Lady of Light by Kathleen Morgan Read Free Book Online

needed to know. “Your mother, sister, or wife?”
    “My stepmother.” Evan grinned. “In case you’re ever interested, I’m not and never have been married.”
    “Well, if the truth be told,” she muttered, her cheeks flaming, “I’m not. I just wished to understand the relationships in your family better, that’s all.”
    “Abby wasn’t my stepmother at the time, only my pa’s housekeeper and tutor to my half-sister, Elizabeth. But even then she’d begun to have an effect on my pa, softening his heart.”
    “She sounds like a fine woman.”
    He nodded. “Oh, she is. She is.” Evan hesitated, his forehead wrinkling in thought. “Back to Ian, though, I reckon my point was he’s going through some difficult times just growing up. The best you can do is love him and stand by him.”
    “I try.” Claire exhaled a long breath and looked away. “Surely I do. But there are times when it’s verra hard to stand by him.”
    “Like yesterday, when that other boy accused him of stealing?”
    Horrified that Evan seemed to have read her mind, Claire jerked her gaze up to his. “I didn’t mean—”
    “I saw how you looked at him, heard the doubt in your voice,” he offered quietly. “And I don’t tell you that to reproach you, Claire. I can see how much you love your brother. You wouldn’t doubt him unless you’d good cause.”
    “No, I wouldn’t.”
    She met his steady, searching gaze, inexplicably soothed—rather than incensed—by his sudden use of her given name. A barrier had been broached and, as surprising as that revelation was, Claire suddenly didn’t care. Though she was loath to betray Ian or speak ill of him to another, there was something in Evan’s eyes that made the words come—something warm, compassionate, strong, and compelling.
    Evan would do more than understand and commiserate. Though she wasn’t sure from whence the certainty came, Claire sensed he would be there for her, stand by her, and help her as best as he could. Oh, how she needed someone strong to walk beside her, to bolster her when her strength failed! She hadn’t known that kind of comfort in a long, long time.
    And it had been such a very, very hard year.
    “It’s my fault, but all Ian knows is stealing,” she forced herself to say. “Our father died, drowning in a storm while fishing at sea, when I was just five and Ian two. Three years later, however, our vain, beautiful mother wed an Englishman while on holiday near our home in Sutherland. Most reluctantly, we were soon ensconced in England with my mother and new stepfather.”
    Claire turned back to scraping ashes from the back of the hearth. “I hated it in England—my cold, distant stepfather, the ridicule and taunts of the local children, and the way my mother slowly pulled away from us, preferring to pretend she was far too young to have children as old as Ian and me. By the time I was thirteen, I’d had all I could bear. With the money I had hidden away over the years, I bought passage back to Scotland, to my aunt’s home. At the last minute Ian begged to come with me and I, arrogantly imagining I was returning him to a far better life, agreed.”
    “So, he was only ten when he ran away with you back to Scotland.” Evan shook his head in wonderment. “What a plucky pair you two were.”
    At the memory of the years to come, hot tears stung Claire’s eyes. “Foolish and foolhardy would be more to the point,” she countered bitterly. “Once back in Scotland, I begged my aunt, who had married in the ensuing years, to take us in. She was hesitant at first, but finally did so. That was when the trouble really began.
    “My uncle was a cruel, physically abusive man who drank too much. Eventually, he was in his cups so much he couldn’t work. We lived in squalor.” She laid aside the little shovel. “It was then that Ian first began to steal, just so we’d have food to eat. And, when I thought it could get no worse, my aunt died, supposedly from a