Page 7 of Hunted By the Guardian
As she came into the room, he looked up, dropped his toast, and jumped to his feet as though ready to run right out and leave her there. Fortunately, Violet had been ready for that. “No, no,” she said, trying to put some authority into her voice. “Sit down, Noah. Finish your breakfast. You won’t be able to avoid me forever, so we might as well get it over with and get to know one another a little bit. That wouldn’t be so terrible, would it?”
He lowered himself slowly back down into his seat, his eyes narrowed, and said nothing. He picked up his toast and resumed eating, his eyes not leaving her face.
Violet sat down. This was the first good look she had gotten at the boy. His hair was a shock of blond, reminding her of wheat in a field. He was at an age whenchildren enuinely too thin. There were hollows below his cheekbones that made her think perhaps it was the latter.enuinely too thin. There were hollows below his cheekbones that made her think perhaps it was the latter.
“It’s good to get to know you, Noah,” she said. “I know you weren’t looking forward to my coming to live here, but I really hope that you and I can become friends. Do you think that’s possible?”
He shook his head slowly, chewing his toast.
“You don’t think so?”
He swallowed. “I don’t need any friends,” he said. “I certainly don’t need you.”
“No,” she agreed. “I’m sure you don’t. But maybe we’d like one another, if we gave each other a chance. Would you be willing to try? You might find that I’m someone you enjoy. You won’t know unless you give me the opportunity to get to know you—unless you get to know me.”
He bit his lip. “You’re going to try to throw me out of the house,” he said darkly.
“Noah—why would you say that? I’m not going to throw you out. Why would I want to do that?”
“Well, if you don’t, he will. Can you promise he won’t?”
“Yes, I can,” she told him. “I looked at the paperwork his solicitor brought. He isn’t allowed to throw you out. This house is yours just as much as it is anybody else’s. My Aunt Margaret made sure of that.”
At the sound of the name, Noah flinched and looked away from Violet as if he had been struck.
Violet’s heart ached as a realization came to her. The boy had truly loved Aunt Margaret. This hadn’t just been an arrangement because he had needed a place to stay. He hadn’t been this surly, sullen creature before Aunt Margaret had died. He had been happy. He had liked living with her.
He isn’t just upset to have me in his house. He’s upset because he lost someone very dear to him.
Her heart went out to the boy. She wanted to tell him that she had loved Margaret too, that they shared this grief. But would he be able to hear it? Would he understand?”
“Noah,” she tried. “I know that you’re very sad to have lost her. You two were close. I can see that. I can tell.”
Noah scowled at his plate and said nothing.
“You know, she was my aunt,” Violet told him. “She and I were close to one another too. I miss her too, just as you do.”
Noah looked up with fire in his eyes. “No you don’t,” he snapped. “If you loved her, you would have come and visited us. You would have been here before now. Why am I meeting you for the first time right now if you loved Madam Margaret so much? Why wouldn’t I already know you? You’re not here because you cared for her and you miss her. That’s a lie. You’re here because you want her house. You want to take what you can from her now that she’s gone. Well, I’m the one she loved, not you, so you can stop trying to be my friend and you can stop trying to steal things that shouldn’t be yours.”
Her heart ached. “Noah…”
“I know,” he interrupted. “I know I can’t do anything to make you leave, because I’m too young, and not even that duke could make you go. And you couldn’t make him go either.” He smirked. “That’s pretty funny, the two of you fighting.” Then the smile fell from his face. “But even if I have to put up with you in my house, I don’t have to like it. You can’t make me like it. And you can’t make me believe that you cared about Madam Margaret either.”
He threw down his toast and got up from the table in an angry huff.
Violet didn’t try to stop him. If he was determined to go, she thought, he ought to be allowed to go. She wasn’t going to get anywhere by trying to force his hand, as much as she wished she could. She sat quietly at the table as he stormed from the room.
Williams appeared behind her. “Shall I go after him, Lady Violet?” he murmured.
“Do you think he’s in any danger?”
“He usually spends the morning in the library, and that’s the direction he went, so no. I suspect he’ll be in there looking at the dowager viscountess’s books. She always encouraged him to spend time with them, and I think it’s the way he feels close to her now that she’s gone.”
Violet nodded. “In that case, let’s leave him in peace,” she said softly. “I could tell that conversation unnerved him. Someday, I’d like him to trust me, but I just don’t think we’re anywhere near that happening yet.”
“You’re making an effort with him,” Williams commended her. “It means a lot to me to see you do it. As you can imagine, I’ve come to care for the child.”
“And I’m glad you do,” Violet told him. “I truly appreciate the fact that so many people seem to care about him. I hope he’s able to see that too, one day.”
