Chapter 13 #2
They traveled all morning and as they grew closer to their destination, the road began to narrow, the hedges growing taller, the trees older, the lie of the land achingly familiar.
Evan’s gaze flicked from field to field, taking in what had changed and what hadn’t.
A stone wall rebuilt where it had once collapsed.
A stand of trees cut back. The old oak still standing, stubborn as ever, its branches reaching wide.
Then finally, the estate’s gate came into view. He drew the horse to a halt a good distance away and stared at it. Once, it had marked the boundary of his world. Now it just looked small.
“This is far enough,” he said.
She glanced over her shoulder, brows knitting. “Far enough for what?”
“For me.”
“What do you mean? Aren’t you coming with me?”
“I canna.”
“Why not?” she demanded.
But he only shook his head. “This is as close as I go.”
She stared at him, color rising in her cheeks. “But...but you can’t just leave me at the gate like some parcel!”
“I said I’d get ye here,” he replied, his voice harsher than intended. “And I have. That’s as far as our bargain goes.”
“Bargain?” she replied, her eyes wide. “Is that all this is to you? I thought...I thought...”
“Ruby?”
They both looked up at the sudden startled shout. Evan saw a woman hurrying through the gate, skirts swirling around her ankles, red hair catching the light. She was flushed and breathless, wide eyes fixed on Ruby.
“Oh my God! Is that really you?”
Ruby’s jaw dropped. “Charlie!”
She scrambled out of the saddle—nearly knocking Evan flying—and pelted up the road, flinging herself into the woman’s arms with a laugh that sounded like relief and joy and something close to tears. The two of them clung together, talking over one another, words tumbling out in a rush.
Evan dismounted and stood watching. Ruby glanced back at him, her face alight, and for a heartbeat he saw himself reflected in her smile—saw what he might have been, what they might have been in another life.
He gave her a nod and she turned back to her cousin, a stream of excited chatter passing between the two women. For the moment, he was forgotten.
Evan seized his opportunity. Turning away, he slipped into the trees that bordered the road, and was gone.
RUBY BARELY FELT HER feet touch the ground as she clung to Charlie.
Her cousin was real. Solid. Warm. Not a ghost conjured by longing or exhaustion. Charlie smelled of wool and lavender and something familiar that cracked Ruby’s chest wide open.
“You’re here,” Charlie kept saying. “You’re actually here. But Ruby, how are you here?”
Ruby laughed, a breathless, almost hysterical sound. “That is a long story! I’m not sure myself. I keep thinking I’m dreaming and I’ll wake up any second.”
Charlie cupped Ruby’s face with her hands, turning it from side to side as though checking for injury. “You look thinner. And tired. What the bloody hell is going on?”
“Like I said, long story.”
“Then start telling it. Right now. Before I convince myself I’ve finally lost my mind!”
Ruby opened her mouth and everything came pouring out, disordered and breathless.
She didn’t mention Daniel but told Charlie how Irene had appeared after she did the ritual.
How the journey had gone wrong and Ruby had landed on a cold, wind-scoured island instead of in Edinburgh.
How she’d nearly drowned in trouble before she’d even worked out where—or when—she was.
Charlie’s hand tightened around hers as Ruby spoke, her expression shifting from disbelief to awe to downright bafflement.
“So here I am,” Ruby finished with a shrug. “I found you. I finally found you.”
Charlie stared at her. “Ruby,” she said slowly, shaking her head, “people don’t just cross half the country like that. Not in this time. Not alone.”
“But I wasn’t alone. Evan helped me. Evan Campbell. I couldn’t have done it without him. I’d like you to meet—”
She turned around, eager to introduce Evan to Charlie, but she found that Evan had disappeared. Her smile slid from her face. She scanned the tree line, the road, the rise of ground behind them. The horse stood placidly, reins loose, as if nothing at all were amiss.
“Evan?” she called, a note of panic in her voice.
She took a step, then another, then she was running, skirts swirling as she plunged into the trees.
“Evan!”
The woods swallowed her voice. Branches snagged at her sleeves. Leaves crunched underfoot. She spun in a frantic circle, searching for any sign of him. But there was nothing. No retreating footfalls. No shape slipping between the trunks.
Just... absence.
Her chest constricted painfully. “No,” she whispered. Then louder, “No, you can’t! Evan!”
She halted, hands braced on her knees, vision blurring. She’d thought—stupidly—that once she found Charlie, everything would be fine. That the world would settle back into place the way it always had before. But it hadn’t.
Tears stung her eyes, hot and furious. She scrubbed at them with the heel of her hand, angry at herself, angry at him. How could he just leave? Without giving her the chance to tell him—
Tell him what, Ruby?
She straightened slowly. She looked around again, half expecting him to appear from the trees, that cocky smile on his face that said this was all some big joke.
He didn’t. This had always been the deal, hadn’t it?
Getting her to her cousin was all that he’d agreed to.
It had been a transaction, nothing more.
And now that transaction was completed. So why did this hurt so much?
With a hollow feeling in her stomach, she slowly retraced her steps to the road. Charlie was holding the horse’s reins, concern etched onto her features.
“Come up to the house,” she said as Ruby reached her. “You can tell me everything—properly—once you’ve rested and gotten warm.”
Ruby hesitated, looking once more toward the trees. Then she nodded wordlessly.
Charlie walked beside her leading the horse, hand light on Ruby’s arm, as if ready to steady her if she faltered. They walked up the road toward the large house in the distance.
Ruby’s gaze kept sliding to the trees, the road behind, hoping to see Evan striding after them. But he didn’t appear. The space he’d left felt enormous.
“You’re shaking,” Charlie said quietly, her hand gripping Ruby’s arm.
Ruby blinked, startled to realize it was true. “Am I?” She tried to smile but it felt brittle. “I think it’s just... everything catching up with me.”
Charlie didn’t look entirely convinced, but she nodded and slowed their pace, matching Ruby’s steps. “You’re safe here. You know that, don’t you?”
Safe. The word sounded odd. Ruby had felt safe on the road too—safer than she had any right to—because Evan had been there. Watching. Guarding.
“I know,” she said, because Charlie needed her to.
The house came into full view, a solid stone manor set back from the road, smoke curling from the chimneys. It looked lived-in. Loved. The sight of it loosened something in Ruby’s chest. Charlie’s home. It felt strange to finally see it.
Charlie led them into the courtyard at the back where a groom hurried to take the horse.
“Charlotte!”
Ruby turned to see a man striding towards them from the direction of the house. He was tall, sandy-haired, and moved with an easy grace. He stopped in front of them.
“Charlotte?” His gaze fixed on Ruby, sharp and assessing. “Who—?”
“Niall,” Charlie said, giving him a smile that was warm and unmistakably affectionate. “This is my cousin. Ruby.”
Niall blinked in surprise. “Yer cousin—?”
Ruby managed a smile and gave a small wave. “Surprise!”
For a heartbeat, Niall stared at her. Then he let out a short, incredulous laugh.
“Bloody hell. Ruby! It is ye! I recognize ye from the photographs Charlotte brought back with her. Ye are very welcome here, of course. But I have to ask—how in God’s name did ye get here?”
The question was reasonable. Fair. But Ruby suddenly felt crushingly tired.
Charlie came to her rescue. “A man brought her. I saw him at the gate,” she said, giving her husband a pointed look. “But he left.”
Niall raised an eyebrow. “Man? What man?”
“His name was Evan,” Charlie said, eyes fixed on her husband. “Evan Campbell.”
Ruby didn’t miss the slight stress Charlie put on the surname. Neither did Niall. He went very still.
“Evan?” he whispered. “After all this time?”
He turned his head, green eyes scanning the road behind them, and the trees to either side, searching. And suddenly, he reminded her of Evan so strongly that she gasped.
“Wait,” she said. “Evan said he had family in Edinburgh. You’re not...but he said...you can’t be...”
Niall let out a slow breath. When he spoke again, there was something raw in his voice. “I’m his brother. And I have to find him.”