Chapter 18
T he house was still, as if it and the people within were softly breathing and sleeping in unison.
Releasing a satisfied sigh, Edward, already up for an hour, made his way to the drawing room.
When he opened the door, briefly hesitating at the thought of what he would find, he was surprised and relieved to see everything was in order, the blazing crackling fire sufficiently masking any remnants of the stale stench of alcohol.
Mrs Wilson must have arrived at the crack of dawn to clear up the mess from the previous evening’s festivities, which Edward imagined had gone long into the early hours of the morning.
He surveyed for any damage but found none, and within seconds, Mrs Wilson appeared with a tray of freshly made coffee, which Edward welcomed with a smile.
“You really are a godsend, Mrs Wilson. I’m not sure what any of us would do without you.”
Mrs Wilson chuckled as she sat the tray down on the small mahogany side table beside Edward’s chair facing the fireplace. “You’d most likely all starve and be drinking instant coffee, for starters.”
Edward smiled and nodded. “You’re probably not wrong.”
“Was a good night had by all?” Mrs Wilson placed another log on the fire. “I imagine they’ll all be sleeping in past noon today if the empty bottles this morning were anything to go by.”
“Couldn’t tell you. I didn’t join them.” Edward poured himself some coffee into his china cup, plopping in a singular sugar cube. The cup was part of an antique Satsuma-ware collection his mother had acquired from Japan– no doubt through one of her overpriced art dealers in Asia.
There were several items such as these scattered around the house; in fact, she’d left all her collections behind when she headed back to Louisiana, not wanting to be reminded of anything to do with her life with George, Edward and Leonard’s father.
This hadn’t bothered Edward that much, and although not overly pretentious or fussy when it came to designers and labels, he admitted to enjoying drinking his morning coffee from this particular set.
“I’ve left the morning papers by your chair. Would you like some breakfast this morning?”
“Just a couple of boiled eggs in an hour, and just one slice…” Edward paused as the door opened and a damp-haired, fresh-faced Scarlett appeared, slightly breathless.
“Good morning– so sorry to interrupt,” she said, her voice raspy.
“Good morning, Scarlett.” Edward returned his focus to Mrs Wilson, who surveyed Scarlett with a questioning look. “Just one slice of toast, please.”
Looking back at Scarlett, he softened. “You have wet hair; come sit by the fire,” he said.
Scarlett visibly hesitated, avoiding eye contact with Mrs Wilson, who Edward knew would disapprove of both her haphazard entrance and sitting down with the laird of Haddon House whilst he was taking his morning coffee, especially looking the way she did.
“Scarlett, sit down,” Edward repeated. “Please?”
Mrs Wilson nodded at them both and quietly left the room.
“You’ll get ill if you don’t dry off.”
Scarlett sat down in the chair in front of the fire and observed the china cup. “That’s beautiful.”
“Thank you. Here, let me pour you a cup. That one has sugar in it.” He took an identical-looking cup from the dresser and began pouring coffee from the pot.
“How do you know I don’t take sugar?” Scarlett asked.
“I don’t– do you?” His hand hovered over her cup.
“No.” Scarlett smiled at him, her eyes sparkling, and in that moment, he felt as if he might melt.
With a mental shake, he handed her the steaming cup and sat down in the chair opposite her, nursing his own cup of coffee.
“Thank you,” she said, taking a careful sip. “So, I’ve been thinking about the wedding, and I have so many ideas, but—”
“What are you doing later?” he interrupted.
“Pardon?”
“Later today, do you have any plans?” he asked, his face neutral.
“Err, nothing set in stone, but to be honest, I really wanted to talk through some ideas I’ve had and—”
“That’s all fine. We can do that.” Edward hadn’t taken his eyes off her and he could see it was putting Scarlett on edge, so he looked away. “I have a few errands to run in Edinburgh. You could come along, and we can talk over whatever you need.”
“Edinburgh? Right, okay– I mean, I can’t see why not, I guess.” He watched her again as several emotions crossed her face all at once.
“Good, that’s settled then. It’s a couple of hours’ drive. Will that be enough time to talk through your plans?”
“Yes, more than enough.” It was Scarlett’s turn to look at him, and it made him feel like she was trying to search into his soul, dark and twisted as it was. “What’s in Edinburgh?”
A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “Lots of things, really.”
“You know what I mean. What do you need to do there?” Scarlett relaxed into the chair, taking another sip of her coffee.
Her mouth distracted him, and it took a long moment for him to answer. “We have property there. The tenant has just left, and I need to check it over. Also, my solicitor is close by, and I need to drop some papers off to him.”
“He works on a Sunday?”
“Isn’t that what you’re doing?” He smiled at her.
“Well, I suppose– although it doesn’t feel like work, and besides, we’re on a short deadline with the wedding coming up so soon.” Scarlett shrugged.
“It doesn’t feel like work?” Edward watched intently as Scarlett squirmed at his question.
“It’s just not a nine-to-five kind of situation, is it?”
He remained silent for a long moment, still looking at her. “It’s difficult to put a description to the situation, to be honest.”
Scarlett cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”
Edward rubbed his face with one hand. Even he wasn’t really sure what he meant. Or what, for that matter, he was doing, inviting her along to Edinburgh with him. All he knew was he wanted to have her close to him, to know her, and to hell with the consequences.
“Finish your coffee and be ready in half an hour– and make sure you bring a coat. It’s cold and wet out.” Edward stood, nodded, and left the room without another word.
Within the hour, they were on the A9 heading towards Perth, and the passing forest, its trees ablaze with shades of orange and red, clearly captivated Scarlett. He always enjoyed this time of year for that precise reason, and it filled him with a sense of pride to see Scarlett enjoying it.
“It’s all so beautiful,” she finally said after several minutes of neither of them saying anything.
“Yes, it’s pretty stunning. Although this is unusual– the leaves don’t usually hang on for this long. But it’s been quite mild, and we’ve had no storms yet.” He glanced across at her to see a sad smile on her lips as she absentmindedly twirled her rings around her finger. “Do you miss home?”
Scarlett shook her head. “No, not really.”
“Do you miss him?” He cringed inwardly at his forwardness.
Scarlett snapped her head from the view to look at him. “Who? My ex?”
Edward nodded.
“God, no. I mean, not him as he is now.” She shook her head. “I don’t think I really knew him, to be honest.”
The two sat in silence for a moment before Scarlett spoke again. “I think I was missing what I thought it all stood for, but not him. Or more that I was missing me– if that makes any sense.”
Edward nodded. “It does.”
“It just doesn’t feel very good being made a fool of, you know?” There was a slight quiver in her voice.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” He offered her a smile as an apology.
Scarlett looked across at him. “Didn’t you?”
Edward didn’t look at her but could still feel her smile. “Yeah, alright, I was being a right nosy bastard.”
They both laughed.
“He sounds like a bit of a prick, to be honest.”
Scarlett nodded. “A massive one.”
“Talking about pricks, I know you want to talk about the wedding, but do you think we could have one day where I don’t have to think or talk about my brother’s upcoming nuptials?”
“I thought that’s why you wanted me to come along– to kill two birds with one stone?”
Edward remained quiet.
“Not that I mind the drive,” Scarlett continued. “It’s nice to get off the estate. It feels surreal coming back into the real world.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m the same now that Lily is driving. Weeks sometimes pass without me venturing anywhere else.”
“It’s like its own little micro-universe. There’s something magical about that, though, isn’t there?”
Edward smiled. He liked that she felt that way because it was exactly how he felt about his home and land. “Aye, I’d agree with that. But it’s also good to get out, stretch our wings a bit.”
Scarlett went back to looking out the window and within minutes, she fell asleep.
Edward struggled to keep his eyes on the road for the rest of the journey and it wasn’t until they arrived in Edinburgh that Scarlett woke up.
Sleepy and dazed, her eyes widened at the scenery.
Edward wasn’t immune to the visual charms of this part of Edinburgh, nor it would seem were the tourists that saturated the streets and paths, angling their phones for the perfect selfie.
“What is this place?” Scarlett asked, craning her neck to see the medieval buildings surrounding them.
“Dean Village. Do you like it?”
Scarlett’s wide-eyed expression made him laugh.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Edward signalled the car right, driving slowly into a small tunnel where discreet gates opened to unveil a small courtyard big enough for two or three cars.
He pulled up and parked outside a tall and impressive stone house, designed in the same vein as the buildings Scarlett had just been gawking at.
“This is one of our Edinburgh residences. I’ve got one in the centre I use for business now, and there’s a house in the West End that we rent out.
We only let this one out to known acquaintances these days, but my dad used to pawn it out to visiting dignitaries, all part of the boys’ club.
” Edward rolled his eyes. “Not really my scene, to be honest.”
Scarlett was still sitting in silent awe.
“Come on, let’s see what state they’ve left the place in.”
“Okay,” Scarlett managed as a response, and he smiled, still not immune to the aesthetics of the place either.
Edward unlocked the door and allowed Scarlett to pass, and she marvelled at the high cornice ceilings and luxurious furnishings and made a beeline for the wide floor-to-ceiling windows looking over the water.
“It’s called the Water of Leith,” Edward told her, standing behind her, close enough to smell her hair.
“It’s breathtakingly beautiful.”
Edward murmured an “aye” in response, too distracted by her close proximity to form a proper sentence.
He didn’t know what he was expecting. He had very little self-control, even in a busy household, when it came to Scarlett, let alone in this kind of intimate setting.
Something shifted in Scarlett, too. Her shoulders tensed, then slowly relaxed, and she turned to look up at him.
“Edward, why did you bring me here?” Her eyes were full of questions. Questions he didn’t know the answers to.
He sighed and shrugged. “Honestly, I hadn’t actually thought any of this through.
I just wanted to spend time with you. I didn’t think about how it would pan out when we actually got here.
I mean, I genuinely need to check all is in order.
” He looked around as if to make a point.
“And I also have to hand Gerard the papers I have in the car, but…” His voice trailed off.
“But what?”
“But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I think about you a lot and now that we’re here…” He was struggling to find the words to explain any more than that.
Scarlett looked at him, her head slightly cocked, as if trying to see through his words and intentions.
“What do you think about?” There was an undeniable sparkle of mischief in her eyes as she continued to look up at him.
Edward’s eyes raised to the ceiling as he tried to gather some sense and strength. “You know very well what I think about.”
“No, I don’t. Tell me,” Scarlett insisted.
“Christ.” Edward groaned and closed his eyes.
Maybe if he willed it, this would all stop, and he wouldn’t do what every cell in his body was aching to do.
His eyes sprung open when he felt Scarlett’s hands take hold of his.