This was not the man who had kissed her so warmly and thoroughly last night. The man she faced now was coldly, dangerously furious. Focusing only on the present moment, she shook her head. “You can’t go to the school when you’re this angry. You don’t even know the last names of the children who said those things.”
“I’m damned well going to find out.” He took another step forward, but she stood her ground, leaving them almost toe-to-toe.
“I agree that the administration should be made aware of what happened. But you don’t want to cause so much trouble that you make things worse for Isabelle when she goes back.”
“If she goes back. Why the hell should she stay in a school that allows her to be subjected to that?”
“But that’s not really your decision to make, is it? Isn’t Nathan Isabelle’s legal guardian?”
That made him frown. “I’m as much her brother as Nathan is. In his absence, it’s up to me to make sure she’s well treated.”
As much as she admired his determination to defend and protect Isabelle—coming from Gideon, that seemed quite a concession—she wasn’t sure he was thinking clearly enough to be logical and rational.
“Nathan is her legal guardian,” she repeated. “You really shouldn’t make any drastic moves without discussing them with him first.”
Her reasoning finally seemed to get through the haze of anger that had gripped him. Scowling, he squeezed the back of his neck with one hand. “Damn it.”
She took that as a reluctant admission that she was right. “Maybe you should call your brother before you speak to someone at the school.”
“I guess you’re right. I shouldn’t be dealing with this, anyway. As you said, Nathan’s the one who brought Isabelle here and made himself responsible for her. I never agreed to get involved.”
“But you are involved, aren’t you?” She gave him a sympathetic smile. “You love her.”
His scowl deepened. Visibly uncomfortable with the emotionalism she had just expressed, he backed off a step. “She’s a good kid. She doesn’t deserve to be hurt that way.”
“No, she doesn’t. You should go in and talk to her.”
What might have been a touch of panic flashed across his face. “I should talk to her?”
“Of course. This concerns your family history. She needs to hear the story from someone who cares about her, rather than the gossip she’ll overhear around town.”
“Maybe it would be better if Nathan has that talk with her. After all, he stayed on speaking terms with Dad.”
“Oh, now you want to wait for Nathan.”
He looked downright sheepish then—an expression that didn’t sit particularly well on him. “He’s better at that sort of thing. Heart-to-heart talks, I mean.”
“Whereas, you feel perfectly qualified to go to Isabelle’s school and raise hell.”
“Well…yeah.”
“I see.”
He looked toward the kitchen doorway, a muscle working in his jaw. “How am I supposed to tell her the details of her parents’ clandestine courtship?”
“What has she already been told?”
“I’m not sure, exactly. I assume she knows my parents divorced and that she was the product of our father’s second marriage.”
“You can explain to her that there are always painful emotions when a marriage ends. That your mother, her nanna’s, feelings were hurt, but she got over it and she’s grown to love Isabelle very much.”
He thought about it a minute, then nodded. “I can tell her that stuff, but I would have thought she already knew it.”
“Maybe she simply needs reassurance that her father wasn’t a bad man, and that your mother was looking forward to having Isabelle with her this week. And you should remind her again that your parents’ divorce and your father’s remarriage is no one else’s business.” She couldn’t keep the indignation out of her voice when she added the latter.
“You can bet I’ll tell her that.”
“The only thing I don’t understand is why other people are so vicious about the divorce. I’m sure there was some gossip at the time, but it’s not as if divorce is all that uncommon, even around here, surely.”