Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
When she got out of the bathroom, Tam was not in the bedroom.
It wasn’t as if there was anywhere to hide, so when she’d got dressed and run her fingers through her wet hair, Sorrel went downstairs.
She could hear voices in the rooms off the hallway and followed them.
She walked into a cheery dining room with six scrubbed pine tables and chairs and a bay window looking out onto the garden. The storm had passed, and now the sky was bright and blue.
Tam sat at a table, pouring tea into a blue-and-white-striped mug. A full Scottish breakfast sat in front of him.
‘Hey. I wondered where you’d gone.’ She sat down opposite him, a little shyly. The B&B owner that Sorrel remembered from the day before approached the table.
‘Morning!’ she greeted Sorrel cheerily. ‘What can I get you, dear? Full Scottish, full vegetarian or vegan, scrambled eggs on toast or smashed avocado. Or there’s fruit, yoghurt, granola and what-have-you over there.
’ She pointed to a table in the corner, which held a delicious-looking array of breakfast goods.
‘Oh, I’ll just help myself over there, thank you. And tea?’
‘Tea it is.’ The woman nodded and turned to Tam. ‘When you’re done with that, dear, it would be great to get a quote like you said. I’m slowly developing the place, but a bit of good advice is rarer than hen’s teeth.’
‘No problem.’
The woman looked delighted. She went back to the kitchen.
Tam began his cooked breakfast.
‘A quote?’ Sorrel asked.
‘Aye. I’m going to stay here and give Carol a quote. Could be a nice little project for me.’ He avoided her eyes, cut a fat sausage in half and chewed it slowly.
‘Oh. But I need to get back to the Inn as soon as possible.’ Sorrel felt wrongfooted. ‘Simon’s on his way. I don’t want him to arrive and I’m not there. He’s never met any of my family.’
‘Sure. I get it. You can take the truck. Just leave it at the Inn and I’ll get it when I get back.’ He met her eyes coolly. ‘Here. Take the keys.’ He handed her a key on a fob and returned to his breakfast.
‘But… how are you going to get back?’ Sorrel felt a horrible sinking feeling in her stomach. She and Tam had been so close, so intimate, the night before, and now he was so cold. She was so confused. What was happening?
‘There’s a bus that runs to the castle from here. I’ll catch that.’ He continued with his breakfast. ‘I know you need to hurry, so I won’t keep you.’ There was an edge in his voice, and it pushed what felt like a shard of ice deeper into Sorrel’s heart.
‘Um… right. Okay, then.’ She took the keys. ‘I guess I’ll see you back at the Inn.’
‘Sure.’ He nodded, not meeting her eyes.
‘Tam… I…’ Sorrel wanted to pierce the sudden cold that had appeared between them like an ice wall, but she didn’t know how. ‘Last night was very special to me,’ she said, quietly, so that the guests at the other tables couldn’t hear.
‘Was it?’ Tam looked up at her, his expression neutral.
‘How can you ask me that?’ she whispered, appalled that he could even say such a thing.
‘Go and see Simon. That’s what you want to do,’ he replied, breaking eye contact and looking back down at his breakfast. ‘We shouldn’t have spent the night together. It was a mistake.’
A mistake.
The ice pushed deeper into her heart.
‘Right.’ She walked out of the breakfast room. How could Tam sleep with her and then discard her so cruelly the next day? She didn’t understand. But she couldn’t stand there and take any more of his cold, emotionless words. It was too much.
Sorrel’s heart, already so wounded, felt as though Tam had taken an axe to it and separated one half from the other.
She had been completely vulnerable with him the night before. She had given him all of her. And after that, being hurt by Tam Blackwood, who had always felt like home, was agony.