Afterthought - M J Marlow (pdf to ebook reader .txt) 📗

and went out to the garden. Stefano watched as his brother-in-law picked the girl up in his arms. He didn’t say anything to the children and they watched with expressions of concern on their faces. They cared very deeply for their cousin, and that was not something he meant to take from her, if he could help it. Sterling returned with Evangeline in his arms and Stefano saw her looking at him with curiosity and wariness in her pretty green eyes. Sterling set her down on the couch and Stefano sat down nearby. “I’ll leave you to talk,” Sterling said and left the room, closing the door behind him. “Uncle Sterling told me that you needed to talk to me,” Evangeline said simply. She looked at him closely and something about his expression warned her. “You’re my father, aren’t you?” “Yes, Evangeline,” Stefano nodded. “I am.” He was quite curious now. She accepted this as if such things happened every day. “You’re very calm.” “Would the fact that you’re my father alter,” Evangeline asked him bluntly; “if I got upset?” She looked at him calmly. “You’re taking me away from here.” Stefano could feel her discomfort at this thought. He was really quite proud of her for being as brave as she was. She had a composure that many young women years older than she was did not possess. He wanted to get to know her even more now. He got up and went to get her a glass of water and himself a glass of something stiffer. She smiled up at him in gratitude and he was stricken again at how much she looked like Aileen. “You are only fifteen,” Stefano finally said. “In the eyes of the law, you need a parent or guardian to care for you.” He held his hand up as she started to speak. “Your uncle Adam brought you both to family when your mother got too ill to live on her own and they appear to have done an excellent job in raising you.” “So you’re not taking me away?” Evangeline wondered why she suddenly felt upset. It wasn’t like she even knew this man. She should be happy he didn’t want to take her away after everything Sylvie had told her about him. Instead, she felt as if she was being abandoned all over again and she asked the one question she had been dying to ask him all her life. “Why didn’t you come sooner?” “I was told to stay out of your life, child,” Stefano told her honestly. He saw her confusion. “Perhaps later we can go into the details,” he said as he rose to his feet. “I merely wished to meet you today.” He touched her cheek and his smile was warm with regard. “When you are feeling better, we can spend some time together; you, your brother, and I.” “I would like that,” Evangeline nodded and his smile warmed her heart. Her father! She had been told that he was a brute and would hurt her if he were given the chance. She had accepted this from her mother when she was small, but now that she had met him she knew she’d been lied to. Her mother was the one who hurt people and lied to them. Evangeline knew that there was something about this situation she had been too young to hear before. She watched the man leave and was still pondering this change in her fortune when Sterling came back into the room. He sat down in the chair and waited for her to ask her questions. “Is he a bad person, Uncle?” Evangeline asked simply. “Is that why Mama wouldn’t let him see me?” “No,” Sterling told her truthfully. “He is a man with a lot of enemies. Your mother didn’t want you becoming a target…” “But she left my brother behind,” Evangeline broke in, looking at the man in confusion. “What kind of mother would leave her son behind if it was dangerous?” Sterling flinched and then looked away. She had apparently asked a question that he did not want to answer. “There is more to this than you’re telling me, Uncle…” “Lord Sterling,” Sylvie’s voice broke in as the door opened. “Have you seen…” She smiled as she saw Evangeline. “There you are, Miss. It’s time for your medication.” She stepped aside so that David could come pick Evangeline up. When the children had gone, Sylvie closed the door. “I saw him leave. Did you tell her?” “Only that he is her father, Sylvie,” Sterling replied, frowning. “The rest is up to him.” He saw the woman’s dark look. “It is not my place, or yours, to share his secrets with his daughter.” “Such secrets could endanger her life,” Sylvie frowned. She was silent for a moment and decided not to argue further. “I’d better go see to her now.” She did not go to Evangeline’s room immediately. Instead she went to her room and made a phone call. Her usually calm demeanor had altered drastically. She was cold with anger as she waited. “Her father has come for her,” she said simply. “It’s time for us to take the little princess into our keeping.” Evangeline was coming out of the bathroom when Sylvie came into her room. She knew that Sylvie knew the truth as she saw her companion’s expression. But she was keeping it to herself. Evangeline could see that her father was the only one who she would hear the whole truth from now. She sat in silence as Sylvie combed out her hair and helped her to bed. Once she was comfortable, Sylvie brought her mail to her. Inside was a letter from a military base in Scotland. “It’s from Douglas and Dustin,” Evangeline said to the woman as Sylvie cleared the room. She read the letter and smiled in relief. “They joined the military, Sylvie. They are going to spend the next few years trying to make up for what they did.” She was frowning as she set the letter down. “They didn’t mean to hurt me. Why would they think they had to go?” Sylvie didn’t say a word. As far as she was concerned, it was past time for that pair to do something meaningful with their lives. The military would be good for them. She watched Evangeline fall to sleep and went to the rocking chair by the windows to take up her knitting. There were far more important things about to happen in the girl’s life. She did not need the distraction of that pair of delinquents now. Evangeline was coming down the stairs on her own two weeks later when there was a knock on the door. She watched Hurst open it and saw the man who had told her he was her father coming inside with a younger copy of himself at his side. They walked past the butler and Stefano saw her. He said something to his copy and the boy looked up at Evangeline and smiled. Sterling came out of his study and saw the pair and then followed their eyes up the stairs to where Evangeline was frozen. “Your father and brother are going to join us for your birthday week celebrations, Evangeline,” Sterling told her. He nodded to Hurst. “They are staying in the Dowager House, Hurst. Abigail and the maids have already made it ready for them.” He saw the dark look on Stefano’s face directed at him and wondered what that meant. The man was harder to understand than Advanced Mathematics. Trying to gauge his reactions made Sterling’s head hurt. Then he saw the direction the man was looking and realized he was worried. Sterling frowned as he saw Evangeline’s pale face. He wanted to kick himself then. Was he never to get anything right where this child was concerned? “A little warning might have been in order,” Stefano said as he went towards the stairs to help her. “My daughter looks as if she’s been struck upside the head…” “It’s quite all right,” Evangeline broke in and came slowly down the stairs. She was looking at the young man as Stefano kissed her on the forehead. She held her hand out to the newcomer, smiling. “You must be my brother.” “That would be correct,” Sebastian smiled back at her. “My name is Sebastian.” He turned to his father and said something in Italian before turning back to his sister. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “I am quite happy to finally meet you little sister.” “I will be moving to the Dowager House then, Uncle?” Evangeline asked as she turned to Sterling. She saw the shock on Sterling’s face and the surprise on Stefano’s. “If you wouldn’t mind, Father? It will give us a chance to start to learn about each other.” She heard a commotion at the head of the stairs and turned to see Daria coming towards her with a pair of crutches in her hand. Her cousin saw the strangers and froze. “Daria. This is my father and brother. They’ve come to spend my birthday week with us.” “Doctor Stefano Roza,” Sterling nodded as his daughter forgot her manners. “Doctor Sebastian Roza. This is my daughter, Daria.” He raised an eyebrow and waited. “Am I correct in assuming that those are for your cousin, girl?” “What?” Daria blinked and looked at the crutches. “Yes,” she nodded as she held them out without ever taking her eyes off of Sebastian’s handsome face. “Uncle Alex said that Eva was to use them for another two days.” She shook her head at Evangeline. “You can see how well she listens.” She looked at Sebastian. “You’re awfully young to be a doctor,” she said with her characteristic bluntness. “I have been told so,” Sebastian looked amused by her manner. “I have just completed my internship at the hospital in Vienna. I was given the week off to visit with my sister before I begin work there as a fully accredited doctor.” Evangeline took the offensive objects in her hands and promptly set them aside. She sank down on the bench in the entry hall and thought over what was happening. It was nice to think that her father and brother would be here to help her celebrate her sixteenth birthday. They had missed so much because of Aileen’s decision. Sebastian sat down next to her as their father went into the study with Sterling. He smiled at her with an open affection that Evangeline found quite surprising. He was acting as if they had been family all the time. “I don’t care for crutches either,” he told her in his gloriously accented English as he patted her knee. “I broke my leg skiing a few years ago and I grew to loathe the things.” He looked at her quite seriously then. “You know you don’t have to move in with us, Evangeline. You’ll be seeing enough of us this week as it is.” The front door burst open and David came strolling in. He handed his hat and overcoat to Hurst and looked at the stranger sitting next to Evangeline. “Thank you, Hurst,” he said to the long-suffering man. Hurst took the soaking wet articles with him, holding them as if he were handling toxic waste. “I assume the army gathering around the Dowager House belongs to you?” “Doctor Sebastian Roza,” Daria spoke up before Evangeline could. “This is our cousin, Officer David Sterling. His father is the local constable and David works with him.” She saw Sebastian nod acknowledgment of the introduction as he offered his hand to another cousin he had been kept from knowing. “David, this is Evangeline’s brother, so that means he is our cousin. His father is in the Study with mine.” “We were told to expect you,” David nodded as he shook hands with the other young man. He still wore a worried expression and