Silver Hollow (10 page)

“Perhaps a stouter model should last longer?”

“
I’d just end up breaking it
.
Never had much luck with nice things.
”

Henry nodded to himself, the corners of his mouth creasing with his grin. “Aye, Drustan would have agreed. My little brother never was one for modern inventions. He thought I was ridiculous
,
you know, always collecting whatever cam
e through the Vale. Suppose
’
tis
why I never expected him to do what he did. Especially when he did it, how he did it…” His gaze roamed the room briefly, lost.

Amie wondered
when/how/what her father had done years ago that could make Uncle Henry look like that still. He looked unnaturally old in that moment and lonely. This triggered the loneliness long buried in her heart, that sense of alienation no matter where she lived or who she met.

So she surprised herself when she opened her heart a crack and said, “It’s so strange hearing you talk about him.” Her words called his attention.

“You speak of Drustan
,
I presume,” he
said
with a troubled glance.

“Father never talked about you. I started to think you were just another one of his made-up stories, until you sent me
the
first letter. And by that point I was too upset to listen to what you had to say.” Both frowned at the memory of a much darker time. Amie wondered once again if his second letter had been a warning. Even more troubling was
what would have happened if
she hadn’t listened. Would something terrifyingly worse have happened than her parent
s
’ car wreck? What if the twins or their parents, the McSpaddens
,
had been next on the hit list? Amie shivered at the thought.

“Jessamiene,” Henry whispered during the heavy silence that followed. He waited until her eyes were upon him, even though he seemed reluctant to speak. “I must ask you now before anything else, before you’ve seen and heard too much. I must ask you to forgive me.”

His soul was in his eyes, as was a kind sorrow her father had never revealed to her. And his words hit the mark too close, crashed against the hard emotional walls she’d spent years building up.

“F
or what?” she said hesitantly
.

Without hesitating, he let his emotions pour from his lips, laid bare. “For missing
everything
, for not being there when you needed me, for not coming for you myself.” Hardness entered his eyes and an anger she knew was for him alone. His features wavered in the firelight,
sharpening into someone with golden skin and the kind of nobility that
was
born, not taught. Blinking back the blurred image, she found only Uncle Henry. Yet she couldn’t shake the tears threatening behind her eyes, or the odd sensation of knowing the man for years instead of minutes.

Nodding to herself, she tried to smile and failed miserably. “I hadn’t thought about it enough to stay mad at you. But I do
. F
orgive you
,
I mean.”

Clasping his hands together
,
he exclaimed, “Excellent!”
Suddenly
he was the eager handsome uncle who had greeted her at the front steps. “Now, you have only just awakened
,
my dear. I shall not burden you with so much when you are so close to
their
world still. But we are all very excited about your presence here.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” she deadpanned with a twitch of her lips.

“Oh aye?” He feigned ignorance while his thick brows rose knowingly. “Well
,
it
is
difficult to hide
,
we must admit. It’s been far too long since the house has smelt so fresh. You have no idea how musty, rusty and dusty it has been! Quite a tomb it was, ever since I did my best to repair it and without his help, I might add. But now you’re here all of this will change
,
milady.”

“Why does everyone keep calling me that?” she huffed and tugged her thick curls.

His eyes widened and he chuckled, “Indeed?”

It was h
is way of saying
A
re you joking
?
apparently
,
and when she waited for his answer his eyes widened and brow settled sternly.

“Can you honestly tell me
the
battle
-
axed old
fool
didn’t even tell you…”

“Tell me what?” Her voice was enough to calm his tirade. For a long minute, Henry seemed to contemplate something either very pleasant or very grave.

Settling at last on pleasant he began, “I have a proposition for you, Jessamiene. Our mutual friend tells me we have little time to
dally
over ceremony. Especially with my own pressing circumstances and the Winter Solstice upon us, I believe the time without drastic measures has passed. So without further riddles,
simply put
, I want you to agree to apprentice to our ways and allow us to do the telling. Savvy?”

She blinked at him, not comprehending what he was asking. “You want me to learn the family business?”

“If that is how you wish to call it.” His eyes took on a fresh gleam
,
alive in the same way he had appeared at the top of the stair. “At the end of your apprenticeship you will have a choice
,
my dear. To tell you now might give away much more than you can grasp.”

“So your proposition is?”

“Learn from us, the family business
,
as you say. And make me a promise
,
you will make your choice to stay or leave at the end of it.”

Amie had always been told it was never wise to make a promise you couldn’t keep.
Although u
nsure of the reasons why, she wasn’t so certain this was the sort she could keep. She equally wasn’t sure why she was half considering it.

But his strange appearance and strange house and strange ways were beginning to make sense to her. She was a writer
,
after all. Just because she had an overactive imagination didn’t mean she hadn’t needed an escape, a vacation long before this. Whether it was in France or here didn’t matter.

He may be a few
F
rench fries short of a Happy Meal, but I have a real family again
.

For the first time in ten years she didn’t feel quite so strange and alone. True, the twins had always been steadfast, but they had their own lives. Amie was not foolish enough to think they would be together
forever. She would end up exactly
like she’d known she would when they were kids: single, published, and a respectable hermit. It wasn’t a bad way to live really, so long as they were nearby.

But I have family.

Uncle Henry m
ay be a loony, but he was blood, which was
more than she had ever hoped to find again. Maybe it was because of their shared DNA, or mayb
e because she’d been writing fair
y tales long before she could pen them to paper, but Amie felt a connection. She wanted to understand him and the place Father had talked so often about. It was the shock and thrill of her life to suddenly realize at least part of his larger
-
than
-
life stories had been
true
.

To say no to such an offer would be crazy.

So she grinned and met his eye
,
and between bites of a purple and red fruit
,
said, “Okay.”

Lasting Legacy

Henry Wenderdowne was not patient by nature. In fact, most of his childhood he had been infamous for his temper tantrums. But as he and Drustan aged and his brother became known for his recklessness, Henry felt the need to balance him. Someone had to, after all. Drustan was meant to lead, and Henry was
supposed
to be the irresponsible but loyal steward of his estate.
It was a time honored tradition in their family, going back to the beginning of the oldest tales, that a child with emerald eyes must lead. This child was supposed to possess the greatest power and was to be guarded at all costs. Yet his brother never could stomach the responsibility that came with his inheritance and passed most of his duties along to Henry.
There were times he came close to hating Drustan for putting him in this position, but over time he learned to be better than his brother at ruling.

In the years since his brother had abandoned them
,
as
the estate slowly fell into decay, Henry cared less and less about much of anything. He was still secretly fascinated by the world outside but outwardly determined to preserve the old ways at all costs. All these years as he honored the memory of the dead, his spies were out there, looking for his brother.

To find him before they
did
.

Henry leaned back against the opposing wall he and his niece faced and shut his eyes briefly as he remembered the day he found them. He had all but given up hope, let alone trying to convince Drustan to come home and reclaim the birthright Henry didn’t want. Long past the days when he would have blamed his younger sibling for ruining his life, he pushed the temptation for bitterness away and focused on his prize. His heart ached when he opened his eyes to watch her take the endless hall of portraits in.

The Wenderdownes were the oldest family in the Vale, as
it
was commonly known. Every generation the ruling set were painted together, whether they
were
siblings, lovers or married pairs.
He c
ontinu
ed
in his lesson
.
“Two must always rule together, one for the night and one for day. This is the way it has always been done.”

Jessamiene laughed without turning around to face him
.
“
Rule
?
Good grief, you sure are imperious CEO’s, aren’t you?” Her tone was teasing, as if she could hardly believe her uncle might be in charge of something so powerful or important.

His mouth pulled into a half smile as her fingertips hovered over the rich colors of the tall female represented before them.

If you only knew
,
my dear…

They had nearly come to the end, where nothing but cruder drawings and reliefs represented their past. Amazingly, time had left the color of the female’s eyes still a brilliant emerald. Forgetting her earlier jab, Jessamiene sighed. “Wow…she’s so beautiful.”

Henry’s smile grew as he came to stand beside her, careful to clasp his hands behind his back. “You were named for her, you know.” He nearly laughed when she turned and screwed
up
her mouth in disbelief. “Not your first name, of course, but
Nimue
.”

“Oh yeah…I never liked my name,” she muttered and fixed her stare on the figure she
resembled
so closely, the portrait could have been her own.

As he often had since her arrival, Henry bit his tongue to hold back his thoughts. There was so much she didn’t know, so much
which
would seem senseless to her now. The old bitterness arose like a green
-
eyed monster as he thought of her upbringing. It wasn’t Jessamiene’s fault she was so ill
-
equipped for the burden. Henry couldn’t help feeling once again what he had known all along. Drustan’s one true selfless act had only turned out to serve himself in the end. True, she was living and breathing before him and being prep
ar
ed to take on a burden
his brother
should have never left her to bear. Pushing aside his own guilt for allowing it to happen in the first place, Henry tried to focus on her lesson.

Grasping their entire family history in one afternoon was a daunting task, but not for his Jessie. She might not have realized it, but she was already beginning to change. He might have won her over their first dinner, when he attempted to apologize for matters largely out of his hands, but she was naturally mistrusting of him and everything he introduced her to.

Could you blame her, you blithering old fool?

Interrupting his train of thoughts, he heard her speak again, as she often did. He smiled, realizing he was neglecting his duty. “Yes, my dear? What is it?” He watched the corners of her lips twitch, fighting to expose his favorite of her smiles. As long as she was here he had made it a point to memorize her.

“I was wondering why the paintings stop here. What changed? You mentioned earlier
how
the golden age of the business took place over five centuries, but there are only two portraits.”