“Marguerite and Claude weren’t lifemates,” he said quietly. “He turned her, but he could read and control her from the start and used it like a weapon. Against all of us.”
“It must have made it hard for you growing up,” she said quietly as they started walking again.
“There are worse things,” Thomas said with a shrug and then glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and asked, “But I’m more interested in you. What was your childhood like?”
Inez smiled faintly and shrugged. “No one’s life is perfect, is it?”
“Mine is. Right this minute my life is absolutely perfect,” he assured her, and then frowned and added, “Except for the fact that Marguerite is missing.”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“So,” Thomas said after they’d walked half a block. “What was your childhood like? Were both parents there? Or was it a single parent home?”
“Both parents were there, and I had an older brother. He was a pain as most older brothers are; bossy, superior, protective,” Inez said, and then commented, “You have one sister, right?”
“Jeanne Louise,” Thomas said with a nod, and then added, “I love her a great deal, but Lissianna and I are closer. We were close in age and grew up together.”
Inez peered at him curiously. “How old is Jeanne Louise?”
“She’ll be one hundred next year.”
“Only one hundred?” she asked with surprise. “God, you were over a century old when she was born. No wonder you’re closer to Lissianna.”
Thomas smiled faintly. “Immortals are only allowed to have one child every hundred years.”
“You mean the woman only ovulates once every hundred years?” Inez asked with amazement.
“No.” He laughed at the idea. “It’s a law, not a biological thing.”
“Oh,” she said, but then asked, “Whose law?”
“We have a council that makes our laws and that is one of them.”
Inez was curious about that, but figured she could learn more about it later. Right now, she wanted to know more about his family. “If Jeanne Louise is only a hundred years old, then your parents are still alive?”
“My father is, but my mother died when I was four. That’s why Aunt Marguerite raised me. Father didn’t have a clue what to do with a toddler.”
Inez relaxed a little. She’d wondered why—if his parents were alive—he’d been raised by his aunt. “So Jeanne Louise is your half sister? Your father found a second lifemate after your mother died?”
“Well, no, actually he didn’t,” Thomas admitted with a wry smile and then said, “It’s kind of complicated. Basically, my father seems to be cursed when it comes to wives. They just kept dying on him…Not an easy thing when they were all immortals,” he pointed out and then went on quietly, “After Jeanne Louise’s mother died, he just sort of gave up. He’s a recluse now and doesn’t see anyone. Jeanne Louise doesn’t even know what he looks like.”
“How sad,” Inez murmured quietly.
Thomas shrugged. “He has to deal with it in his own way. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to lose a lifemate. It’s something I don’t even want to contemplate,” he added, squeezing her a little tighter against his side.
Inez didn’t know what to say to that. She couldn’t promise he would never lose her, since she wasn’t sure he had her. She was growing more and more sure of her own feelings with every passing hour, but it just made her more certain that she couldn’t be his lifemate if he couldn’t love her back.
Deciding a change of topic was in order she said, “Tell me about your music.”
Thomas came to an abrupt halt, his head whipping her way. “How did you know about that?”
“Your binder was open when I brought the phone out to you the first morning,” she admitted solemnly. “You write music?”
Thomas blew his breath out and started to walk again. “Yes.”
She bit her lip at the reluctance behind the word and was debating whether to change the subject again when he began to speak. He told her about Marguerite teaching him to play, about Jean Claude’s jeering response to it, and his decision to keep his efforts to himself after that. And he had all these years. It seemed the man she was coming to love had a stubborn streak, at least about things that mattered to him. But that was all right, Inez decided. She could be a bit of a bull herself.
“How about this place?” Thomas asked suddenly, and Inez glanced around to see that while she’d been thinking they’d left the quiet residential area and entered the shopping section. The road around them was full of stores and restaurants, but the one Thomas was gesturing to was a small café on a corner. It was two floors, with glass windows running along both sides that looked out onto the street. Inez could see that it was a popular spot, even at this hour there were few empty tables.