If He's Noble (Wherlocke Book 7) (Paranormal Historical Romance) by Hannah Howell Page B

not all for you. I cannot leave you to her mercies. It would shame me for life if I did so. I am a man who has always watched people’s backs. It is who I am. I find their enemies before their enemies can find them. Do you know how it came to be that I, the son of a farmer, got a knighthood, was named a baronet, and was gifted with a small piece of property?”
    “I rather thought it was because you have relatives with much higher honors.”
    “There is that and I am certain it helped the man who pushed for this honor for me, but I got it because I was protecting an earl’s son. Took a bullet for the idiot. And, believe me, it was not what I had planned when I moved to save him. Never expected more than my pay but he was the earl’s only heir. And we should all pity him for that,” he added, and took a drink of his ale. “Whenever my family has need of someone to help them track a person or go against their enemies, they come for me. That makes me a man whom you will never convince to leave just because things have become dangerous.”
    She sighed and slumped in her chair. “So you will stay and if the worst happens to you, leave me to have that on my conscience forever.”
    “Your conscience is clear or should be. None of this is your doing. You merely wanted to find your brother to tell him of your father’s death.”
    “And to flee a marriage I did not want so there was some selfishness involved,” she reminded him.
    “From what you told me of the man chosen for you, you would have been foolish not to try to get as far away from that risk as possible.”
    “There is nothing I can say to make you change your mind, is there.”
    “Nay, not a thing.” He studied her for a moment. “And you can just forget trying to lose me by running off.”
    Startled that he had guessed what she had been thinking, she stared at him. “Those familial gifts you spoke about? One of them is not the ability to, well, read my thoughts, is it?”
    “Nay, that curse settled on the head of the clan, the Duke of Elderwood.”
    “Truly?” she whispered. “He can see inside a person’s mind?”
    “Hear what is there, aye. And it is not the wondrous thing you appear to think it is. It is a curse. Modred is a young man but he hides in that castle of his because being amongst people can be a pure hell on earth for him. The few in my family who have been gifted that way often end up insane or kill themselves to end the noise. It is sad for he is a good man.”
    “When you explain it that way, I can see what you mean.” She frowned. “His name is Modred?”
    “I fear so.”
    “That seems a bit like adding insult to injury.”
    He laughed and nodded. “It does. But, as I said, he is a good man and, amongst the family are ones he can be around without discomfort. They do their best to visit with him as often as they can.”
    “Can he be around you?”
    “He can be around most of my family and he now has his aunt Dob there to train him in silencing the world. One day he might be able to make short visits to the world outside those walls.”
    “Then I shall pray for him to gain that freedom.” She helped herself to one of the small sandwiches the maid had brought them.
    “You accept what I say very easily.”
    “Well, as was said by Shakespeare in Hamlet, ‘There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ Papa also said to keep an open mind and never cease to question and learn. He felt the way to judge what was good or bad was to ask oneself, ‘What harm does it do to the innocent?’” She shrugged. “I heard that from the time I was a small child and it stuck with me.”
    “Not a bad piece of wisdom for a parent to leave a child with.”
    For a while they just drank their tea and ate the sandwiches. Try as she would, Primrose could think of nothing to say to convince him to save his own life and leave her to face her own troubles. She understood why he would not. For him it