She licked her lips and straightened. Whatever confidence she’d come here with was shaken, but not completely gone.
She cradled her wrist to her chest as she took a step forward. “What do you mean? You know we were always meant to be together. We were inevitable.”
I wasn’t about to let myself get cornered again. As she advanced, I stepped sideways until I could turn my back to the rest of the house and open space.
“You’re married,” I hissed, “and I’m…” I caught myself before I gave away more than I was prepared to. She’d find out about Penny and me soon enough, if she didn’t know already, but this wasn’t the time. With a steadying breath, I set my shoulders. “And I’m attached.”
She scoffed again and kept up her pursuit as we crossed into the living room. “Whoever she is, she can’t possibly compare to me.”
“Heis leagues beyond you, Vi.”
She drew up short, and her mouth fell open as her eyes grew wide. Genuine surprise. Not an expression I was used to seeing on her.
“Not Levitt,” she said softly.
“Not that it’s any business of yours, but no. Not Levitt.” I gestured to the front door. “I think it’s time you left.”
She shrank under the weight of my rejection and stammered, “But I just got here.”
I continued on my way to the door. “And you’ve already overstayed your welcome. Get out.”
“Kit, please?—”
“I said,get out.”
“You can’t send me back to that man. You don’t know what he’ll do to me!” Her voice rose to a near shout, and the desperation in her tone was genuine. But she wasn’t afraid of Merrick, just of failing in whatever she was attempting to do here.
I stopped at the door, pulled it open, and pointed outside. “If you’re really in trouble, go talk to your brother. That’s where you should have gone in the first place.”
Violette crossed the living room with quick, angry steps.
“Don’t come back here,” I said as she passed.
Out on the front stoop again, she set her shoulders back and stared me down. “If Merrick kills me, that’s on your head.”
I slammed the door in her face, then called through the wood, “I can live with that!”
I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth. It was dangerous to make an enemy of Violette Yost, and I’d done exactly that. All my intentions of playing this carefully and staying on the right side of her fury had gotten lost under my own.
There would be consequences. All that remained to be seen were how dire they’d be.
21
Kit
After several deep breaths, my hands were still trembling. Thoughts of Penny running into Vi on the road on his way home only fed my anxious anger, and I wanted nothing more than to quiet everything. We still had half a bottle of whiskey in the cabinet in the kitchen, and I went to it, seeking the numbing peace that had gotten me through days like this before.
I pulled the bottle down from the top shelf, yanked out the cork, and took a swig. I swished it around in my mouth to chase away the taste of Violette’s kiss, then spat it into the sink, pumping water in behind it to wash it down the drain for good measure. I scrubbed my sleeve across my lips again to dry them.
As I turned to settle at the table, I kicked the fallen kettle, and it rolled against the lower cabinets. That was enough to still my circling thoughts. I looked from the bottle in my hand to the water and coffee grounds spilling across the floorboards and knew that whiskey wasn’t what I wanted. It wasn’t what I needed. It wouldn’t help.
It was Penny that would help, and I didn’t want him to come home to me stinking of alcohol. I’d told him I didn’t feel the needto rely on the whiskey anymore because I had him. I didn’t want him to think I’d just been feeding him a line; I’d meant it then, and I knew now that it was the truth. Because he was there for me, and he took care of me as much as I took care of him.
I re-corked the bottle and stowed it in the cabinet on my way to the bathroom for a towel. Back in the kitchen, I mopped up the mess on the floor and refilled the now-dented kettle so there would be coffee ready by the time Penny got home. A quick check of the soup assured me that would be ready soon, too, which left me to pack for our next journey out in the cold.
I laid the cloak, gloves, and socks across the bed, battling both kittens in my attempt to smooth the material with careful hands. Penny hadn’t brought much when he came to Ashpoint, certainly not enough to sustain our months-long stay here. I imagined it was nearly all he had. From what I’d seen and what he’d told me of farm life, he and his family lived simply. He was awed by the food and goods to be found in less remote areas, and even modest bits of finery managed to impress him. I lived for his wide smiles and the way his green eyes grew even brighter at the sight of something novel. It was a joy to spoil him, far more rewarding than buying anything for myself.
After giving the cloak a final pat, I shouldered our bag and had to snag a kitten in each elbow to keep them from making a mess of the new clothes. I closed the door behind me, set the kittens loose, and returned to the kitchen to wait.
