Page 97 of Ruthless, But for Her

He had no notion of what Leif wanted to tell him, but clearly, it was something important.

“I would give anything, anything, to bring her back.”

He was speaking of his late wife. Leif had told all three of them about her, her life and her death. That had been many years ago. Since then, they’d heard tales of Leif’s adventures before coming to Mere’s End and, more recently, the adventures they shared themselves as he and the others had been forced to sea by de Grey.

But it was the first time he’d mentioned his wife in a long while. And Ashton suspected he knew why.

“She did not belong here. Cassia is a lady born, much too good for the likes of us.”

Leif did not appear impressed by his speech.

“I never claimed to be your father. But if I were, if I had been given that privilege more formally, I would tell you that you’re a fool.”

Then he walked away, leaving so suddenly, Ashton felt stunned.

Father?

Leif had not used that word once in all these years.

He and Ryker and Sorren had. But they never dared do so in front of the man who hadn’t asked to be given three sons.

He sat down on the bed, thinking back to the last time he ever asked Margot where he’d come from.

“Who are my parents? The truth, please.”

“Ashton.” Margot had pulled him into her, as if he were still a child which, of course, he had been, but he hadn’t considered himself one at the time. “If only I could tell you, but I cannot. You are loved, and I hope someday that will be enough.”

He’d stormed away.

Love meant answers. It meant the truth. Margot didn’t love him, not the way she loved Ryker and Sorren. She’d offered them the truth she withheld from him.

“You’re a fool.”

Hadn’t Ashton thought that very thing so many times since watching her walk away?

He stood tall, wiped away the tear he didn’t know he was capable of shedding and strode down the corridor to the Map room where everyone was already seated, mugs in hand.

He glanced at Sorren, the closest to him, and said, “I’ll need a new one of those.”

His brother laughed, evidently figuring out precisely what Ashton had tossed into the hearth.

Margot stood, looking as if she might say something, then left the chamber, saying she would fetch one for him.

He took his usual place and asked where they stood.

Ryker leaned over the map. “McGarron’s warning was right. De Grey isn’t sending another handful of men to test us. He’s gathering enough to take the Reach.”

“How many?” Ashton asked.

“More than we have.”

Sorren pointed to the Spit. “Which matters less, if we keep them here.”

It was why they’d poured so much of their savings into holding the Reach in the first place. The approach narrowed at the Spit. Men could come over it, but not many abreast. Beyond it, lay the Reach.

“The men we hired?”

“Enough to hold the Spit for now,” Ryker said. “Not enough if de Grey keeps feeding men into it.”