Thrown Out at Midnight, I Saved a General by Dawn novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Welcome Home

The Thornbury house stood on a bluff above the harbor, and every window in it was lit.

A driver in a black coat opened my door and took the gray box from my arms.

"I'll carry it," I said, and took it back.

He looked at my jeans and my braid and did not blink.

Desmond Thornbury was waiting on the front steps with no coat on, in the cold.

He was tall and white-haired, and his face crumpled the moment he saw me.

"Oh," he said. "Oh, you have her jaw."

I had imagined this man for a week as a monster.

I had not imagined he would be old, with wet eyes, holding out both hands.

"I'm Desmond," he said. "I'm your uncle. I have waited twenty-seven years to say that out loud."

"I know who you are," I said.

I did not take his hands.

He let them fall without any sign that it hurt.

"Of course. Come in. You must be starving. Cook has been up since four."

The dining room was long enough for forty.

Two places were set at one end of the table, with a fire going behind them.

He poured my tea himself, and then his own from the same pot.

I watched him drink first.

I felt ashamed of watching, and I did it anyway.

"The swab came back this afternoon," he said. "You are Thornbury to the bone. My lawyers will have the papers on your desk tomorrow."

"What papers?"

"Nothing frightening." He smiled. "Your grandfather left everything to his daughter's children, but he was a careful man. A girl of twenty-eight has never run a shipping line."

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