Family With Honour (Book 4)

Thirty Two

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A week passes. Gethin visits every day and stays for long hours. Both Zara and Bear are always present, watching from across the room. Sometimes Bear teaches Oz how to play chess as Amelia and Gethin sit together with Tress. Bear watches as each day Amelia softens towards Gethin, eyes starting to look at him with restrained affection. It irritates Bear.

Yet Gethin has done nothing wrong as of yet. He has followed her rules to the letter and he has been nothing but kind and gentle with his child. If anything he appears completed devoted to his daughter. And in return Tress has become attached. Already in such a short time she is crawling all over him and dragging him around the room to look at things. Her comfortableness around him was only highlighted by the fact that after a week she set herself in his lap, snuggled up to him, and proceeded to fall asleep.

A look had come into Amelia's eyes then of true sincere love. She had not pretended to have felt nothing for Gethin before. Bear knows her feelings for him once were strong. It pains him to see her falling once again, allowing feelings long buried to rise to the surface. She deserves better. Not him. Bear knows it is not him. He can still only offer her little. But surely Gethin cannot offer her more.

Now he is lying on his bed, in the room he has accepted from his brother, staring at the ceiling. The day is breaking outside and for the first time in a week the sun is shining and the clouds are nowhere to be seen. His throat itches so he rises and pours himself a glass of water.

A gentle knock sounds at the door and he goes to open it. The face he almost expects to see is not the one he is presented with. Archer hurriedly steps in and closes the door behind him. He grinds his teeth as he sinks down into an armchair in the corner of the room. "How long is Wolfe intending to tolerate the Ricells presence? I am home and yet I am not able to wander freely through it due to them."

"Through your own mistakes, not mine," Bear drawls as he sits in his bed and faces Archer. "Wolfe will tolerate them as long as they behave themselves."

"They cannot be trusted! That family is a nest of vipers that will strike when you least expect it. Do you have any idea how hard it was to untangle Logan from them? Are you seriously putting yourself in a similar position?"

"Logan was in love and was accused of murder. I am protecting a friend and accused of nothing. Our situations are completely different."

"You mean to say that you do not care for her?" Archer asks, his face disbelieving. "If so, then fine. But I do not want to see them using her to harm you."

"They will not. He is after the child. And Amelia is stronger than you think."

"I know Mia and I know she is strong. That is not my worry. You are attached to her children... how will you handle it if they are taken away?"

"If Mia believes he will continue to be good and kind I cannot stop them."

"Even If Oz is ignored because he does not belong to him or if Mia is treated as a servant once again?"

"Enough, Hunter."

The door bursts open and both brothers' heads whip to the side to see who has intruded.

Amelia stands in the doorway, her dressing gown gaping open revealing her night dress. Her hair is in wild disarray and her face is unwashed from sleep. However her eyes are wide and ferociously aware. Bear is before her within seconds and taking her hands. They shake within his grasp. "She is gone... I woke up and..." her voice trembles, her eyes dampen, "I cannot find her. Everyone I have come across is looking. Tress is gone! And I cannot find Oz either."