“No—not until you see it.”
“Why? I have no need to see the mine, Theodore.”
“Because you don’t believe me, Vee. You don’t believe there is another vein. And I don’t take charity. Not while I have a modicum of honor left in me.”
She stared at him sitting on the floor, her tongue pressing on the roof of her mouth. The last thing she had time for at the moment was a weeklong tromp to Derbyshire to poke around an old abandoned mine.
His jaw shifted forward, setting hard. “I won’t sign it over unless you see it for yourself, Vee. Unless I prove it to you. Come to Glenhaven.”
She held in a groan. Aggravating to no end. Her fingers went to her temples, rubbing tiny circles. What was she going to do without the mine as collateral? She could find a way to raise the funds—she always had. She didn’t need the mine.
Just as she was about to say no, Theo’s eyes shifted. Shifted from challenge to desperation. The same desperation she saw in his look the night before. The hopelessness he was mired in.
He needed this.
Needed someone to believe in him, if only for a moment.
And he was staring directly at her.
He picked the wrong person.
Wrong on every measure.
Violet exhaled as the reality she was trying hard to deny set in. She was the wrong person—by far—but she was also the only person standing there.
“Fine. I will go.” The words rushed out before she could reconsider.
He nodded and then proceeded to stretch back out on the floor, the back of his head clunking to rest on the wooden boards. His eyes closed as his hands settled into a clasp over his belly. “Let me sleep for another hour and then we will leave for Glenhaven.”
Violet swallowed a growl as she stared at him splayed out on the floor. His eyes closed, the whole of the matter settled and calm in his mind. His mouth had even relaxed, almost to a smile. If not a smile, a smirk. Definitely a smirk.
The longer she stared, the more annoyed she became. Theo had manipulated her again, the bastard. And she had fallen for it.
Her gut started to burn. It was time someone called him on his lies—forced him to admit his life had become a dung heap. As much as Adalia had tried to right her brother and his way through life since he had returned, her friend hadn’t been successful at it. And Violet knew just how desperate Adalia was to have Theodore turn his life around.
Maybe she could help with that. Call him on his bluff about the mine. Force him to admit the mine was worthless and he could not lie to everyone he met.
And in the process—even though the mine was worthless—at least she would have a guarantee for the loan.
But if she was wrong about the worthlessness of the mine and there really was a new vein…
Well, she wasn’t wrong.
Theodore was bluffing.
She was sure of it.
{ Chapter 3 }
Wagons. Carriages. Horses. The fast flurry on the cobblestone street in front of the coaching inn sent the air rushing about Theo, frantic.
His muscles clenched as he resisted the urge to spin in a slow circle with his head bowed, noting every detail of the chaotic street scene around him. Instead, his feet stayed rooted to the ground as he lifted the reins of his horse to the approaching stable boy without looking at the lad.
His gaze was focused on the woman alighting from the carriage in front of him. The woman he had believed to be long lost to the passage of time.
The wool of Violet’s plum-hued carriage dress trailed behind her on the carriage step, sticking along the bottom inside corner of the coach’s door until she reached behind her and tugged free the folds of fabric.
If he was closer to her, he knew the plum color would bring out the deep shards of purple in her blue eyes—the very color she had been named for. But one had to look close to notice the rogue streaks in her eyes. Color that Theo had noticed the very first day he had met her nine years ago. His sister’s new friend. An awkward but pretty young pup.
But that was long before she had grown into a young woman. Before she fully understood the worth of a third son. Before the war. Before his life had been reduced to a ghostly existence, nothing more.
Theo shook his head.
Thoughts of loss and rage and pain would not serve him well at the moment.
He was grateful for the day on his horse—it forced him to be without a full decanter of brandy within reach—and he had managed to mostly sober in the hours since leaving London. He needed to be clear-headed if he was to deal with the formidable force that was one of his sister’s best friends.
When they were young, Violet had no margin in her life for behavior that skirted outside the bounds of propriety. A challenge he had always enjoyed toying with. He imagined not much had changed with her. Except for, of course, that she had become the proprietress of one of the most successful gaming houses to exist in the thick of London West End society.
That turn of her life had to have put a slight kink in her armor of propriety.
A curious twist of fate indeed.
His left hand suddenly dropped the leather reins in a spasm, his arm swinging limply to his side.
Theo glanced at the stable boy. Not noticing anything out of the ordinary, the boy had already picked up the swinging reins, tugging on the horse as he turned away.
Theo still wasn’t used to it. Two and a half years, and the random loss of feeling in his left arm—the sudden absence of all control in his fingers—still caught him off-guard, still made him feel like a stranger in his own body. It happened sporadically without warning, a remnant from when his left shoulder was out of socket for months.
Staring down at the muddy stones of the street, he lifted his left shoulder, shaking his arm the best he could, willing his fingers into obedience. Ten seconds, and his forefinger twitched.
Longer than usual.
He looked up from the cobblestones by his feet to see Violet turned fully toward him, staring at him. She straightened the small bonnet perched on the upsweep of her chestnut hair, and then took two steps forward, pausing at the rear corner of the carriage. Her blue eyes were slightly squinted, her look flickering back and forth from his face to his left arm.
What he thought he had hidden well, Violet had just noticed.
Because that was his luck.
Hell. He needed a steep tumbler of cognac. The last thing he needed was Violet’s sympathy. From her, of all people, he did not think he could take the pity.
Traveling as her companion, Violet’s maid exited the carriage behind her and Violet looked over her shoulder to the woman. She spoke words Theo couldn’t hear over the noise of the frenzied street, and her maid nodded, moving toward the main door of the coaching inn with Violet’s driver.
Waiting until they disappeared into the quaint tan and grey fieldstone building, she turned back to Theo and quickly moved toward him and then stopped, standing before him.
Her dark blue eyes searched his face. “I can see you have sobered since this morning. Truth told, I expected you to fall off your horse at some point during the journey today.”
“No pleasantries?”
The right side of her mouth pulled back. “How was your ride?”
“I managed to stay upright. That was as accomplished as it was.”
She nodded, her fingers going to the right side of her dark plum bonnet to tug it forward against the low rays of the evening sun. “Clarissa and Mr. Druper are securing rooms for us. Have you stayed at this establishment before in Northampton? Do you have preferred chambers?”
“I usually ride straight through to Glenhaven.”
“Without sleeping?”
“Sleep is fleeting, if it is at all for me, so I may as well be riding.”
She nodded, her full cherry lips slipping into a slight frown. “I do not mean to slow you. You may feel free to travel on ahead of us. As long as the muck on the roads holds solid, we should be at Glenhaven in two
days.”
Theo considered the option for a long moment. “No, I will travel with you. I imagine it is the appropriate thing to do in this situation.”
“Because dragging me to Derbyshire to see a mine is appropriate?” A smile and a sound near to a chuckle escaped her. “I doubt we are bound by any rules of propriety at the moment, Theo. Or is it that you think I am about to turn back to London once I am out of your sight?”
“Would you?”
“I have not changed so much, Theo, from when we were young.” She shook her head. “I have committed to coming to see the mine. And I have never been one to fail a commitment.”
“No, if I recall correctly, that is exactly who you are.”
She nodded, satisfied he respected her word on the matter.
“You are not going to ask me about my arm?” Theo lifted his left hand, mostly to prove it was in working order. “I saw you notice it when you stepped onto the street.”
Her look stayed on his face, not dipping to peek at his arm. “Do I need to ask? Whatever it was that ailed you, it seemed to resolve itself.” Her arms folded in front of her, her reticule swinging. “Or are you searching for sympathy? If so, you will not receive it from my quarter. I offered for you to ride in my carriage—even with the stench of your latest rout in London haunting your clothes. I do believe Clarissa would have strangled me in my sleep if you had actually taken me up on the offer.”
“No, I prefer to ride.” A grin that he wasn’t prepared for carved into his face. “The air keeps the stench away from my own nose as well.”
Violet laughed, and the sound was light, floating into the wind like dozens of tiny bells.
The weight of the air around him lifted slightly at the sound, and Theo looked up past Violet’s head to the busy thoroughfare. For the first time in a long time, the urge to want to actually see the world around him struck him.
A mistake, for the very first thing he saw was a blond woman in a dark green cloak moving past the front of Violet’s carriage.
No. Impossible.
Not here. Not in the middle of England. Not this many years later.
“I did assume you would have changed clothing before we left London, or is it that—”
Theo pushed past Violet, her words holding no meaning in his ears as he ran past her and the carriage.
He jumped, bobbing above heads and horses, searching for the blond head in the busy street.
The light blond hair flashed in the late day sunlight. A glimpse of green and he sprinted for it, haphazardly shoving his way through the crowd.
But it stayed a block ahead of him. Blond hair. Green wool. Block after block. Glimpse after glimpse. Always ahead of him.
Six blocks he ran, pushing past people and carts, dodging horses and carriages. Six blocks, and he stopped at a crossroad where the masses of bodies and horses had waned to a trickle.
Only a mostly empty street before him.
Gone. The woman was gone. Gone into nothing.
Just as the ghost he knew she was.
But what if she wasn’t a ghost?
Reality slipped sideways, and he knew it. But he had also just seen her. He was sure of it. He just missed her. If he searched a little bit harder, he would find the green cloak. Find the blond head.
Back. He had to go back. He must have missed her slipping down a side street.
He spun around and stumbled, tripping over the person directly behind him.
Violet fell to the side, flailing as he rammed into her.
His reflexes lightning quick, he caught her around the waist before she fell into the thick mound of mud on the edge of the street.
Theo righted her, startled at how light she was to pick up. Maybe it was that Violet always filled the air around her so fully that he thought of her as far taller and larger. But she wasn’t. The top of her head only reached the middle of his chest and her body was slender.
Turning, he set her feet onto the solid ground of the pavement, holding onto her slight frame until she had her balance. Her fingers gripped his forearms and she stared up at him, her blue eyes wide, her cheeks pulsating pink with every breath she panted.
He glanced above her head, searching the street behind her. No green cloak, no blond head in sight.
Not willing to remove his hands from her body just yet, he looked down to Violet. “You are not going to faint on me?”
“Faint, why?”
“You are clearly not accustomed to running.”
“Running blocks at top speed—no, you’re right.” Every other word she said was punctuated with a quick pant. “I am not accustomed to that at all.”
Her head dipped down as she swallowed hard, working to catch her breath.
“Why did you follow me?”
She looked up at him. “Why did you run?”
“I…I…” His words trailed as his look darted about the street.
“Exactly. I blink and you are tearing away from me into the crowd, running like a demon was after you. A madman. Why would I not follow you?”
His gaze dropped to her. “I didn’t expect you to chase after me.”
“Well, what was I to do?”
“Not chase after me.”
“That hardly seemed like the best course in the moment. What if you needed help?” Her fingertips dug into the muscles of his forearms. “You look like you saw a ghost, Theo. Why?”
I did see a ghost.
Not that he was about to tell Violet that. He had to stop seeing them. People he had sent to their deaths.
His hands dropped from her waist and he took a step backward. “I thought I saw an acquaintance that I needed to speak with about a business matter.”
Her eyes narrowed as her lips pulled back, her head shaking. “And I am the Queen of the Nile. No one runs like that for a business matter, Theo. You do me a grievous insult by stooping to lie about whatever this matter is that sent you scattering into the streets.”
He shook his head. “It was of no consequence, Violet.”
“It was something, Theo.”
“It was nothing.” His voice snapped, his yell pitching above the street sounds. “Leave it be, Violet.”
She spun from him and started walking away, her kidskin-gloved hand waving in the air. “I knew this was a mistake.”
Her footsteps were quick back toward the coaching inn.
It took Theo several seconds to realize she had dismissed him.
It took several more to remember that he liked that about her. She had never stood for lies. And she had certainly never stood for him attempting to evade his way around honesty.
What he didn’t like was her walking away from him. Didn’t like the erect set of her posture, stiff to the point of breaking. Aside from his sister and brother-in-law, Violet was the first person that he’d had a near to normal conversation with since the war.
In that moment, alone on the street, his stomach still churning from seeing a ghost, the smallest flicker of yearning sparked to life in his chest. He hadn’t wanted anything in the past two and a half years. Not food, or wine, or women, or politics, or friends, or purpose. He had been going through the motions of life—barely—and at that, only for love of his sister and twin nieces.
But Violet. He wanted her. Or at least he wanted her not walking away from him in disgust.
His feet started to move before he made the conscious decision to do so. Five long strides and he caught up to Violet, falling in step beside her.
Ignoring his presence, her shoulders pulled back even tighter.
“I saw a ghost that I needed to chase, Violet.” His voice was soft, the words harder to admit to himself than to her.
Her gait didn’t slow, but she did look up at him. Her blue eyes skewered him so thoroughly he almost stumbled.
She looked away, her gaze going to the pavement before them. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“The truth.”
He waited for more from her as they walked
, the questions he had instantly braced himself for. What ghost? Who did you see? Why?
They didn’t come.
His forehead wrinkled as he watched her profile. “You are not going to ask?”
“About the ghost?” She looked up at him. “I have no right to intrude on your demons, Theo. The truth, not a lie, was all I wanted.”
He nodded. “You are going back to London?”
“That is a conclusion you have jumped to.” She stopped, turning to him. “What I will tell you is that I sat all day in the carriage dwelling upon my actions—what I was doing here, why I was traveling to Glenhaven with you when I have a thousand other things that need my attention at the moment.”
“Did you find answers in your ponderings?”
“Yes. And it goes back to when I was sixteen years old and you were at my doorstep.” Her right hand came up, her palm flattening against the smooth expanse of the plum fabric over her stomach. “The truth is, I was never able to say no to you, Theo. Not then, and to my dismay, not now.”
Theo grinned. “Had I known that then—”
“No, do not make light of it. Those days when you pursued me.” She took a deep breath, her chest lifting with the effort. “You were so charming. Exciting. Dangerous. And I adored all of those things about you. You had this unending well of wild ideas and an enthusiasm for everything around you, and I could never bring myself to say no to you, no matter how bizarre your antics were or how close they came to getting me into grievous trouble with Uncle Demetrick. I could never refuse you, and you knew it.”
Memories that he had long since forgotten flooded back to him. Violet swimming in the brook in just her white chemise, giggling as she splashed water at him to make him avert his eyes. Her blue eyes sparkling in mischievousness in the light of the torches after he pulled her into the gardens at Glenhaven late in the eve. Her laughter when they raced mares down the long grassy knoll at the south end of Glenhaven. She had embodied all of the finest things in those days—youth, innocence, happiness.
He swallowed hard, the sudden memories choking his throat. After her parents had died, she had spent far too many hours at Glenhaven visiting Adalia in those days. Visiting him.
Of Sin & Sanctuary: A Revelry’s Tempest Novel Page 3