Page 99 of Hearts of Locke Hill

“And I am certain, dear brother, that you are avoiding answering my questions about yourself.”

“Obvious, am I?”

“Painfully. Do you not want what they have? Even at a time such as this?”

“Of course I want anything close to what they have. I only said I was no longer certain of it.”

“But why, when the person who brings you closest to it is within your reach?”

He froze in his chair, not daring to encourage this turn of conversation.

“You know that old saying,” she said, “‘turn a deaf ear’?”

“Mmm,” he replied.

“The person who made that up did not have a sister.”

When he said no more, she leaned forward, her voice still a whisper. “I know you love her, Cyril.”

His pulse began a gallop even as his face warmed. He dared not ask who, as that would insult both of their intelligences. Instead, his defenses rose. He breathed in and out his nose. “What do you know of it?” He wasn’t certainheknew of it. And, if he did,he wasn’t allowed to voice it.

Her own voice gentled. “I know that you are a match. Like salt and pepper shakers. And, like salt and pepper shakers, when one is found without the other, it is … disconcerting.” She looked to their parents again. “Once together, it is impossible to imagine them apart.”

She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder.

“It is more complicated than that, Ruby,” he whispered. The frustration of those complications constricted his lungs.

“What are complications,” she said on a stifled yawn, “when she loves you as well?”

As his brain grappled for a retort, his jaw clenched on words he would not mean. Perhaps for the first time since the day Ruby was first laid in his arms, wrapped in a tiny bundle of linen and white satin, his sister had rendered him speechless.

Just when he was certain Ruby finally slept, she shifted.

“I know you believe you don’t deserve her, brother. But the truth of it is neither of you deserved so many years apart. You need your pepper shaker.”

His brow twitched. Of course she would assign Violet the pepper.

His too-observant sister settled further onto his shoulder. “And she needs her salt.”

For the next half hour, Cyril could think of nothing but days, moments he’d spent by Violet’s side and of the new reverence he felt for the couple before him who had spent years cultivating a friendship, a partnership, and a deep, abiding love. He knew, as sure as he knew anything, that neither of them were ready to separate. Not in this life.

The prospect brought his emotions to the surface, and he exhaled rather sharply.

His mother stirred. “Hmm? Cyril? What is it?” Her sleepy gaze turned toward her husband. “Has something happened?”

Cyril shook his head, swallowing hard. “No, Mama. I’m sorry if I woke you. Can I get you anything?”

“No, thank you, dear.” She reached to brush his father’s hair off his brow. As her fingers gently moved across his forehead, they heard a sound they’d not heard in a great while.

“Mmm.”

Ruby lifted her head at once, blinking hard. She and Cyril stood at the same time, their chairs making the same low screech on the hospital’s tile floor.

Mama leaned closer to her husband. “Benny? Ben, my darling?” His mother continued her ministrations as she threw Cyril a look of hope.

Benjamin Burke’s chest then did a most excellent thing.

It rose. And rose.