The Passion (Notorious 2)

A young woman opened the door. She was dressed in a plain blue muslin gown and held a pistol in her hand.

Aurora blinked to find the weapon aimed at her heart, while at her back Percy muttered an oath and roughly drew her aside, out of direct range.

The young woman lowered the pistol with a murmur of apology. "Forgive me. I expected someone else. We've had trouble lately…" Her voice trailed off.

"What sort of trouble?" Aurora asked, recovering from surprise.

"Some rather unpleasant visits by the British navy." Her mouth curled in derision, before she schooled her features to politeness. "What may I do for you?"

"We're here to see Miss Raven Kendrick," Aurora replied, although she knew this must be Raven. A rebel and a beauty, Nicholas had said. This young woman was certainly that, with her ebony hair and blue, blue eyes and her deadly looking pistol.

"I am Miss Kendrick" Raven answered. "And you are…?"

"Lady Aurora… Demming. And this is my cousin, Sir Percy Osborne. We are here on behalf of your brother."

A look of alarm crossed her face. "What do you know of my brother?"

Aurora swallowed, momentarily made mute by the ache in her throat. She felt Percy's hand at her elbow, supporting her.

"He was taken prisoner, that much I know," Raven declared. "Is he all right?" When Aurora's eyes blurred with tears, the girl's mouth went white. "He's dead, isn't he?"

"I… I'm afraid so."

Raven's eyes filled with grief. After a moment she turned away, bowing her head as she struggled for composure.

Finally, though, she turned back. "What happened?" she whispered hoarsely.

"It is rather complicated," Aurora answered in a low voice. "May we come in?"

"Yes… yes, of course." Squaring her slender shoulders as if bracing for a blow, she stood back to give her visitors admittance.

Three days later Aurora stood at the stern of a two-masted brig with her new ward, watching the island of Montserrat fade to a green speck on the horizon. It had been harder than she expected to say good-bye to Percy – everything had been harder with her heart so heavy. She would miss her cousin and Jane dearly.

Fortunately the past three days had been a whirlwind of activity, offering little chance to grieve. Aurora had spent the interval helping Raven make final preparations for her relocation to England: packing up her worldly possessions and closing the house, bidding farewell to the last few servants, and selling the last-remaining livestock, including a mare Raven was inordinately fond of. They both shared a passion for horses, it seemed.

During that time Raven had single-mindedly thrown herself into her tasks. She'd spoken little about her half brother, but Aurora suspected the girl mourned his death with a surprising intensity. Though Raven hadn't known Nicholas long – only a few years – during that short time she had apparently grown quite attached to him. Aurora thought it fortunate that she and Percy had arrived on Montserrat when they did, for Raven was indeed planning to leave the next day and go in search of her brother.

The girl had been shocked by his death and taken aback to learn about the change in wardship. But once she read Nicholas's letter, she offered little protest to the arrangement – confiding that she saw the benefit of having someone like Lady Aurora guide her in society and claiming to be glad for Aurora's consoling presence.

Aurora thought Raven showed remarkable courage in leaving behind the only life she had ever known. It couldn't be easy, traveling partway around the world to live in a strange country with scornful relatives she had never met, attended only by her maid and a faithful Irish stablehand named O'Malley, who apparently had appointed himself Raven's personal guardian.

Now, standing beside Aurora at the ship's railing, Raven kept her chin lifted and stubbornly set as she watched her home disappear.

"You have always lived on the island, have you not?" Aurora murmured in an effort to distract the girl's sorrow.

"The whole of my life."

"I know you will greatly miss it."

Her mouth quivered momentarily, making her seem younger and more vulnerable than her nineteen years. But she quickly controlled it. "It doesn't matter. This is what my mother always wanted for me." Taking a deep breath, Raven pointedly turned to face the bow of the ship. "And I have no family left now."

"You have me," Aurora said gently.

"I'm glad." She managed a tremulous smile. "I'm glad Nicholas found you."

Repressing the shaft of pain that pierced her at the remembrance, Aurora faced forward as Raven had done. "You shall make a new life in England, Raven. We both shall."

"Yes." Clenching her jaw, Raven slipped her hand in Aurora's.