Page 11 of Trapped with the Vicious Highlander
The crashing noise she had heard, where had they come from? She hurried out of the cottage and towards the watering hole. The noise had come from there, she was sure of it.
Her feet barely touched the ground as she ran, her heart palpitating in rhythm with her footsteps. Soon, she got to the watering hole and was grateful to find Henrietta right where she had left her before heading to the kitchen. That was the good news. The bad news, on the other hand, was that Henrietta was surrounded by broken pots.
The source of the noise.
“Ava—”
“Henrietta!” Ava exclaimed, examining every inch of Henrietta’s face.
“I wanted to warn you, but I couldn’t. He was here, and he was rather demanding. He asked to know who was in charge of the orphanage, and when I wouldn’t tell him on time, he started to break the pots.”
Ava nodded. “It is quite all right, Henrietta. Did he—did he hurt you in any way?”
Henrietta shook her head. “He didn’t even touch me. When he left just now, he apologized for breaking the pots. He then mentioned that he would be here tomorrow to pay for them. Will he be here tomorrow?”
Ava swallowed. She was still wrestling with the possibility as well. As much as a large part of her wanted to shelve all of this up to uncertainty, she knew he would be back. And she knew he would be around to take his daughter. To take Margaret.
“Are you certain that he didn’t touch you? You can tell me if he did.”
“No,” Henrietta whispered. “And he was quite the gentleman on his way out, if I might add. He expressed that he did not intend to break the pots, and I could see the regret in his piercing eyes.”
Ava tilted her head, but Henrietta continued, the mild worry on her face now transforming into a knowing smile.
“Who could stay angry for long at those piercing eyes, though? And that physique.”
Ava nodded, returning her smile. Now she knew for certain that Brodrick had done nothing to Henrietta except verbally threaten her.
“So you are alright?” she asked one more time, just out of courtesy.
Henrietta nodded, and so Ava turned around and made her way back to the cottage.
She had seen what she needed to see, and now was the time she needed to take the next step—if she knew what it was.
“Where are you going?” she could hear Henrietta call behind her.
“To have a rather difficult conversation with Margaret,” she called back, hurrying to the cottage without a backward glance.
CHAPTER5
Ava wasn’t particularlyintent on ruining Margaret’s day by delivering two pieces of bad news at once. The fact that she had to witness the encounter for the first time in the kitchen anyway did not sit well with her.
She stopped at Margaret’s door and waited for a while, contemplating knocking and walking in.
When Margaret was first brought in, Ava had ordered that she be put in the same room as the other girls her age. Ava had presumed that the little girl getting exposed to other girls her age would bring back her confidence and possibly her voice.
She had been wrong. She had noticed immediately within a week that sharing a room with other girls was doing way more harm than good to Margaret. So, she did the next best thing and asked that Margaret be put in a separate room on her own. And ever since, Margaret’s recovery had progressed rapidly.
After all, she did speak today, so it was working.
Ava reached for the door and lifted her hand, ready to knock. Thoughts continued to run through her head.
What if Brodrick’s appearance only managed to disrupt the girl’s recovery? What if the things she had witnessed today would stop her from speaking at all, possibly forever?
The options—no, the illusion of her having options rather swirled around in her head as she shuffled her feet before Margaret’s door.
But at the same time, Margaret had spoken right in the heat of the argument. What had pushed her? Was it pressure? Was it the severity of the situation?
Ava slowly withdrew her hand and lowered it to her side. If she was going to do this, perhaps the best way to do it would be to?—
