CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“T-tell me he will live, Dev.”
“I can't, sweetheart, you must understand that,” he said, running his hand over her hair.
She lay against him, looking at Toby. Dev lifted her hands, looking at her bloodied and torn gloves, and slowly took them from her fingers.
“Do you trust me, Lilly?”
“Yes.”
Amazing how one simple word could warm him to his toes. He kissed each finger because he knew she liked it, and was rewarded with a gentle sigh. Even exhausted, she responded to him as he knew she always would. Looking at her slender hands, he wondered if his hunch was accurate. It seemed now was the time to test his theory.
“Did you ever touch another person before you took to wearing gloves, and feel strange sensations, Lilly?”
She looked at him for several seconds and then slowly nodded. Lord, she was beautiful. Her hair was everywhere, her clothes dirty with bits torn here and there, yet he had never wanted another woman like he did Lilliana Braithwaite. He wanted to take her home with him and keep her safe, lock her away from anyone who would harm her, and that simply confirmed just how important she had become to him.
Only his family made him feel such emotions, yet now it seemed Lilly could too. Brushing his lips over hers, he kept the kiss light, and then turning to the bed he looked at the small boy lying motionless. Switching his vision, he could see Toby's color was now white, and Dev feared he did not have long to live. Essie had tried everything and was even now looking for something to save the boy, but Dev knew death better than most, and Toby was close. His breathing had grown shallow and he lay still in the big bed.
“Will you try something for me?” Dev said, once again taking Lilly's hand in his. “Just place your hands on Toby and tell me what you feel.” She didn't speak, just turned and laid one palm flat on Toby's forehead, the other on his chest. The boy twitched instantly and then calmed.
“What do you feel?”
“He's so cold, almost like he's—”
“No, Lilly, he's not dead,” Dev said, placing his hand over hers. If what he suspected was true and Lilly could heal with her hands, then maybe he could help her in some way, use his strength to support her.
“Now we're going to move your hand slowly down his arm.”
“I'm scared.”
“I know, love, but I'm here and I will keep you safe. You said you trusted me, remember.” She nodded as he moved as close to her as he could, his front now pressed to her back, and then cupping her hands with his, he began to run them over the boy. The heat from her hands made his tingle, the sensation not unbearable, but he could feel it traveling up his arms.
“Focus on your hands, Lilly. We are going to move closer to Toby's injury now.”
He kept his voice calm.
“I-it feels as if I am being stung by a thousand bees, Dev.”
“I have you, love, my hands are right there with yours,” he soothed as her body tensed.
He felt her hands get hotter as she reached the boy's injury. Beneath her fingers Toby grew restless and color filled his face as he began to murmur and thrash about in the bed.
“I-I... it's—”
“Are you in pain, Lilly?” She shook her head. “Tell me what you feel.”
“M-my hands feel hot, like I am being stung by stinging nettle, but my body is cold.”
“Pull your hands away if you can no longer stand it.”
“Am I.... Are my hands healing him?”
Dev was watching Toby's color to make sure his light didn't go out completely, and saw the yellow steadily grow brighter. The tension in Lilly's body worried him and he wondered what effect this would have on her. He could feel the tingling she spoke of beneath his fingers and the chill that was creeping into her body. Wrapping his hands around hers, he lifted them and saw the wound had healed significantly. There was only a cut that would easily heal.
“Dear God! He... it is nearly healed,” Lilly gasped.
Dev felt the boy’s head and checked his pulse, and then looked inside him and saw the bleeding had stopped. Toby was still sleeping but this time it was a healing sleep, and his color and breathing were strong. Lifting Lilly into his arms as her knees buckled, he walked around the bed and lowered her onto the other side, beside Toby. Her color was strong, yet he could see that in doing what she had for the boy she had used the last of her reserves and was now exhausted.
“Wh-what just happened?”
Framing her face, Dev kissed her again. “Do you want to discuss this now, or sleep?”
“Dissscusss.”
She was asleep before she finished the word. Dev watched her, taking in the long sweep of her lashes, the pallor of her cheeks. He loved her because she was his mate. The other half to him. He had the gift of sight and she touch. She was the piece that completed his family's circle. Dear Christ, he could hardly take it in.
Pulling the covers up, he tucked them both in. Toby slept, his face young and innocent, the woman beside him looking remarkably similar. Stroking a hand over her hair, he then gave her a last long look and left the room.
A maid waited outside the door, so Dev told her to have a room and bath prepared for Miss Braithwaite and one for him, and he would return soon to escort her.
“I have the herb here, Dev, and have instructed the kitchen to bring more boiling water.”
Dev took Essie's hands as she appeared before him, her face creased with worry. She stilled, looking up at him.
“No, Dev, please tell me Toby is alive!”
“Yes, he lives, and he is sleeping the sleep of a tired yet recovering young boy, Ess. Now I need you to come with me. I have something to tell you all, but I want to say it only once.”
“I-I don't understand.” She gripped his fingers.
“You will, love. Come.”
She let him lead her to where the others waited in James's study. Nicholas Braithwaite was the first to gain his feet as Essie and Dev entered.
“How are Lilliana and the boy doing, my lord?”
His lip was now puffy and purple and his hair stood on end, and at some stage, he had removed his jacket and necktie. He looked vastly different from the previously elegant and pampered Nicholas Braithwaite.
“I think the boy will make it through the night, and your sister has been taken to a chamber to sleep, as she was both exhausted and hungry,” Dev said, telling the lie as easily as he took his next breath.
Perhaps Braithwaite was changing, yet Dev was still not about to trust him completely and most especially not with both his family’s and Lilly's secrets.
“She asked me to request that you go home and tell your aunt you have received a letter from her stating she has left London briefly to visit one of your estates, as she is in need of fresh air.”
“But she has never done that before. Aunt will be suspicious.”
“Braithwaite, you are foisting a seventy-year-old reprobate on her, which I may add you had no issue with until this evening. Surely you can use that to your advantage when telling the tale.”
Dev had believed there were no similarities between Lilly and her brother, but the glare he got suggested they both had the same backbone.
“There is no need to keep reminding me I have neglected my sister, Sinclair. I will go home at once and tell our aunt. She will believe me, as she would have no reason not to,” Nicholas muttered as he prepared to take his leave. “I will return in the morning with some of Lilly's things. I hope one of your sisters will care for her until I return?”
“They will,” Dev said, pleased that at last the man seemed to be aware of his duty to his sister. “But remember this while you sleep, Braithwaite. Your sister will not forgive the years of neglect and abuse easily, and she will wonder at the abrupt change in you, as do we.”
Nicholas didn't say anything, just nodded.
“Be ready to beg, Braithwaite. With four sisters, this is the best advice I can give you.”
When the door had closed, Dev went to sit before the fire with the rest of his family.
“Eat now, Dev,” Eden said, handing him a plate, “and then tell us what's happening.”
“You probably heard most of it anyway,” he said around a mouthful of buttered toast.
“Most, but not all,” she said with a cheeky smile.
James frowned at her. “I thought you put your earplugs in when you returned?”
“James, James, James,” Cam said, shaking his head. “When will you learn not to believe her when she says that?
“You lied to me!” James roared, glaring at his wife, who looked totally unrepentant.
“Not lied, darling, exactly,” she said, kissing his cheek. “I had them in and then I took them out. Anyway,” she quickly added as James opened his mouth to continue the discussion, “we have much more pressing matters to discuss regarding Toby and your cousin.”
Dev realized this was his cue, so he took a large swallow of his brandy before beginning. “None of you have probably noticed, but Lilly always wears her gloves. I discussed it with her one night and she told me she had always worn them, since childhood.”
“That's true,” James added. “I used to question her on it when we were playing but she usually just fobbed me off.”
“Christ, she's one of us!”
Dev had known it would be Cam who worked it out first, and he wasn't disappointed. Essie followed seconds later. Eden of course, already knew.
“Good God!”
“Christ!”
“As you know, I don't like to hear those words coming from my sisters, but if ever there was a time they were acceptable, now is it,” Dev added.
“What the bloody hell is going on?”
Looking at James's bewildered expression, Dev laughed. For once the mighty Raven brain was not working.
“Lilly has sensitive hands, Raven.”
“So do a lot of people. One of my drivers is allergic to.... Mother of God!”
“Yes darling, your cousin has the heightened sense of touch, just as I have hearing, Cam smell, Essie taste, and Dev sight. She is the fifth and final sense, it seems. How strange that it was you who uncovered this, brother,” Eden said, giving Dev a pointed look that he ignored.
“She healed Toby tonight. It exhausted her and now she sleeps, but she did it.”
“How did you know, Dev?” Cam queried.
“I took off her glove one night. She rebelled, but I grabbed her hand, and she told me she had never touched anyone before without it causing her pain.”
“Like I cannot hear, James,” Eden said with a sly smile. “Love dulls the senses.”
Dev ignored her.
“Another one.” James groaned, falling back into his chair. “But how is it possible? Surely her blood tie to the Sinclairs is weak?”
“Apparently it's not,” Cam said, still looking stunned.
“She is also a very special lady with special colors meant for the strongest of us all,” Essie said, grinning at Dev, who in turn glared at her.
“For what it's worth, brother, I like her,” Cam said, taking the last piece of apple pie off the plate.
“Of course you like her, she's my bloody cousin!”
“As do we all,” Eden said, taking her husband's hand and giving it a hard squeeze as he opened his mouth again. It closed quickly.
“I will go and see her and have the maid take her to a room, Raven.” Dev got to his feet.
“I will do it!”
“No, you won't, James. Dev is more than capable.”
Leaving the room before another word was said, Dev made his way to Lilly's side. He was eager to see her, eager to know she was well. He loved her. The thought nearly dropped him to his knees. Another to love, another to care for. But this one would be different, he knew. This one was a part of him.