Page 120 of The Trouble with Tigers
“They said as they wanted to keep the horses quiet ’til they got a ways down the lane. Didn’t want to disturb anyone’s sleep at the main house. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Did I do wrong?” George asked for the second time.
Caden opened his mouth to speak, but Zeke beat him to it. “You did fine, George. Just fine. Now kindly saddle my mount. I’m leaving in ten.”
“We’re leaving in ten,” Caden corrected.
“Not a good idea,” Zeke tossed over his shoulder, already striding for the manse.
“Why is that?” Caden demanded, dogging his heels.
Zeke took the servant’s entrance, judging it the quickest route to his private chamber. Bloody inconvenient to bother with a change of clothes, but he could hardly drive his mount like the devil in his current state of dress. More importantly, he needed his pistol.
“Damn it, Zeke, I asked you a question.” Caden grabbed his shoulder.
Zeke shrugged him off, waiting ’til they’d cleared the kitchens to reply. “Because I wouldn’t want you dragged into a murder investigation.”
Rather than having the intended effect of shaking the two men loose, they stuck to Zeke like glue as he navigated the twists and turns of corridors leading to his suite.
He rounded the corridor leading to his chambers and found his grandfather standing sentinel outside his chamber door. Evidently he had to suffer through a damned family reunion before he could depart Chissington Hall. Bloody damned hell, couldn’t anyone see he was in a hurry?
“I take it you’ve heard the news?” Zeke reached past the old man to shove open the door. He sidled through the narrow space between his grandfather and the doorjamb. He’d made it half way through his antechamber, when Claybourne’s words froze him in his tracks.
“Zeke, I think you should read this.”
He turned. Took in the folded sheet of parchment clutched in the earl’s fist. “Did she leave me a note?”
The earl extended the letter toward Zeke.
He took the paper, and unfolded it. He scanned to the bottom and saw Kitty’s signature. He slid his grandfather a look. “I don’t understand why it was delivered to you, and not me.” He sounded petulant to his own ears.
His grandfather cleared his throat. “I am sorry, son. I found it on my desk.”
Zeke heard the words, but they didn’t sink in fully. Not 'til he read Kitty’s neatly penned note in its entirety. He fought the base urge to crumple the letter in his fist and grind his teeth 'til they cracked. Instead, he refolded the sheet with care, and handed it back to his grandfather.
The letter trembled in his hand, damn his eyes.
Caden’s voice sliced the tension-filled air. “What does it say?”
The earl answered. “It’s from Kitty. An apology and a goodbye. She says she and her brother thought it best to leave quietly, without upsetting the household.”
Zeke barked out a humorless laugh.
The earl went on. “Apparently, as Kitty’s legal guardian, her brother deemed the marriage contract agreed upon and signed by James, Ezekiel, and I, null and void.”
Zeke wanted to toss the lot of them from the room. He wanted to throw something. Break something. He wanted a drink.
Randall came toward Zeke and laid his hand on his shoulder.
The pity in his friend’s eyes whipped at the impotent rage boiling inside him. For a moment, he couldn’t speak.
Finally, he drew in a long breath and forced out the words, “Never fear, Randall, I got an honorable mention in Lady Kitty’s letter to Claybourne.” He cocked his head and recited from memory, “Please thank Lord Thurgood for all he’s done for me, and tell him I wish him Godspeed on his forthcoming venture abroad. Collin and I will, of course, handle the engagement retraction with the utmost discretion, in the most expedient manner possible. Blah, blah, blah.” A joker’s smile split his face.
“A damned honorable mention,” Caden hissed, shaking his head.
The earl frowned. “Don’t leap to conclusions. We don’t know the circumstances she may have faced while writing her-her—”
“Her crying off letter?” Zeke still wore a broad, gruesome smile. He couldn’t seem to wipe it from his face.
The earl waved the damned letter in the air. “You’re all missing the point. I, for one, am not willing to assume she left on her own recognizance, not after everything she went through to be rid of James.”
