Free No Shadow (Prodigal Sons of Cane) by S.N. Clemens Page A

regarding the manuscript if she could just make her case—show
him Bale’s importance to literary scholarship and why the collection at Cane
College was the only appropriate home for the manuscript.
    But he hadn’t
backed down. Hadn’t been convinced. Instead, he’d challenged her with those
level gray eyes and the stern set to his jaw.
    It felt like a
kick in the gut.
    Andrew was a
strong man with a strong will, and obviously he wouldn’t be easily turned from
his purpose. It was all very frustrating.
    Helen was
starting to like him, but she’d wanted the manuscript for so long.
    They searched
the piles of old papers in silence for several minutes after the confrontation.
They both looked over every stack, with an unspoken agreement that they
wouldn’t keep anything they found to themselves.
    When Helen had
calmed down, she said, because she wanted to change the subject and because she
was really interested, “How is Melissa?”
    “Good,” he
said, the tension on his face relaxing at the new topic. “She was really tired
this morning, but she’s fine.”
    “It wasn’t too
much for her, was it? I’d feel terrible if—“
    “No, no. She’s
just not used to so much activity. She rested this morning and took the dog for
a walk this afternoon—as far as the little guy could go.” Andrew’s mouth had
softened into a slight smile, making him incredibly attractive.
    “She can take
walks?” Helen hoped she wasn’t being too nosy.
    “Just on the
grounds. She won’t leave them, and she’ll never go out if there’s anyone else
around.”
    Helen put aside
a pile of letters that were written at the beginning of the twentieth century.
They were probably quite fascinating, but she couldn’t take the time to read
them this evening.
    After she’d worked
up the courage, she asked carefully, “If you don’t mind my asking, how long has
she been this way?”
    Andrew didn’t
look affronted by the question. Just matter-of-fact. “Ten years. Since she was
fourteen.” They’d made it through one box, so he pushed it aside and pulled the
second one closer.
    Helen spoke
softly, since she suspected Andrew would prefer Thomas not overhear the
personal conversation. “Do you know what triggered her…her condition?”
    He shook his
head and lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck. He did that a lot, she
noticed. His neck muscles were probably tight. He had too much stress in his
life, and no one to really help him with it.
    The thought
made her chest feel kind of heavy.
    “I have no
idea. I wasn’t around then. I was twenty-five and already in D.C., but our mom
had no clue what happened. It wasn’t all at once. Melissa became shyer than
she’d been as a child. Then she got skittish in social situations. Then she
became a definite homebody. And then she just wouldn’t leave the house. I’ve
asked everyone who knew her back then, and I’ve begged her to tell me if there’s
something that she’s never told anyone. She says there’s nothing. I just don’t
know why this happened.”
    He closed his
eyes as he stopped talking, and he looked so exhausted and burdened that
Helen’s heart went out to him.
    She wondered if
he’d intended to say as much as he had. She wondered who he had to confide in.
    “So when your
mother died, you volunteered to take care of her?” Helen spoke delicately, not
wanting to make him uncomfortable or close down the conversation.
    Andrew looked
at her again and gave a half-shrug. “She trusts me. Geoff has such hard hours
as a doctor, plus his own daughter he’s now raising alone. And Michael…”
    Helen wondered
why he’d trailed off and whether the youngest Cane brother was another source
of worry and stress for Andrew.
    “What else
could I do?” he concluded, looking at a spot on the opposite wall.
    “Maybe,” Helen
said, her voice textured with the surge of tenderness she was feeling, “But a
lot of men wouldn’t have done it.”
    He looked over
at her then, and their