Mallory Rush - [Outlawsand Heroes 02] by Dead or Alive

there. Just distant cousins who would surely have shown more compassion than the grandfather and an assortment of relations in London, the lot of them proving about as warm as a winter drizzle shrouded in fog.
    Noble let go a single, harsh laugh. "Ah well, I've gotten ahead of myself. This being a distasteful chapter in the book of my life, I'll get it over and done with swiftly. Prior to throwing myself on my grandfather's untender mercies, I had enjoyed a good life. My father built the grandest house possible on our land. He saw to it that we had servants—Aleutians—and an imported tutor so I might have a proper education. Of course he couldn't do all this without it becoming apparent that he had struck a rich vein of gold. Consequently, we lived with the threat of attack."
    "Is that how you ended up at your grandfather's?"
    Noble gave a curt nod and wished fiercely for the cognac.
    "Will you tell me about it?" she asked gently.
    "Regretfully, Lori, I cannot. Perhaps another time, but for now suffice it to say... what I witnessed was a waking nightmare. It was a miracle that I escaped butchery myself—a miracle I have Attu to thank for. He was more than my personal servant, Attu was my mentor and most trusted friend. It grieves me, wondering what became of him, whether he lived into old age and prospered or suffered an unkind fate."
    Lori nodded in understanding. "If you'd like, we can go to the library and see if there are any old newspapers, maybe try to find out that way."
    He would go, Noble determined. But it had to be a private search, lest some details about his crimes emerged in antiquated print, linking him to Attu. Dear Attu, who may very well have lost his life because of him.
    "I think it better not to know." A lie but a necessary one. "I'd rather imagine the best than discover the worst and be powerless to champion him should he have met a dire end."
    "I'm sorry, so sorry I had to be the one to tell you about him being gone." Her eyes glistened with the tears Noble longed to cry himself for Attu's loss. But he had learned not to cry long ago, the value of "keeping a stiff upper lip" beat into him by his grandfather, who had wielded an unerringly cruel cane.
    "And I am glad it was you who told me. As difficult as this transition has been for me, it could not have been much easier for you. I cringe whenever I think of how badly I took the shock. Actually turning my gun on you and calling you a demon of the dark—" Recalling it, he shuddered. "I am truly sorry for that. But just as it was with the overtaking of my family's land, what is done is done. The best one can do is get on with living and come to terms with what cannot be reversed, as best one can."
    "The uneasy peace," she whispered, sliding her fingers between his and clasping his hand. "You said you'd made yours with the path you were compelled to follow. I'd really tike to know what that path was, Noble."
    He would tell her a bit of it, but not all. Not until he earned her trust and won her heart so completely, even his past crimes could not tear them apart. Lori's heart, yes, that was what he wanted. To win it was a purpose more pure than and just as worthy as the one he had lost.
    "The road was long," he said crisply, "and anything but straight and narrow. I was a rather wayward youth, giving my grandfather the worst grief I could. I preferred untitled friends to titled; dallied with, shall we say, women who were splendidly raucous, when, in truth, I was secretly taken with the ways of more gentle-born ladies, who possessed those traits I had so admired in my mother. All the while I did my best to do poorly in school. But in the end I proved myself quite capable in the study of law. Much to my grandfather's delight. He was, after all, a member of Parliament—"
    "Parliament!"
    "Ah, so you're impressed."
    "Of course I am. Who wouldn't be?"
    "Me." Noble smiled at the memory. "I took my greatest revenge on the old man by refusing to accept his offer