Alexander-Fyn-Sanguinarian

gold instead of yellow. As if reading her mind he said, “Actually, Evangeline, his eyes truly were golden, unlike the harsh yellow I have the misfortune to possess.”
    “I wasn’t thinking that,” she said quickly.
    “Of course you were.” He stepped further back to get a better view of the portrait and Evangeline too stepped back. “His face was fuller than mine, less angular and sharp, far more appealing to your sex.”
    “Your mother was lovely,” she said, acknowledging the unquestionable beauty before her.
    “She was, just like Dominica, except that she was quite sane and my sister is not.”
    “Is she mad?” Evangeline shivered.
    “Yes.” He released a long sigh. “If she were not she could be a support to me, an advisor and confidant. Instead she is a burden.”
    “I did meet her once. Will I meet her again?”
    “It would be best if you did not. She is dangerous at times.”
    “Yes, I know. She threatened to kill me if I told you she had visited me.”
    Gently, Raven touched her cheek. “I’m so sorry. You must have been very frightened.”
    “No more frightened than I have been of you, my lord.”
    He nodded. “You must understand, I am a busy man. I have had 186
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    no time for playing and courting and such. However, I am beginning to see the mistakes I have made. I am trying to put them right.”
    “I am grateful for that,” she told him.
    Raven placed his hands on her shoulders. “Did Dominica harm you when she came to the tower?”
    “She merely threatened to, my lord. I will forgive her because of her illness.”
    “You are very kind.” He walked into the darker part of the room away from Evangeline, and throwing the dust sheet off a heavy old couch onto the floor, he threw himself down, his legs sprawled out in front of him. Evangeline followed him and stood some feet away, trying to make out his face. She saw resentment in the tight lines around his mouth and sadness in his lowered eyes.
    “You’re angry with them, aren’t you? You’re angry that they died and left you.”
    “Don’t be foolish, Evangeline. No one dies voluntarily. It was an accident. Why should I be angry?”
    She felt his anger, but also his sadness. “But they left you with a sister who cannot care for herself and this great old crumbling castle.”
    “Yes, and the need to marry before I can come into my fortune.
    But that was not their fault. The will is centuries old. It is only protecting the line.”
    “And I am preventing you from fulfilling that obligation,” she said. “You must be angry with me also.”
    “I don’t blame you, not after what I did.” He looked tense and unhappy.
    “How did they die?” she asked gently.
    “I have no desire to talk about it,” he snapped.
    “It may help,” she encouraged him.
    “I said I don’t want to.” He was petulant as a spoiled child.
    “Really?” If he could be childish, then so could she. She stamped her foot loudly enough to make him start and look up at her. When she had his attention, she stamped it again. “You’re not the only one, Sanguinarian 187
    you know! You’re such a self-centered man, only aware of what affects you.” Crossing her arms she began to walk up and down in front of him. “My parents died, too. I was only three years old. I was left in the care of the miserly uncle you bought me from. You saw for yourself what sort of man he was to sell his own niece. His dead sister’s only child.”
    “Yes, well...” Raven muttered.
    “Don’t make excuses.”
    “I wasn’t going to!”
    “No, you’d better not. You are not the only one to lose your parents,” she continued in a kinder voice. “I never even got to know mine. Mrs. Brackett became my mother.”
    “That’s why you are so attached to her,” Raven said.
    “Yes. I just want you to know that I understand the pain of feeling alone in the world.” On impulse Evangeline sat down beside him. It was the first time that she had voluntarily come to him. Raven did not move but he turned his head to look at her, and there was a touch of surprise in his eyes. “I suppose your burden is greater than mine when you have so many people dependent upon you. Servants and tenant farmers as well as your sister.”
    “Not only them but an entire community who look up to me.”
    “Community? You mean those people who were here for Court .
    Who are you, my lord? Tell me truly who you are,” she asked with such a strong desire to know that he sat