“Not York, Edinburgh. There was an accident at the shipyard, a collapsed crane. No fatalities, but someone needs to assess the damage and start repairs. The train leaves in an hour.” James hesitated. “Unless you trust me to take care of it myself.”
“No, I’ll go with ye.” Violet’s stomach sank as Callum tossed his legs off the side of the bed. “I need ten minutes.”
Blood rushed in her ears as James gave her a long look, then slid out the door, snapping it shut behind him. Callum had already pulled on his trousers and was buttoning his shirt with quick flicks of his fingers. “You’re leaving?”
“Aye, I have to help James.” He didn’t look at her while he fastened his cuffs and reached for his collar.
“Oh.” Her eyes burned as she gathered her shed clothing and held it tight to her chest. She dressed, fumbling with the fasteningsof her robe through blurry vision. “Then I suppose this—this is goodbye.”
“Vi, no.” He approached her from behind but didn’t touch her. “I have to take care of this. I’ll come back—”
“You have no obligation to me.” She turned to face him, banishing the hurt from her expression. “You need to go.”
The hard lines had returned to his face, but his brows furrowed. “Where will ye go after this?”
She shook her head, swallowing the lump in her throat. “No, Callum. We agreed this would end when we left here, so it’s best if you don’t know.” She couldn’t survive waiting for him, watching the drive for a return that may never come.
“Yes, but…” He drove his fingers through his hair, leaving it standing up in places. “Things between us are different now.”
She felt the slightest measure of relief knowing he experienced the same shift, that what they shared was far more than a brief affair. The thought sent her reeling, her insides spinning and bubbling like champagne—
But she knew better. That foolish ache in her chest belonged to a girl of far fewer years and far less experience. “Are you still going to Panama?”
“Aye. In one month.”
The words struck deep, prodding old wounds and waking them. “Then nothing has changed.”
Perhaps she imagined the turmoil in his expression, but his eyes were cold. “I understand. Should I walk ye—”
“No need,” she interrupted. “I’ll seemyself out.”
“Violet.”
She paused in the doorway, looked back over her shoulder.
“I dinnae want to leave. I’ll come back as soon as I can—”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she said, her voice remarkably steady considering how her entire body shook.
His mouth worked for a moment before he exhaled in a rush. “I’m a better man for having met ye.”
How could she respond to the man who’d made her believe in love again? The man she would always mourn, who would fill her dreams, whose face she would look for in crowds until the day she left this earth.
She gave him a soft smile as she opened the door and stepped into the hallway. “Goodbye, Callum.”
Chapter 31
Callum never wasted amoment when he could be working. From revising designs while at the bottom of a ditch to drafting agreements in the back of a carriage, his ability to conduct business never faltered because of his location.
But, as the train pulled out of the domed station in York, the repeating columns blurred in his vision and his stomach lurched. He pressed his hand to the glass and breathed slowly through his nose, but the nausea held strong.
“You look green, cousin.”
Callum shot James a glare, then brought his gaze to the papers spread before them. They’d secured seats next to a table in the second-class car, and James had laid out the telegrams he’d received from Edinburgh between Callum’s sketches of the crane’s design. They had only half a day of travel to anticipate how they would make repairs and recover what they’d lost, but all Callum did was stare out the window, watching the steam from the engine dissolve into the Yorkshire mist.
“I’ll be fine,” he ground out, digging the tip of his pencil into the brittle paper he’d grabbed from Valebrook’s office before racing for the train station.
“Do you want some tea? Coffee? You look a bit peaked.”
