Page 119 of Reluctant Rogue

“Wait, wait.” Russell held up his hands for silence, his expression agonized. “Beatrice was also the name of that Rogue apprehended and put on trial. Here, in the Northeastern Ward.”

Naomi gulped. “Yes,thatBeatrice. She was our… at least, wethoughtshe was our aunt,” she corrected. “All our lives, we thought she was our aunt. And she wasn’t the only Rogue. Valerie was, too. Her sister, that we thought was our mom. Plus two sisters.”

Naomi thought she could have heard a pin drop, the silence was so profound, as everyone stared at her and Beth. Her mother paled.

“My darlings! But… but you’re all right? They didn’t harm you?”

“Not… not physically,” Beth stumbled, leaning into her sister. Naomi hugged her tight.

“It’s okay, Beth.”

“No, it’s not. It won’t ever be okay.”

Liam’s hand came to Naomi’s shoulder, moving up to the back of her neck in a comforting clasp.

“They tried to turn Naomi and Beth into Rogues, also. When the girls refused, they crept into Beth’s fiance’s room one night, drugged her, and murdered him, letting her think she had gone Rogue and killed him.”

Horrified gasps came from everyone, and Janette’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, my poor Beth.”

“To make a rather long story short, Naomi fled to New York. Beth was apprehended in Florida with Beatrice, Valerie, and the others, but when the truth came out, she was released, and came here to us.”

“We’re okay now,” Naomi hurried to reassure them. “We’re settled here, and happy, and doing well.”

Beth nodded eagerly. “Liam and Naomi are buying the most amazing house, and it has a downstairs bedroom suite just for me.”

Janette smiled. “I see you’ll have a great deal of shopping to do.”

“No, that’s the beauty of it,” Naomi told her. “It comes with all the furniture… gorgeous, old-fashioned furniture, that’s probably a lot of it antique if we had it assessed.”

“Not a pressboard in site,” Liam nodded in approval.

Naomi tilted her head to look at Liam. “You know, I was thinking, we should clean out the kitchen, and start with all new dishware, silver, pots and pans. That kind of thing.”

He leaned down to kiss her nose. “If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do. We’ll need our own linens, too, although you might want to keep some of the quilts and duvets. They looked like they were hand crafted.”

Observing the wistful look in her mother’s face, as well as her grandmothers’, Naomi smiled at them brilliantly. “What if we take you to see the house tomorrow, if our real estate lady can fit us in, and we’ll make a list, and then head to the mall and have a girls’ shopping day for home goods?”

Graham (grandfather, maternal, Naomi reminded herself) pretended to be offended. “What about us men?”

“Oh, wait! I know!” Beth piped up. “Let’s save the mall for Saturday, it’s only two days away. Then all the guys can hang out at Troy’s and watch the game, and the pre-game and post-game and all that while we’re out shopping.”

Mark rolled his eyes at his sisters. “Games are on Sundays, not Saturday.”

Beth bit her lip, frowning thoughtfully. “Oh. Well, okay, it’s the weekend before Christmas, everything is going to be open on Sunday.”

“Yes, and it’s also going to be a nightmare,” Liam reminded her.

Naomi and Beth looked at each other, and grinned.

“But we never got to experience the nightmare that is malls at Christmas time,” Naomi said, Beth nodding in agreement. “Even if we never venture a foot in a mall at Christmas time ever more, we have to do it just this once, because we can.”

Janette laughed. “I’m game if you are,” she declared. “But Sunday is Christmas Eve, so let’s make it Saturday, and the men can fend for themselves even if there’s no game. Mother? Corinne? Are you in?”

“Count me in,” Belle agreed.

“Hell, yes,” said Corinne with a grin. “Bring it on.”

“You could still go tomorrow, or on Friday,” Liam suggested. “I’m sure we guys can find something to do.”