I didn't even know where it came from, but it was true. She looked a little shocked. Slowly, her mouth twitched and I thought she was going to smile, but she frowned.
“Niall, this was a mistake.”
There's no way that was a mistake. Two times in two days was not a mistake.
I was convinced that it was not a coincidence either. I was supposed to keep finding her. We were supposed to keep meeting each other. Something or someone was making sure th
at we stayed in each other's lives and I wasn't complaining. In her life was where I wanted to be, especially now that I knew she was available. There was nothing standing in my way. Except her it seemed.
“We can talk about it when we get to the hotel.”
“The what?”
As the car stopped outside the hotel, Eddy threw her door open and darted out. In a flash.
Jesus fucking Christ. I jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut, heading after Eddy. She was on the pavement waving her arm to flag down a taxi. No, she was running away from me again. What was with this woman and running away from me?
Eddy, don't.
I wanted to stop her. But then saw her get into the back of the taxi. It left before I got to them.
Fuck. I kicked my shoe against the pavement, doing nothing but scuffing it. There was no way for us to get closer. One minute, we were literally tangled in each other, and the next, she was running away from me literally. Once again, she was gone with no way for me to contact her.
What the hell did I do? Follow the taxi? It was too late now.
I tried to back up to my suite. This trip had been the most surprising of the mixed bags in the best in the worst ways. Usually, I didn't have these many problems with women. I fell into the armchair in the living area. Women. Oh Christ, Lisbeth. I never got around to telling her that our fake engagement that was supposedly on, was off. I wasn't marrying her. That was just the black and white of it. I hated that she had been dragged into this, she seemed like a nice if slightly simple girl, but she didn't deserve to get dragged into some scheme by our elderly fathers.
And then the Baroness. She was running hot and cold and I didn't know what to do. I didn't believe her when she said she wasn't attracted to me. Technically she hadn't said that she wasn't attracted to me, just thought she wasn't comfortable with pursuing it. The well then, where the hell did that leave us. Was it me? Why did she keep running away? How did I keep driving her away?
What now? Wait another five years to see her by chance again at another casino? What were the chances of that happening? We were in the same country now. We had to just see each other. I had an idea of where she was. She said that she was going to Belshire, wherever that was. That sounded like I had to go to. I couldn't just show up at our doorstep though, as much as I would like to. I needed some sort of excuse.
I racked my brain. This wouldn't be a regular call. I needed a solid reason for my visit. Oh, what about the watch? That old thing? It had been a gift from Charlie, I didn't even buy it. It was vintage and a part of his collection though. I would say it was really nice and really valuable. Maybe I could say it was valuable enough to be a family heirloom. It wasn't, but I wouldn't tell her that. If I told her it was the watch of my uncle who had died in the war, she would have no choice but to give it back. That would surely be enough of a motivation to go all the way to Belshire to get it back. I couldn't care less about the watch, but if that was my end, I was taking it. I was going to Belshire.
10
Edwina
How did drug dealers and prostitutes do it?
I sat on my seat and the train, fidgeting again for the millionth time. I couldn't get comfortable. It had been like this the whole ride since London and there was still about 45 minutes left. I had the cash from selling the watch. It felt like a lead weight sitting in my handbag. Niall had told me that the piece was valued at 30,000 pounds, but I had only gotten ten thousand for it.
I said only but that was the largest sum of money that I had had in my possession for months now. I hadn’t stopped thinking about how to allocate it to make it stretch for as long as it took for me to get a job. All of my accounts were in the negative, and I had gotten ten thousand pounds instead of thirty thousand pounds! I looked out of the window. I think I was and was not looking forward to going back home. The stress of my financial situation followed me no matter where I went, but it was all the more poignant at home.
As if that wasn't enough to keep me occupied, I couldn't stop thinking about Niall. I ran away from home with no explanation after we left the birthday party. I wasn't proud but I needed to stop getting involved with him. He was consistently way to close to learning my secret and frankly messing around with him was something I did not have the luxury to do at the moment. I was trying to keep a life afloat. I thought about the money in my bag. If I was smart about it, we could get two to three months out of it. That needed to be enough time for me to find a job. That was the plan.
Was it the right plan?
It was the plan that I had made so it had to be the plan that worked out. We were pretty much out of options. Hopefully trusting myself in this instance did not go wrong.
The train finally drew to a stop. I waited for the bulk of the passengers to leave before I exited onto the platform.
“Mummy!” I heard. I braced myself for the excited four-year-old launching himself at me. I caught him and spun him around, cuddling him to my chest. My little boy. I kissed his cheeks and head. It had only been a short while that we had been separated but it was always too long when I couldn’t see his perfect little face. Riley was my world. The money in my bag was for him.
“I’ve missed you, sweetie,” I said to him. Prue smiled walking up to us. “Prue, how are you?” I asked.
“Very well, madam. Riley’s been excited to see you. He was asking to come to the train station since this morning.”
“I hope he behaved himself,” I said, looking at my son. “Were you a good boy for Ms. Prue?” I asked him. He nodded his head, making his mop of ginger curls flop over his eyes.