“See you there,” Jasper agreed.
And for the next few moments, he did not move at all.
He just stared at Libba and let her stare back at him, their hearts thundering in harmony.
Part VI
Out, Damn Spot!
Chapter Nineteen
Jasper had madeit, somehow, to the Coin and Cauldron. He had taken his seat. He had ordered his eggs. He had survived until the plate arrived, steaming and fragrant in front of him. Unfortunately, that appeared to be the farthest his heightened nerves were willing to carry him.
He stared at the sagging yolks, straining against their lightly cooked cauls, and ever so slowly, the horrible clarity of sanity began to settle over his shoulders.
What in the good name of hell had he said to her? Perhaps he should’ve been more concerned with what he’ddoneto her, but all he could think was what he’d said. What had hesaid?!
“Jasper? Are you listening to me, mate?” Malcolm’s voice said, cracking through the panic sharply enough to bring the room back into focus.
“What?” he replied, blinking across the table at his friend’s half-buttered toast, knife aloft in his manicured hands. “What did you say?”
“I asked if you wanted to grab my sister,” Malcolm repeated, frowning across the table.
Jasper stared.
He stared and he felt the heavy thumping of his heart. “What?”
“For the trip to the quarry. Christ, you really aren’t listening to me, are you?” Malcolm sighed. “Both of you are miles away every time I try to talk to you lately.”
“I can’t go to the quarry today,” Jasper said quickly, before Malcolm could put two and two together—math being something he was, as it happened, preternaturallygood at doing. “I have to find the jack tars for Templeton-Rath.”
“Yes, I’ve explained this already,” Malcolm said, throwing his hands up. “Errol has a building project on at the Rest. Some sort of special greenhouse. I’m going with you to hire jacks at the dockyard and I’m going to swap some of them out for quarry workers because Errol, in his good sense, asked me to sell him the rock for the foundation and some skilled labor besides.”
Jasper was still staring. Still not entirely up to speed. “And why would you need me for that?” he asked, spearing a yolk and watching its insides bubble out down the crispy, white side of his egg. “Or Lib—or your sister?”
“I don’tneedyou,” Malcolm said, shaking his head and taking a large gulp from his mug of coffee. “Iwantedto show you both the beating heart of my new vocation. I thought perhaps one of the two most important people in my life might give a toss. Perhaps I am wrong.”
“No, no,” Jasper said quickly. “I’m sorry. I’m… I’m a thousand miles away. I’ve got a lot going on.”
“Yes, I know,” said Malcolm. “More coffee?”
“Please.”
He watched with a bubble of sagging relief dripping from his sternum as his friend stood and made his way back to the barman to ask for a top-up.
He could remember a little now. Could remember them staring at each other after the… erm…after. She’d turned and wrestled the windows back open, going on her toes against the panes like she needed the air from outside to restore her whilehe had stumbled back and collapsed with his bum against the corner of the desk.
“Aren’t you going?” she’d hissed. “You have to go before he comes back.”
“I can’t walk out there just yet,” he’d told her, shoving both hands into his hair. “I can’t walkat allyet. You don’t want me waddling down the boardwalk at half-mast.”
Shit.
What else had he said to her?!
“Here we are,” Malcolm said, coming back with a hot, iron pitcher. “And I got you the sugar cubes too. My act of charity for the day.”
“Bless you,” Jasper managed weakly, cramming a narrow wedge of toast into his yolk before it could congeal. “‘Greenhouse’?”
