Chapter 21
Niamh
By the following evening, I decide that I’ve done a reasonable enough job for my first day as cook.
I’ve just finished wiping down the surfaces when I see Matt passing the window.
It’s been another beautiful day and the evening is still warm.
If I needed proof that this place is an alternative version of the Highlands, it’s the weather. I dry my hands, and head for the jetty.
Matt has already reached the end of it. I’m thankful I’m behind him when he bends down and strips his robe off over his head, then dives into the water. I pause, feeling like a peeping Tom, watching him when he’s naked, but he’s in a public place. It’s hardly my fault.
I’ve reached the end of the jetty before he surfaces, and I’m impressed with how long he can hold his breath. He turns, noticing me, and swims back. I focus on keeping my eyes on his face as he approaches.
‘You coming in?’ he asks.
‘Isn’t it cold?’
‘Refreshing.’ He grins. ‘Absolutely Baltic. I’m freezing my balls off in here. But it’s good. I like to swim.’
‘I don’t have a swimsuit.’
‘Neither do I,’ he says, laughing and pushing himself off the dock to float on his back.
I roll my eyes, then look away, but can’t help the way my cheeks heat.
Thankfully it’s not long before he rolls over and swims off again.
I lose sight of him, then suddenly he’s shooting up, out of the water at the side of the jetty, soaking my robes.
‘Matt,’ I chide, but I’m not overly bothered.
My robes are hot, the cool water a welcome respite.
I’m tempted to join him, but I compromise by sitting down on the edge of the jetty, pulling my robe up to my knees and dangling my feet in the water.
I yelp at the first contact, but manage to keep them submerged the second time and lean back on my elbows, as the orange hue in the sky grows more pronounced.
‘You make that look easy,’ I say when he returns to the jetty and pushes himself out of the water. Although it’s not really a push, it’s almost as if he’s catapulted straight out of the water, to land on his feet on the wooden planks.
‘It’s just practice,’ he says, but there’s something about the way he says it that makes me suspect it’s not strictly true. I frown, turning to look at him, then immediately look back out over the loch.
‘Robe,’ I instruct, shutting my eyes.
‘Sorry,’ he says, and I open them again to see him wrapping it around his waist and sitting.
‘I was hoping we could talk.’
‘Okay… What about?’ he asks, picking up a small stone from the planks and throwing it into the water. We both watch as the ripples circle out from where it lands. ‘As long as I’m not going to end up with the Hunters after me.’
‘Just for talking to me?’
‘Have you met Cillian?’ He rolls his eyes and I laugh, then see him narrow his eyes. ‘Are you two—?’
‘No!’
He lifts an eyebrow. ‘I know he’s obsessed with you. I also know you slept in his room the first night you met him. He doesn’t just let anyone sleep there. In fact, as I remember, Vittoria never slept over.’
I go still with this information, unsure how to process it. ‘Did Rose ever know about that? Me sleeping in his room.’
‘Not sure, but I wasn’t going to start mouthing off about what I saw Cillian Hunter doing in his own house. Especially given why I was there.’
‘He didn’t approve of the two of you?’
Matt pauses for a moment, then shrugs. ‘He didn’t love it … but he didn’t kill me either. And he could have done. Court-sanctioned removal of the dangerous guy who’s fucking his little sister. Every protective big brother’s dream.’
‘Court sanctioned?’
‘Cillian was sent to hunt me by the Court, instead he let me come here. He must care for you, too, to not kill you after killing Kin. Or was he actually outrun by a human?’
‘I’m not sure. There was…’ I stop, deciding it’s probably best not to share any more information than I have to. Cillian was pretty set on hunting me through the forest, and it didn’t feel as though he’d let me go by choice.
Matt nods, hesitates, then says, ‘Has Rose … has she met someone?’
I’m not entirely sure what answer he wants, but the last thing I want to do is hurt him with the whole unvarnished truth. ‘No one special, not yet.’
He nods again, and I can’t work out if he’s pleased or upset by this news.
‘She graduated, though?’
‘Yes. Cillian blackmailed her into studying by—’ Nope, not something Matt needs to know. ‘So, you knew about all of this – the Underworld, the Kinfolk, everything.’
‘Niamh, I’m one of them.’ Matt stares at me. ‘Even after all these years, you didn’t know?’
‘Over the past couple of days, I seem to have discovered that I do not, in fact, know anything at all.’ I shrug.
‘You’ll get used to it. Although they make most humans forget,’ he says, shooting me a sidelong look. ‘So … back to you in Cillian’s bed.’
‘There was nowhere else to sleep.’
‘Uh-huh. There were plenty of people on the sofas and curled up on the floor in both the lounge and the drawing room.’
My cheeks heat. ‘Nowhere else that Cillian approved of. There were a lot of couples … doing couple stuff – including you and Rose, apparently.’
Matt grins at me.
‘Cillian said he had work to do, so I slept in his bed, while he … worked.’
‘Right.’ Matt’s lips twitch and he breaks out into a peal of laughter that I can’t help joining in with.
‘I guess I was a little na?ve and trusting.’ I sigh. ‘But nothing happened. Well, nothing much.’
‘Nothing much?’
I shake my head but can’t stop my cheeks from heating.
‘And, since then?’
‘Nothing important,’ I assure him.
He makes a face at me, shaking his head. ‘Cillian Hunter, eh? There’s much more to you than meets the eye. Nothing like setting your sights high.’
‘Matt, he’s marrying Vittoria Riali. Their engagement dinner was what started all this—’ Then I remember that what’s keeping me safe here is that all the men think I belong to Cillian. And I guess that all of them are assuming in what way I belong to Cillian. ‘He was supposed to kill me.’
‘That’s kind of his job, Niamh. But sometimes, he makes good choices, so I suppose there’s hope for him. And he’s put off marrying Vittoria for all this time.’
I can’t think about what-ifs. I’ve been told several times that Cillian needs to marry Vittoria to achieve his goals. That doesn’t leave any place in his life for me. I refuse to be someone’s dirty secret. I have too much self-respect for that.
‘Anyway, you’re supposed to be dead,’ I say, changing the subject.
‘I may as well be.’
‘That’s … that’s not true. If Rose knew you were alive she might not—’
‘No, Rose shouldn’t waste her life on me. I’m never getting out of here. She deserves more than I can offer her.’
‘Matt,’ I reach for him and squeeze his arm gently. I think of how much Rose has changed since he disappeared. And it worries me. Her behaviour, her attitude to me, to relationships. She needs him.
He sighs and looks away.
‘I was accused of a murder I didn’t commit,’ he mutters.
I nod. ‘I know. Vittoria’s brother. Chris Riali.’
‘How do you—’ He pauses. ‘Did Cillian tell you?’
‘No. Declan,’ I tell him. ‘But if you’re innocent, can’t you just go to this Court everyone keeps talking about?’
‘Well, I could. But Chris’s dad controls the Court, and I’m not willing to bet my life on me getting a fair trial. St Marnox is the only option – unless things change. And now you’re stuck here, too.’
‘Seems like it,’ I say vaguely, knowing that I’m going to do everything I possibly can to get out of here. ‘But if you didn’t kill him. Tell me what happened.’
He sighs. ‘Chris had been acting strangely for, I don’t know, a week or two, maybe. He’d had problems with drugs and alcohol—’
I recall the first time I met him at Cillian’s house. He seemed a little off the rails then. ‘Yeah, that was obvious.’
‘But when he died, his father, Vincenzo … he made Chris out to be some saint.’
‘I suppose I can understand that.’
‘It was me who found Chris … that night. He’d been drinking, heavily.
Cut his wrists in the bath, bled out. I tried to save him.
I really did.’ Matt stops, takes a breath.
‘I called for help, called his family. But when they arrived … they just decided I’d killed him.
I was covered in his blood, after all. Vincenzo wanted to avoid the shame of his son dying by suicide. So, he blamed me.’
‘Wow. That’s so twisted,’ I say, though not shocked. And Cillian agreed with the Rialis? He … hunted you down?’
‘He didn’t have a choice, Niamh. He hunted me, he even caught me and could have killed me on the spot … but he didn’t. He gave me the chance to reach here instead. Because he didn’t believe Vincenzo either. But it’s been years, and this life… It’s barely worth living.’
‘But at least you’re alive,’ I say.
‘I have to live every day without Rose. Not able to see her, talk to her. Cillian tells me a little when he’s here—’
‘Cillian comes here?’
‘Yes, anyone can go to the human side of St Marnox. But only the Hunters can enter into the monastery in the Underworld. It’s what makes this a sanctuary.’
‘So, Rose could come here, too?’
‘I … I suppose she could.’
I feel conflicted, not knowing if Cillian knows I’m here and what that could mean for me.
‘So, how often does he come?’ I ask.
‘Rarely,’ Matt says, then is quiet for a moment. ‘You know, while I’ve been here, I’ve had a lot of time to think. What do you know about your parents’ deaths?’
The question takes me by surprise. ‘That they died in a car crash. An accident. No other cars were involved.’
Matt is staring at me, waiting for me to say more, I think, but what else is there to say? Certainly nothing relevant.
‘That’s all you know?’
‘It was dark. The road was wet. It’s a bad bend. There’s been plenty more accidents there since.’
‘Fatal ones?’
What exactly is Matt getting at?
‘I … I assume so. But… Look, what does that have to do with Chris’s suicide or with you being accused of murder?’