and slipped past Rory into the sitting room. Rory was not at first aware that he was finally alone in the room. But suddenly the door shut behind him and even Father Flannigan was gone.

Silence fell down upon him.

The old man’s eyes welled with tears. “Come into the light, son, allow me to see you.”

Rory dropped into the chair Trevor had vacated. A breeze entered through the opened window across the room. Until his arrival in Granbury, he had been perfectly content with never knowing this man. He had been content with many things, most especially his own lot in life. Everything had suddenly changed, and he didn’t quite understand why.

“You’ve finally come home, son.”

Had he? Finally, come home?

What did a man say to another to whom he had never spoken? Yet a man who had been with him most of his life.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Rory found himself asking, buried beneath feelings he did not comprehend. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”

“You’ve been to see Ware.” Granbury sank into the pillow and coughed. “I have watched you and your sister always, Rory. You were not ready to know.”

His grandfather’s assertion was correct. But Rory’s entire world had just shifted on its axis and he didn’t quite know how he felt about it. “You are a bastard,” he said quietly but with no real force or venom, “sir.

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