Redemption (Red Dragon Book 1) (10 page)

Chapter Twelve.

“There’s a storm coming in.” Valto looked up at where he had been reading a letter from his friend Adila on the loveseat to look at Cat who was standing by the window. Though the weather outside didn’t appear to be all that different to the what he was used to in Wales, this was the Brecon Beacons, and the castle of Carreg Cannen was more a home to his fiancé than anywhere else on the planet. If anyone was going to know the local weather patterns it was her.

“Do we need to inform anyone or make sure anything is secure?” he asked. Cat merely shook her head and gave him a soft smile.

“No.” Her voice was soft and this time he gave in to temptation and got up to join her at the window.

The castle was high up on a cliff overlooking the seemingly endless miles of heather and scrub that made up the Brecons, and even from here you could make out the criss-crossing of roads and the tiny hamlets. However he could see what she meant in terms of the weather; great black clouds were rolling in from the west and there was certainly a storm incoming.

“Oh wow that does look impressive.” The moment he had sidled up to her she leaned against him, and Valto felt his heart lurch as he automatically wrapped his arm around her tiny waist.

She tilted her head back to catch his eye then, and Valto found himself so entranced by the flecks of gold and green in her eyes that he had lowered his lips to hers before he even knew what he was doing. Thankfully this didn’t seem to bother Cat as she parted her lips beneath his with a soft moan and her hand came up to card in the hair at the back of his neck. Ever since Faenor Niwlog she had been far more open with him, happy to discuss important matters as well as simply talk in the way that friends did. She had also been far more affectionate towards him than he was used to, and though in the past three days they hadn’t made love again Valto knew it was only a matter of time before she invited him to her bed. A thrill went through him at that thought. That afternoon were he had given away his virginity to the woman he loved was something that had very much been on his mind both day and night.

“Oh thank goodness I’ve beaten the weather.” The voice that suddenly filled the room was as thickly accented as Cat’s but not quite with the same twang to it. At the sound of it Valto and Cat both pulled away from each other, and Valto turned to look at the woman in the doorway.

It was only a handful of months since he had last seen Princess Myfanwy; though he had been good at avoiding Cat he hadn’t been anywhere near as vigilant towards her twin sister. Over the past six years he had seen the other woman probably a dozen times, whenever she had been able to attend celebrations that her erstwhile fiancé hadn’t been at. “Hey Myf.”

She pushed her waist-length thick black hair behind her shoulder and smiled at him. Myf was so different to her sister that you wouldn’t even know that they were related just from looking at them. There was a good six inches height difference between them. Whereas Cat was tiny and petite, vulnerable and almost breakable in his hands, Myf was broad and curvaceous in a way that would make the most passionless man’s eyes pop. They were both incredibly beautiful in their own way, and it was a damn shame that their father had treated them the way that he had.

“Valto.” Myf’s blue eyes shone as she greeted him. “It’s good to see you around again.”

There was a twinkle in her eyes that made him think that they hadn’t separated fast enough and that Myf had caught them kissing. He had no idea how she was going to take his presence back in her sister’s life, though he would completely understand if she didn’t approve of him after everything he had done. However there didn’t seem to be any hostility in her expression or stance. “It’s nice to be around again.”

“Come on.” Cat pulled even further away from him, and then crossed the room to embrace her sister. “Let’s get you settled in.”

“Oh Cat I’m fine,” said Myf. “I’m only here for a couple of weeks while they find me an apartment in New York.”

“I don’t know why you can’t just stay with Kai and Steph while you’re there.” Cat didn’t look impressed at the idea of Myf being along in such big and dangerous place.

The look on Myf’s face was one of a woman who had been told what to do her whole life, a mixture of anger and resolution that made Valto’s chest ache for her. It was clear that she was close to deferring to whatever her sister wanted, and suddenly Valto felt angry that she had been downtrodden for so long by her family. “Cat maybe she just wants some space to herself?” He suddenly found himself caught in Cat’s angry gaze, and for the first time since he had arrived back in Wales he stood up against it. “She’s a grown woman.”

“Valto,” she said, voice harsh and grating. “Stay out of this please.”

Though her word were polite, Valto could hear the barely concealed anger behind them. However it was ridiculous the way that she seemed to be taking the orders of a dead man, whether he was her father or not, to heart and using them to completely brow beat her own sister. Valto could understand why on a rational level, that she wanted to protect Myf and make sure that she wasn’t being taken advantage of. However what Cat didn’t seem to be considering was that if she just gave Myf a bit of freedom then she wouldn’t need protecting quite so much. “Maybe you should just let her do this the way she wants to. After all she’s going to be getting married in a few months and then you won’t be able to tell her what to do.”

“Then she will have Johann to look after her.” Cat’s answer was frankly stupid, and Valto had no doubt that she was fully aware of that fact. The idea of Johann looking after anything was horrifying to say the least, which was another good reason for Myf to learn how to be completely independent.

“I don’t need looking after!” Myf’s voice rose above their arguing, and Valto glanced over at where she was standing with her hands on her shapely hips.

“Just listen to her.” Valto could hear the pleading tone in his own voice, and Cat’s eyes narrowed at the sound of it.

“Clearly I don’t need to be here while you two decide my life for me.” The look on Cat’ face showed clearly that she didn’t like the attitude that Myf had returned from Australia with. Myf met her glare head on however before turning and storming from the room, leaving Valto to take the full brunt of Cat’s anger.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She walked over quickly so that she was standing directly in front of him. “This has got nothing to do with you.”

“If I’m going to be part of this family …” He wasn’t even able to finish his sentence before the fire seemed to explode in her eyes.

“You have no idea how this family works.” Cat put her hands on her hips and tilted her chin defiantly. “You are not one of us, and you never will be.”

Valto felt himself shatter at those words, as if whatever ground they had been starting to gain was now gone and lost forever. He had a feeling that this was the way the rest of his life would be, stepping on eggshells around her in case he was to set off her anger and bitterness towards him again. He couldn’t do it, couldn’t live like this for the rest of his life no matter how much he loved her.

With a tightness in his throat and a stinging sensation in his eyes Valto gave Cat a curt nod before striding from the room and into the huge main hallway on the other side of the door. He had no idea what he was going to do, nor where he was going but all he knew was that he needed to be alone for a while.

He ended up in the library at the far end of the castle. It was a huge room with vaulted ceilings, enormous windows, and a multitude of bookcases with leather-bound tomes filling them. Valto found himself wandering between the shelves mindlessly until, in front of a whole collection of Jane Austen novels he slid to the floor. Hugging his knees to his chest Valto let his face fall onto them and before he knew what was happening deep sobs were wracking his body. If he could be bothered he was sure that he would have been embarrassed by his emotional display, but it had been a very long few weeks.

“You look exhausted.” Myf’s voice startled him, and he glanced up quickly while wiping the tears from his face. “And sad.”

She was standing directly in front of him, holding out a tub of chocolate ice cream with a woeful smile on her pretty face. This was the woman that was going to marry Johann and who was more than likely going to be crushed beneath the man’s narcissism, childishness, and womanizing ways. The bastard didn’t deserve her at all.

“I’m an idiot.” He found himself smiling at her through his tears, and she nodded in reply as she settled herself on the carpet in front of him. “Why did I ever think that she would forgive me?”

“I have no idea.” Myf popped open the lid of the ice cream container, and then handed him one of the spoons that she was also holding. “She’s a different person now Valto.”

Valto nodded his head slowly and dug into the ice cream. “So I’ve been told.” He was honestly getting sick of people telling him that Cat had changed, especially after spending even a minute in the woman’s presence. “She’s not the woman I love anymore.”

It was a painful truth and one that he had been desperately trying not to think for quite some time now, but despite the occasional glimpses through anger and bitterness his fiance was no longer the woman that he had loved six years ago.

“No she’s not.” Myf’s voice was no more than a whisper. “But do you think you can love the woman that she’s become?”

The woman that she had become? This spiteful, angry, bitter, and frankly terrifying woman that now inhabited Cat’s body, clearly she had something underneath it or Hans wouldn’t have stuck around for close to a year. Nor Alexandru for the six months before that. But Valto was nothing like either of them and he was beginning to think that maybe that kind of man, the supremely confident and sexual type, was more suited to Cat these days. Which meant that he was just standing in the way of another of man being with her and possibly making her happy.

“She said that if I hadn’t have answered the request then Lowri would have picked Niko.” Just the idea that Cat would marry someone else made the tears well back up and he had to swallow quickly. “I think that it would be best Lowri announced their engagement instead.”

Myf’s head snapped up at that and she stared at him in horror. “You’re just walking away? You can’t do that Valto, she needs you.”

From what he had seen Cat had made it quite clear that she didn’t need anything from anyone except to be left in peace. Well if that was what she wanted then he could certainly give her that. “I think she and Nicko would be far better suited.” With that he put the spoonful of chocolate ice cream in his mouth.

There was a long period of silence in which Myf steadily ate her heaped spoon of ice cream while staring at him with her clear blue eyes. “You’re breaking up with her?” She took another mouthful. “Again?”

“To be honest with you Myf I don’t think there’s anything to break.”

***

The next morning Valto knew that he should really call his grandmother, at the very least call Kai, and tell them that he was going to be calling the engagement off. That despite the fact that he had tried everything in his power, and over the past few days it had become clear that even Cat had been trying to mend their broken bridges. Certainly in time they may have the ability to be friends, but he didn’t feel like he could marry someone and simply not know if he would ever feel love again.

“Myf told me that you’re going to be returning to Helsinki tomorrow.” Turning around at the sound of that voice meant facing Cat, and he didn’t know if he could right at that moment. “You lasted longer than I thought you would Valto. Congratulations.”

Leaning his forehead against the closed wardrobe door and giving a deep sigh, Valto had to blink away a fresh film of tears. “I’m sorry I don’t feel much like celebrating.”

“No.” Cat’s voice was broken, and in surprise he looked over at her. “Neither do I.”

The woman who was standing in the doorway to his room was not the Cat that he had come to know over the past few weeks. Instead her hair was lying flat and without its usual curl. She wasn’t wearing any makeup and there were dark bruises under her eyes as though she hadn’t slept. “What happened to you?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” she said. “I just thought …” She shook her head slowly and then turned away again. “Not that it matters anymore.”

“Cat?” He found himself walking towards her despite everything, like a moth to a flame. “You just thought what?”

“My thoughts are no longer your business.” The force behind her words wasn’t reflected by her physical stance, as her shoulders seemed to drop and she averted her eyes. She was hiding something, even after all these years he could read her subtle body language like a book.

“Talk to me.” He stopped directly in front of her, desperately trying to get her to look at him but despite his attempts at catching her eye Cat kept her gaze downcast. “Cat please.”

She looked up at him then, fire in her hazel eyes even though they were brimming with tears. “Talk to you about what? Exactly what could I possibly have to say to you right now?” She took several deep breaths and then looked back down at the thick carpet. “Anyway what does anything matter anymore?” Valto watched as she blinked away her tears, straightened her shoulders and turned to walk back into the hallway. It was in that moment that he knew that this was important, that if he just let her walk away then he would be on the next plane to Helsinki and within the year she would be walking down the aisle with Nicko. That thought alone was enough to temper the anger in his belly, and he found himself reaching out for her urgently. His fingers wrapped around her slender wrist instantly causing her to stop and look at him. “What?”