“I hope you’re not saying that just to be polite,” Kendra said wryly. “If I’m a sister, I’m an exhausting one! The last few days since we met have been educational, Lucas. At Thorsay House, there’s a clever little device called a kaleidoscope that a visitor left. It’s a silver tube, and inside, colored fragments of glass move as the tube is turned, creating different, unexpected patterns. That is what is happening to my life.”

“Education about life makes us stronger, though generally at a steep cost,” Lucas said.

“An understatement!” Kendra said fervently. “Now that I remember what happened, I see how everything changed after Christopher’s birth. As I recovered, I could hardly bear to let him out of my sight because I feared something might happen to him. I was grateful that he looked more like me than his father.”

Her voice hardened. “That was also the true end of my marriage. I no longer wanted Denshire to touch me. Not that he made any real attempt to woo me back to his bed. He had his heir and his freedom to do as he wished in town while I lived in the country and tended to Christopher and the estate. I could have gone on that way indefinitely if he’d left me alone.”

“What will you do now?” Suzanne asked softly.

The answer came with absolute certainty. “I must go back to that village and find out what happened to my Caitlin. I hope someone baptized her and she was buried in holy ground and not just tossed away like . . .” Kendra’s voice broke and she couldn’t finish the sentence. “I’d like to say good-bye to her now since I couldn’t then.”

“Of course you must go and learn what happened,” Lucas said calmly. “I’ll go with you. It’s not a mission that should be undertaken alone.”

Kendra’s gaze locked with Lucas’s and a shiver ran down her spine. There was intense awareness between them and a sense of connection they had only just begun to explore. She had come to trust Lucas, and there was no one she’d rather have at her side on such a difficult journey. But... “The two of us traveling together would be rather scandalous.”

“As has been pointed out, we’re both rather scandalous already.” His voice was calm, but she saw in his blue eyes how much he wanted to take this journey with her.

Would it be wise to travel with the most attractive man she’d ever met? Was she ready for that? Perhaps it was time to find out. “Thank you, Lucas. I would appreciate your company. Not to mention that it might be a good idea for you to leave town before another Rogers brother can challenge you.”