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“It’s Ness. She is waiting for me and I promised I would get her away from Whetland.”
That sobered him. Slightly. He blinked, trying to focus solidly on her. “What? Why would you do such an imbecilic thing?”
Her dark blue eyes pinned him. “Gilroy beat her—broke her arm as far as I can tell.”
“No. Gil wouldn’t do that.”
“He did. And I am taking Ness away from here and I need your help.”
“No, there must be some misunderstanding.” He straightened even farther, leaning toward her. “I’ll talk to Gil. He can make this right. He’ll make it right. I’ll talk to him. Ness doesn’t have to worry.”
“No, you’re not listening to me, Evan. I know my words are not quite getting through that brandy-soaked brain of yours, but you need to hear this—truly hear this.” Her voice snapped. “I didn’t come to you so that you would talk to him. I came to you to ask you to help me get Ness away from here—safely.”
His head snapped back as her words truly sunk in. “You’re asking me to betray my brother?”
“I’m asking you to save Ness’s life.”
“No.” His left hand flew back and forth in the air. “You can’t do this, Juliet. You can’t. You need to put Ness back into her room and tell her it was a mistake. She will be fine.”
Juliet jumped to her feet, her voice lifting into a barely controlled scream. “That’s not going to happen. I’m getting Ness out of here, one way or another. You don’t understand the severity of what he did—she is afraid for her life. I need your help.”
Dropping the tumbler onto the floor, Evan heaved his body forward and floundered up onto his feet to lord over her. “You’re telling me to betray my brother after what I just did to him? Marrying you?”
“The wedding wasn’t my idea.”
“But ye certainly latched onto the thought.”
“I what?” Her eyes went to slits as her hands balled into tiny fists that looked ready to launch at him.
He grabbed her right wrist, squeezing it before she could hit him, leaning over her, his breath seething. “You latched onto the thought and now you’re my damnable wife and I betrayed everything—everything I stood for—everything I swore to my brother. So, you’ll do as I say and stay in your damn room. Leave Ness alone. This is not our business, wife.”
Even as the words escaped his mouth, they sounded foreign, horrid, like the devil had taken his tongue and slathered it with putrescence. Damn brandy. He should have grabbed the whisky.
She yanked her arm out of his grip. “Like grandfather, like grandson,” she muttered as she spun away from him.
“What did you just say?”
She didn’t turn back to him as she stalked toward the door. “It doesn’t matter.”
Evan charged across the room, blocking her path. “What did you say?”
She glared up at him, arrows flying from her eyes. “That there is an obvious path of right here, and you are ignoring it for all the wrong reasons.”
“You don’t get to decide that for me, Juliet.”
Her chest lifted in a deep breath and her head shook. Her words came out measured, all anger banished from her tone. “No. But I also don’t need to stand by and watch you make that decision.”
She stepped around him and left the room. Her boots on the wood floor of the hallway echoed in his ears.
Damn brandy.
{ Chapter 26 }
The horse snorted in the cool air. A black, sleek mare that melded into the night, a ghost of a shadow that may or may not be real.
Hell.
Juliet was actually going through with it.
