Free The Patrician's Fortune- A Historical Romance by Joan Kayse Page B

shaken loose by her running, bobbed against fragile cheeks lined with soft wrinkles. While she had the same defiant edge to her chin, the same upturned nose as Julia, her eyes were brown—and filled with the odd light of a mind no longer in charge of its affairs.
    The woman approached them with such purpose, that he sidled closer to Julia, arms positioned nonchalantly at his side, prepared to protect her from the woman’s frenzied intent should the need arise.
    Instead, Julia rose and walked calmly to her. “It is all right, Aunt Sophia. Everything is all right.”
    He watched as she gently guided the distraught woman to a marble bench, never really touching her, like one might do with a nervous cat. Aunt Sophia responded to the soothing tone of her niece’s voice, following Julia’s instruction to sit, but still looking wildly around the garden.
    “Oh dear, oh dear,” Sophia murmured, wringing her blue—veined hands. “Don’t let them see.”
    Damon glanced at Lares, who rolled his eyes in a failed effort to hide his embarrassment. Crippled brothers and mad relations; throwing a criminal into the mix suddenly seemed quite natural.
    He shifted his gaze back to Julia, who remained oblivious to any save the agitated woman. The hard edges of the aristocratic demeanor she worked so hard to maintain were gone, erased by concern which he found entrancing. Roman nobles of his acquaintance—and the gods knew he’d had his fill of them these past three years—were not known for their altruism. Gently she rubbed her hands along her aunt’s arms, patting and comforting. How, he thought, would those long, elegant hands feel stroking him?
    As if she could discern the direction of his thoughts, she sent him a narrowed look and frowned. Wonderful. Another seer just like Jared’s wife. And he couldn’t hide anything from Bryna. He returned her scrutiny with his best look of pure innocence.
    She returned her attention to her aunt. “Sophia, you must calm yourself. I won’t let anyone see.”
    Aunt Sophia visibly relaxed. “I know you won’t, Eirenne. I can trust you. I can always trust you.”
    Lares leaned toward Damon, whispering loudly. “Eirenne was our mother. She’s been dead for two years. Aunt Sophia cannot remember from one moment to the next, yet she always recalls how to find us.”
    Julia sent her brother a sharp look before patting her aunt’s hand. “That’s all right, aunt. Now, where is Helena?”
    “I am here, mistress,” said a slave girl who came rushing from the house, her expression as harried as Aunt Sophia’s. “A thousand pardons, mistress, I thought she was asleep. When I went to fetch her midday meal, she slipped away.”
    “I did not want them to see,” Aunt Sophia said plaintively. Her eyes widened in alarm as she noticed Damon for the first time. “Did he see?”
    *****
    Everyone held their breath while Julia braced for Sophia’s hysteria. Her aunt wasn’t insane. She functioned well as long as there was no disruption in her daily routine. But the episodes of agitation had increased significantly with her father’s absence so that now the least change in her surroundings or unfamiliar people set off an uncontrollable outburst.
    And Damon was most certainly unfamiliar. His startled look had her wrapping a protective arm around her aunt’s shoulder. Men such as he would have little patience for the ramblings of an old woman. There was every possibility he would take offense at her question, become unruly himself, curse, rant, rave, and become violent. A tingle of unease ran up her spine as he took a slow step toward them.
    Before she could raise her hand to signal Kaj, he sat on the bench next to them, gently cupped Sophia’s trembling hands into his own and held her gaze. “My lady, you have nothing to fear, for I have seen nothing save your graceful beauty.”
    Julia ignored the scoff from Lares, watching with amazement as the distress lining Sophia’s face melted into a