A Reluctant Companion (21 page)

“In a bit.” Mouth tight, he nodded his head toward the house. “Go on in, Madison. Your brother and I have something to discuss.”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Madison,” he said quietly in that silkily sharp tone he wielded so effectively. “Please do as I ask. I won’t hurt him.”

“I might hurt him,” said Cam in a near growl.

That idea almost made her laugh. Cam was tall, but wiry. He might be quick, but he was no match for Tiernan, who trained several hours per week and had ropy muscles honed from sparring. Deciding she had to trust Tiernan, she nodded. “Good night, Cam,” she said over her shoulder, going into the house reluctantly. She paused just inside the door, out of sight, straining to hear.

“Go to bed, Madison,” said Tiernan in his tyrant voice.

With a huff, she strode down the hallway to her room, though she didn’t like it. He was going to hear about her displeasure when he came to join her.

*****

The young man was nervous. Tiernan could practically smell it emanating from him in waves, and the false bravado he displayed did nothing to hide his unease. Still, he didn’t run away, which was a credit to his character. A very small credit, after the way Cam had spoken to Madison.

“I don’t care what you have to say,” said Cam in a hard voice.

Tiernan lifted a shoulder. “That might be, but you’re still going to listen. Your sister is not a whore. She’s special to me.”

“Good for you.” He sneered. “She still abandoned us for
you
.”

“I can be very persuasive.” He drew back his shoulders. “If your mother really did get worse because of Madison, the blame rests with me. You will treat her with respect and kindness. Act like her brother.”

“Or what?”

Tiernan arched a brow. “Or, I can teach you some manners.”

“You and your army,” said the boy harshly, though there was a quiver of fear underneath.

He laughed. “I don’t need five soldiers backing me to face one petulant boy. I promised Madison I wouldn’t hurt you, and I don’t want to lie to her. I’m simply requesting you set aside your anger and treat her as you should. You’re lucky to have a sister, so act like it.”

Cam clearly didn’t like his words, but he eventually nodded. “Yeah, okay. I have no problem blaming you for everything.”

“That’s fine. I can certainly handle it.” Without another word, Tiernan stepped off the porch to walk to the barn. He knew Madison was expecting him to join her in her room, but he couldn’t do that. It was disrespectful to her parents, and Cam’s cruel words still burned in his ears. He didn’t want anyone to think Madison was just his whore. One night away from her was a price he could pay to allow her to maintain dignity with her family.

As he unfolded a cot and put it near the other men, he ignored Aidan’s surprised look. It was all too easy to ignore everything as the knowledge settled over him that he faced an endless line of empty, lonely nights if he let Madison go. He couldn’t fathom returning to a string of empty affairs with occasional companions after having Madison and knowing how a relationship could be.

At least he wouldn’t have to settle on his fate for a few days. There was the trip back to Seattle-Archer and her mother’s hospital stay looming before he had to make a decision. His mind told him sending her home on the train with her family was the only sane solution, even as his heart protested the thought. Used to following his head, Tiernan was disconcerted to find he was giving equal weight to his heart, perhaps even more consideration than to reason. It was a strange state for him, and it made for another sleepless night.

*****

The healer pronounced Elaine fit enough to travel, and the train was waiting for them when they drew up in a wagon, followed by the soldiers on horses, late the next morning. Madison saw her mother settled in the bedroom car before joining the others in the head car. She resisted the childish urge to shun the seat by Tiernan, but still shot him a glare as she sat beside him. He needn’t think she’d forgotten her irritation at the way he hadn’t bothered to come in last night, not even long enough to tell her what had happened with Cam.

She shot another glare at her brother, resentful that he was equally tightlipped about the encounter. At least he wasn’t treating her like a pariah now, but she was still burning with curiosity to know what Tiernan had said.

Hurt mingled through too, and she longed to ask Tiernan why he hadn’t come to her room last night. Had he been angry about something? Did he think she was angry? Why had he rejected her? Knowing she wouldn’t get an answer until they had a chance to talk at a much later time—after admitting her mother to the hospital and settling her family in the visitors’ quarters of the capitol building—couldn’t make her stop dwelling on his motivations and her sense of abandonment. It was ridiculous to feel that way, but she couldn’t help it.

The questions continued to plague her as she took a turn sitting with her mother, who was awake and asked about her life in Seattle-Archer. That provided enough distraction for her to focus on something else, and when she returned to the head car after Rosie relieved her, she found Tiernan absent. He didn’t appear again until they pulled into the station at Seattle-Archer. In the bustle of moving her mother to the hospital, she didn’t have time to protest or say anything when he bade her a quick goodbye, with the casual promise of seeing her later that evening.

Fortunately, getting her mother transferred to the Joseph F. Archer Memorial Hospital, founded by and named after Tiernan’s grandfather, proved hectic enough that she had no time to fret about why her lover was so distant.

The hospital was immaculate, housed in a cement and glass building built sometime before The End, originally for a different hospital that had shut down in the ensuing chaos, but was later repaired by Archer, according to a memorial plaque in the courtyard. Medical staff in crisp white scrubs came to greet them at a side entrance marked “V.I.P.” With wide eyes, Madison took in the sights of the sparkling clean floor, glowing white walls, and eye-searing overhead fluorescent lights. Everywhere she looked, she saw busy staff in white uniforms or patients. The patients wore neat clothes and all looked impressively groomed and self-involved.

She couldn’t help contrasting them with the patients that always filled Susan’s clinic. Those people were desperate, often hungry or unclean, but Susan treated them all as if they were as important as these people. It saddened her to know the hospital was reserved only for the elite and privileged, but she couldn’t help being thankful to know one such person. Without Tiernan in her life, her mother wouldn’t have the opportunity to see a doctor at the hospital. Vowing to thank him again that night—after demanding an explanation for why he seemed to be avoiding her—she turned her attention to her mother.

Elaine received a personal nurse assigned just to her care. The deferential manner of the nurse and the three doctors who came to see her mother that afternoon clearly bemused her. Madison found it strange too. She had become used to people bowing and scraping to Tiernan, but had never been the recipient of such behavior before. It was unsettling to have her entire family treated like royalty, but it encouraged her to hope there would be a diagnosis and maybe a cure for her mother. These people obviously didn’t want to disappoint Tiernan.

She ate dinner with her family in the hospital’s cafeteria, though that word seemed much too utilitarian for the spacious dining hall with intimate tables, fine china, white table linens, and straight-back chairs fashioned from some kind of dark wood. It was late before she led her brother and sister back to the capitol building, since Callum had chosen to stay. Madison left them with a maid who knew which rooms were theirs before going up to the room she shared with Tiernan.

Though it was dark outside, and far past dinnertime, the suite was quiet. She sighed, discouraged to see he still hadn’t returned. Exhaustion was setting in, and she barely kept her eyes open long enough for a quick bath. Not bothering with clothes, she fell into the comfortable bed face-first, wanting to wait for Tiernan, but already knowing she would be asleep in minutes.

When she woke the next morning, only the faint imprint of his head on the pillow beside her gave any proof that he had joined her at all. It was still early, judging by the light streaming in through the windows, so he couldn’t have been there for long. Shaking her head, she stretched and got out of bed, wincing at the crick in her neck from the uncomfortable way she’d slept last night.

As she padded to the bathroom to take care of morning ablutions, she couldn’t help asking herself why he was avoiding her. Could he still be angry that she had run away? That theory didn’t hold up to scrutiny, since he had taken her on to her family himself and then arranged Elaine’s trip to the hospital. That left one distinct possibility, along with many vague unknowns.

He was still upset about the angry sex they’d shared that night when he caught up with her. Casting a glance over her naked body in the mirror, she winced at some of the fading bruises, and then shook her head. He could be a real idiot sometimes. Yes, it had been a rough, savage encounter, but she had wanted him as much as he’d wanted her. Deciding she had to confront him about it again gave her a sick feeling in her stomach, but she couldn’t just ignore the problem. As she returned to the closet to select clothes, she vowed to talk to him as soon as an opportunity presented itself.

*****

She wouldn’t have guessed it would be three more days before she could get a moment alone with him when coming to that decision. Being with her mother consumed most of her days. Evenings, she sometimes dined at the hospital with her family, but they had all returned to the capitol building a couple of nights ago. Tiernan had joined them for dinner in the dining room before excusing himself to work. He’d managed to be out late enough that she couldn’t make herself stay awake to wait for him. He did the same the next two nights, adding to her frustration.

It wasn’t annoyance that prompted her to find him that afternoon though. Pure joy and gratitude had her knocking on his office door and pushing open the door without awaiting permission to enter. “Sorry,” she said, nodding to Aidan. “I need a few minutes with Tiernan.” She worded it pleasantly, but left him no room to refuse. Only Tiernan could have overridden her, but he didn’t, she noted with just a touch of surprise.

As soon as Aidan had left the office, closing the door behind him, she ran across the room and hurled herself into his arms. Tiernan groaned at the impact, but his arms steadied her. “She’s going to be okay.”

He smiled. “Your mother?”

Madison nodded. “It’s some kind of autoimmune disease. Do you know what that is?”

Tiernan took her hand in his. “Her immune system is attacking her body, right?”

“I think so. The doctors gave her something…” She scrunched her face, trying to remember. “Oh, st…steroids? Dr. Sindhar said she might need to take them intermittently for flare-ups, and he’s sending her home a list of herbs and some medication, but he said her condition is manageable.” Unable to resist, she hugged him, burying her face against his neck. “She’s going to recover and regain her strength, he said, and probably never get this sick again as long as the hospital keeps supplying her medicine.”

He tightened his hold on her. “I’ll personally ensure she’s never allowed to run out.”

Madison lifted her head, cupping his chin in her hand. “Thank you. If you hadn’t brought her here, she probably would have died.” She kissed his cheek, and then the other one. “Thank you,” she said again, before kissing his lips. He hesitated for a second before giving her a gentle kiss that he ended all too soon.

“I’m happy to help her, Madison. It’s probably my fault she got so sick.”

Madison frowned, wishing he weren’t so quick to take blame for things of late. “Maybe it contributed to this flare-up, but her disease would have killed her within a couple of years, according to Dr. Sindhar. If you hadn’t come into my life, she never would have recovered.”

A strange smile flashed across his lips. “I’m glad something good came out of it.”

She could feel him withdrawing. Physically, his embrace remained tight, but his emotional pulling away was still evident. Desperation drove her confession. She needed to get through to him before he deliberately destroyed the fragile relationship they had. Stroking his cheek, she looked down, still too shy to meet his eyes. “I love you, Tiernan.”

He stiffened, not responding.

Cautiously, she peeked up through her lashes. “Did you hear me? I love you. If you’d asked me how this could be at the beginning of our relationship, I’d have said there was no way it could happen…but it did. It has. I love you,” she said with conviction.