Page 63 of The Secret of the Three Fates
I had known Mr. Owen for several years, and yet that entire relationship had been built upon a foundation of lies. What did one do when confronted with an unpleasant truth? How did one even know whatwasthe truth? I desperately needed a drink, but couldn’t risk further clouding my thoughts. Besides, even if I allowed the most improbable of options—that Mr. Owen killed Mariah and Lucy—he most certainly did not shoot me and the odds of there beingtwokillers on one rural Scottish estate beggared belief.
No. Mr. Owen was innocent. He had to be.
The fire crackled low in the hearth and I toyed with the idea of tossing a new log onto the dying flames, or letting it fade to embers and seeking my own bed for the night. Everyone else, with the exception of myself and the angry ghosts of Manhurst, had long done the same.
There is nowhere on earth you can hide from the dead. The dead know… they know… they always know what you’ve done.
What precisely do the dead know—and why wouldn’t they just say the thing plainly?
I pulled the ring from my pocket and turned it over in the firelight, leaning closer to get a better look.
The door creaked open and I turned to the sound, slipping the ring on my little finger.
Mr. Sharpe—Elijah—whoever he was, walked in, closing and locking the door behind him. A frisson of fear climbed up my spine at the sound.
Helockedthe door.
“Oh, Ruby… what am I to do with you?” He tapped an envelope against his palm.
I stood at once, heart hammering in my chest, and backed upfrom the chair until I was pressed against the bookshelf. “Elijah?” I tried cautiously.
He sniffed and nodded, again tapping the envelope in his hand. “You’ve grown up.”
Was that all he had to say? No apologies, no indication for why he’d locked me into this room with no way to escape. “What do you want?”
He raked a hand through his hair and shook his head, his expression bleak—broken—I might have pitied him were he not keeping me from leaving. “The same as you, I suspect. To hide. To start over. A little of both. I never anticipated running into anyone from New York all the way up here. I never did hear what happened to you after…”
“After your best friend destroyed my reputation?” I arched a brow, feeling suddenly emboldened despite the fact the only thing I had to protect myself were books.
He wet his lips and nodded again. “I regret that. I know it was not my doing, but I wish to apologize for my role in what happened to you… I should have seen him for what he was. Should have stopped him.”
Now this was unexpected. I opened my mouth to speak but snapped it shut again. I did not trust this sudden honesty. I glanced back from the locked door to the envelope in his hand. I knew this man once. He’d worn that same weary trepidation on his face in New York—back when Christopher would suggest some mad scheme and Elijah would play the voice of caution. I was too young then to realize that I was being manipulated. The idealistic young pawn in a rich man’s game.
I could only imagine the mutinous expression on my face, because he raised his hands in silent surrender. “Christopher mistreated both of us. It was a surprise to see you… to have you recognize me after all these years. I ought to have confronted you at once—told you the truth and not risked you learning onyour own. If I could do it again I would—but I was startled to learn you were alive and here. I thought if I stayed away from you, then perhaps you would never need to know who I truly was.”
My eyebrows raised at his audacity. “Mistreated us both? I was sixteen, Elijah. Achild. You were a grown man—you both were!”
Elijah sank down into the chair before me with a sigh. “I did not know the truth about him either. He fooled us all. If I had known that he was married… I would have spoken to your father—told him of my suspicions before any harm befell you.”
“And yet you continued on in business with him long after I was sent away. Why was that?”
He cast his eyes to the carpet and shook his head. “Because I was afraid. I saw how easily he walked away from what he did to you. How he manipulated the papers, turned the public eye to see him as the victim and transform a mere girl into a temptress for all the world. I was horrified how quickly he could change the story to suit him.”
“Evidently not horrified enough to cut ties.”
He winced. “I am ashamed of how I behaved, and my shame is no excuse but it is at least an answer. I do not expect forgiveness, nor do I deserve it. I only want you to know that I did not see the monster within the man was until it was too late.”
Nor I.“How can I believe you?”
“It does not matter—it is the truth. Christopher ruined me as well as you. Even had I tried to disavow him earlier, our financial futures were entwined. I could not have escaped him without ruining myself in the process. There is a reason, Ruby, that I am here in Scotland and not still in New York. My debts—the men that he’d defrauded. He used the same methods on me that he used on you, for I was the one who took all the blame for his fraudulent schemes. I too left America under a cloud of shame. I have noteven spoken to my own mother since that day in 1917. My entire life, my businesses that I’d built—all sand beneath his schemes. And yet he walked away without a scratch. Yes, I do regret not knowing the depths of his villainyfarsooner. It would have saved both of us a great deal of heartache.”
“I am sorry for it.”
“It is done. I cannot change what happened, and I do not want your pity.”
“I don’t intend to give it.”
He let out a strangled laugh and ran a shaking hand over his jaw.
