Bryce nodded and the distance between them felt—if not gone—then perhaps narrowed. At least a little.
THE DRAWING ROOM INCharlie and Niall’s manor house was too warm. Or perhaps it only felt that way because Ruby couldn’t seem to draw a full breath.
The fire crackled steadily in the grate, banishing the darkness that had fallen outside. It should have felt safe, far removed from the wind-scoured ridges and exposed camps which Ruby had experienced on the way here.
Instead, she felt like she could hardly breathe.
Nearby, Charlie perched on the arm of a chair, arms crossed, listening as Niall and Bryce spoke in low, deliberate tones. Evan stood near the hearth, one elbow braced against the mantel. Every so often he pushed a hand through his hair—a sure sign of his tension.
Ruby stood at the edge of the room, feeling as though she had slipped back into the early days of her job in Edinburgh—the one where she hovered at the edge of boardroom meetings, absorbing terminology she barely understood, trying to decipher language designed to exclude.
Except this wasn’t a corporate strategy session. This was a discussion about how to stop a war. Her gaze flicked to Bryce as he spoke.
“...the courier intercepted near Leith only confirmed what we’ve long suspected. The pattern in the ledger suggests a plan, an accumulation, not isolated transactions. If we could onlyfigure out more fully what it says, we wouldn’t be walking into this so blindly.”
Niall nodded. “And the estates pressured most recently are not random. They sit along secondary approach routes into Edinburgh. If the ledger contains clues as to how MacInnes plans to consolidate them—”
They spoke in fragments of information and half-formed conclusions, weaving threads she could barely follow. The names of ports. Settlements. References to meetings that had happened before she had ever arrived in this time.
She felt adrift. Useless. Like a spectator.
Evan was listening intently, eyes focused—but beneath it she saw the strain. The knowledge that he was volunteering himself as bait.
A chill crept through her. What if something went wrong? The thought lodged in her chest like a splinter. It only needed one mistake...
She forced herself to breathe slowly. Standing here spiraling, stewing in what-ifs and worst-case scenarios wasnothelping. She might not understand how this time’s politics worked. She might not understand smuggler’s routes or the shipping lanes used to bring in contraband.
But shedidunderstand systems. Patterns. She had built an entire career on identifying risk before it became catastrophe. They wanted to figure out MacInnes’ plan? Fine.
“Can we put a map on the table?” she asked.
The question cut across the conversation. Four heads turned toward her.
“A map?” Bryce asked.
“Yeah, you know,” Ruby said, unable to keep the sarcasm from her voice. “One of those big bits of paper that shows the layout of a region. In particular, Edinburgh and its surrounds if you have one.”
Niall glanced at Charlie then crossed to a cabinet and took out a large rolled parchment. He cleared the central table and spread it out, smoothing the corners with his palms. Ruby walked over and examined it, Evan at her side.
“What are ye thinking, lass?” he asked.
She shook her head, not yet ready to share her thoughts. The map covered much of the area she’d traveled to get here. Edinburgh was marked prominently near the coast, the Firth stretching outward in inked blue-gray lines.
She placed both hands on the table. “Bryce,” she said. “Can you mark all the estates belonging to those involved in the conspiracy you uncovered?”
He hesitated only a moment before taking a bit of charcoal and marking small Xs on the map. Ruby watched carefully. Northwest of the city. South along a minor route. One near the coast. Another inland toward the moors.
When Bryce finished, Ruby nodded. “Niall, can you mark the places where couriers have been intercepted? And where intelligence suggests MacInnes’ men have been active?”
Perhaps seeing the determined expression on Ruby’s face, Niall complied in silence, adding small circles and triangles in different areas.
As the markings accumulated, the map began to resemble something less like geography and more like a puzzle. Ruby stepped back, studying it. It seemed chaotic, points scattered without order.
What am I missing?
She turned to Bryce. “Can I see the ledger?”
He handed it to her without comment. The leather felt worn and cool in her hands as she flipped through the pages slowly, eyes tracing the symbols. Curved hooks. Double lines. Angled slashes.
