Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Cathy and Heathcliff
Blake
* * *
Since I was lying in the dark in my bed at The Edinburgh Grand, I saw the light coming out from under my phone where it sat screen down on the nightstand.
In order to further torture myself, like I’d done all the other times this happened, I reached out, took hold of it, turned it to me and stared at the notification that shared Dair was calling.
I did this until it went away.
I continued to stare at my phone until the notification came up that I had a voicemail.
That was voicemail three.
I had six texts from him too.
None of them I’d listened to.
None of them I’d read.
I needed to book train passage down to England.
Or a flight.
I didn’t.
I put the phone back to my nightstand, face down, turned my back to it, curled my knees to my chest, held them there with my arms and stared into the dark.
Feeling nothing.
Two days later, I sat behind the baronial desk in the study of Treverton, the one where possibly thirteen Marquesses of Norton sat before me, and I watched Christine bustle in.
I’d texted her I wanted to chat.
She had a smile pinned to her face and worry in her eyes as she came to me.
“You good, love?” she asked.
“Peachy,” I lied.
She knew I was lying but sat across from me without saying anything.
“Should I get us some tea?” she offered.
“I need to talk to Alex about this, but I’m thinking about selling the London house,” I announced.
“Oh,” she mumbled.
“It’s my understanding that isn’t a part of the Norton estate I can’t touch.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that, luvvie.”
“Dad explained it to me,” I shared. “Great-grandfather bought the townhouse with some personal earnings and didn’t entail it to the estate.”
“Right,” Christine replied.
“So I can sell it. Give the money to Alex’s charity.”
“That’d be nice, but where would you stay when you’re in London?”
I held her gaze steady, but my tone was soft when I said, “Once I deal with Mum’s personal belongings, I won’t be back to England for some time.”
“I was afraid of that,” she whispered.
“Will you be okay here, on your own, with the help of a maid, seeing to things?” I asked.
“Prefer company, Blake. Yours, to be precise.”
That felt lovely.
Even so, I nodded and said, “I’m sorry.”
Her face got hard. “I am too, and I’ve got the urge to hunt down a notable Scotsman and give him a word or two.”
“We’d only been together a few weeks, Christine.”
“Your eyes are haunted. You’ve got dark circles under them, so I know you’re not sleeping. You aren’t eating properly. You keep yourself busy adding your mother’s clothes to that rolling rail we bought and texting your sister pictures—”
“It’s not necessary for her to fly halfway across the world to look at some clothes and jewels.”
“I see you’re having a mind to your sister’s state, but, if you don’t mind me saying, luv, this isn’t about your sister being pregnant and having an important job. It’s about you hiding in this big house away from whatever happened to you up in Scotland.”
It really was not her place to speak to me like that.
I didn’t inform her of that fact.
“You need to talk to someone about it,” she carried on. “I know I’m not that person to you, but I could be if you’re willing to share with me.”
“I’m not a nice person and Dair found out I wasn’t,” I told her.
She looked stunned. “How are you not a nice person?”
Honestly?
It just hit me that I was at my happiest when I was in this house.
I felt at home.
I could ride horses.
I liked taking walks.
I could hide in a million (slight exaggeration) different rooms, doing my own thing without Mum bearing down on me.
I’d behaved here.
So she didn’t know the real me.
I wasn’t about to enlighten her.
“Just…trust me.”
“I—” she started.
I spoke quickly. “Since no one will be around to exercise them, the horses need to be sold. Unless you or Erin ride.”
The hardest would be the townhouse. I loved that house. Even before Dair and I made memories in it.
But the horses would be hard too.
Because the estate had always had them.
More, because Dair and I had ridden them.
Not to mention, they were beautiful. Mum had excellent taste in horseflesh.
Then again, from what I could remember, that was a Coddington trait.
“You shouldn’t make important decisions when your heart is hurting,” Christine advised. Her voice lowered. “You need to trust me on that, luv.”
“I need to have all of this done and be away from here.”
Christine nodded. “Yes, I reckon you do. But give it some time, some distance, before you do something you can’t undo.”
This was smart advice.
I was a mess. So numb, it was beginning to frighten me.
I knew I didn’t have my head on straight.
I needed to take a breath and give it some time.