Chapter 11

“I think if we had to leave, I wouldn’t ask you to go without her.”

“Most would. But she wasn’t much more than a baby when our mother died. I couldn’t leave her, too.”

“I know.”

“Do you have a sister? Or a brother?”

“No. It was always just me.”

“I had many. The Rangers only took the two of us because they claimed we were the only white children.”

“Were you?”

Christian shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s just what they said.”

Mal wanted to suggest it was better this way. She was educated, and if she ever got away from the Rose family, she could pass as a white woman. She could have a normal life if she wanted it. But regardless of the situation, he could never say it was best to be separated from parents, grandparents, and siblings. He knew that pain firsthand and he would never wish it on anybody, for any reason.

“It’s hard, isn’t it? When your past is a muddle.”