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“Edinburgh.” Gilroy’s left hand twitched, plucking at the bottom hem of his tailcoat. “There were reports of the two of them moving that direction, but I could find no trace of Ness or Juliet.”
He stepped away from Evan to grab a green apple from a basket on the far side of the table. Biting into the fruit, Gilroy slouched onto a wooden chair and tossed his left leg high up onto the arm of it. His forefinger flipped out from the apple to point at Evan as he chewed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
A smile, crooked and peculiar cut across Gilroy’s lips. “That you planned this. That ye were trying to get rid of Ness for me? I didn’t expect it from you. It was a bold move.”
“Get them to leave? Why would I do that?” Evan’s brows lifted. “I tried to convince them to stay.”
“What?” His smile vanished, shock rolling across Gilroy’s face. He jumped to his feet, setting himself directly in front of Evan. “What did you say?”
“I tried to get them to stay.”
The tip of Gilroy’s head tilted forward, his glare slicing through Evan. “You didn’t plan on removing Ness from this place?”
Evan’s brow furrowed as he shook his head. “Why would I do that?”
A growl shook up from his brother’s throat and he pushed past Evan, stalking out of the room and up the stairs.
Evan stared through the open door for a long minute, puzzling together Gilroy’s strange behavior.
Someone had told his brother that Evan had been the cause of Ness’s leaving.
Who in the hell would have done that?
~~~
Drink hadn’t helped.
Letting Duncan beat him into a sweaty, heaping mess hadn’t helped.
Tossing and turning in his empty bed for hours on end hadn’t helped.
It’d been three days and Juliet hadn’t returned.
He’d held out hope that she would appear—appear and forgive him. Bring Ness to wherever she needed to be and then return to Whetland. How long would that take?
Evan stood at the entrance of the solarium with his heaping plate of breakfast, needing to get real food into his belly instead of heading straight to the whisky bottle as he had been. He looked down the corridor.
He’d walked this direction by habit, as he always went to the library and his grandfather with his morning meal. But then he’d paused when he realized the door was still closed.
Served him right. Without knowing anything about why she’d left, his grandfather understood quite clearly that Evan had driven Juliet away.
Which he had.
A sigh stifled in his throat, he started to turn back toward the empty table in the solarium, until he heard a creak.
The creak of the library door.
He looked over his shoulder down the hallway. The library door was now open the slightest crack.
An invitation if there ever was one.
Steeling himself, he turned towards the library and nudged the door open, sticking his head into the room. His grandfather was just getting back to his wingback chair by the fireplace, lowering himself onto the seat.
Evan stepped halfway into the room. “I didn’t think you were talking to me.”
Setting his cane to lean alongside the chair next to his leg, his grandfather waved his hand in the air. “I’m not. But I have some things to say so I’m lifting the ban.”
