CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT – THOMAS
Sylvie was nowhere to be found.
She wasn’t at the old town hall—in fact, nobody was, and she wasn’t answering her fucking phone.
How could she have disappeared just like that? How was it possible that she’d suddenly gone missing?
Rationally, I knew there was an explanation. An emergency somewhere. Something that needed fixing right now. She always answered her phone, and it was completely impossible for her to just disappear into thin air.
But my heart wasn’t rational. Neither was the part of my brain it controlled.
In the last five minutes alone, she’d been in a car accident, broken down somewhere with no signal, been attacked by crows, and was being kept captive in someone’s wine cellar.
Then again, she might be grateful for the break in a wine cellar this close to the wedding.
I took a deep breath and called Hazel. “Do you know—”
“If you’re calling to ask about my sister, then I don’t care,” Hazel snapped. “The answer is no, whatever it is you want.”
Beep beep.
Did she just hang up on me?
I blinked at my screen. Yep. She hung up. She didn’t even let me finish my sentence.
What the fuck was that? Had they not made up after they fell out last night? Had they fought again?
Julian’s name flashed on my screen, and I dragged the green circle up before hitting the speakerphone button. “Hey,” I said.
“Hey, sorry about that just now.” The sound of a door closing echoed down the line. “It’s been a long day. What did you call Hazel for?”
I rested my wrist on the steering wheel, holding the phone in front of me as I leant my head back against my seat.
“Do you know where Sylvie is? She told me she’d be at the town hall, but there’s nobody there.
I haven’t seen her in town, and her car wasn’t on the drive when I made a delivery out that way an hour ago. ”
“Ah, yeah. No, no idea.”
There was a reluctance in his tone, like he was hiding something from me.
“Julian? What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s just…” He sighed. “They had another fight today. A huge one, from what I’ve heard, but Hazel won’t talk about it.”
“Which means it’s her fault,” I said without thinking. “Shit. That was an inside thought. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. I figured that much for myself.” He snorted. “Joanna said to just leave it, but I don’t know. Seems like a bad one. Even Nana is stomping around glaring at everyone.”
If her grandmother was pissed, it was bad. “Has she got any idea where Sylvie might be?”
“No. All I know is she went to get coffee with your mum. Hazel left before they got back, and Joanna only said they finished up what they were doing. She had no idea where she went after that, and all Sylvie said was that she had stuff to do.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. “All right, thanks. I’ll go and talk to my mother. Can you let me know if she comes back?”
“Of course. Text me if you find her, preferably before Nana burns something down.”
“Will do. Talk to you later.” I hung up, tossed my phone into my lap, and started the car.
There was only one place Sylvie could be right now.
Castleton Manor.
I’d bet my last quid that my mother had scooped her up and dragged her back home. I knew all about her difficult childhood with my aunt—one that paralleled Sylvie and Hazel’s relationship—so it was almost certain that Mum had imparted some of her wisdom at some point.
I just wish one of them had told me.
Sylvie, sure. If she was upset, it made sense that she didn’t say a word, but my mother could have used even a smidgen of her brain to tell me.
No wonder nobody believed me when I said I was technically the head of the household.
The woman ran roughshod over everything.
Including me.
But right now, none of that really mattered. All I wanted was to see Sylvie. To see with my own eyes that she was all right. She was the fiercest person I knew, so for her to be all but hiding from her family meant she was beyond the point of anger.
She didn’t run away from her problems.
The only thing that woman ran away from was her real feelings for me and look where that had gotten her.
In my house.
And me in her bed.
I pulled into the estate and parked out the front. I barely remembered to lock my car after me as I rushed inside, sweeping past the housekeeper who’d held the door open for me. Her eyes widened when I stopped and quickly turned to her.
“Where is my mother?”
She swallowed. “Her Grace is in the kitchen with Lady Zara and Miss Bethany.”
“Thank you. For the door, too.” I spun in the direction of the kitchen, and no sooner had I taken a few steps than the sound of Beth’s tinkling laugh reached my ears.
I was glad they were having a fun time. I certainly wasn’t.
“Hey,” I said, stopping in the doorway. “Where’s Sylvie?”
My sister turned, raising one eyebrow. “What makes you think we’d know?”
“I wasn’t asking you.” I met Mum’s gaze. “Where’s Sylvie?”
She sighed, spun on the stool, and looked at me. “She’s in your office.”
“Why is she in my office?”
“She said she had work to do.”
That did not answer my question in the slightest.
“She also said that if she had to go home and see Hazel, she was going to, and I quote—” Beth paused. “What was it? Ah, yeah. She said she was going to shove a fire poker up her sister’s arse.”
Yeah.
That made perfect sense.
Zara snorted. “How do you not know? I think the entire village knows what happened between them today. Someone even said they heard Sylvie yelling at Hazel from outside.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Mother? Care to elaborate?”
She sighed again, as if my caring questions were an endless source of pain and suffering for her. “Hazel didn’t order the decorations for the trees.”
My stomach clenched involuntarily. “What do you mean she didn’t order the decorations?”
“Exactly what I said. It’s the one thing she asked to do, Sylvie trusted her, and she messed it up.” Mum reached for her tea and sipped it. “They had a huge fight, I got Sylvie out of there, then brought her back here when she clearly didn’t want to return home.”
“Why does she have to leave? It’s her house. She owns it.”
“Because their parents are staying there,” Beth replied. “She’s pretty pissed at her mum, too.”
Right. Of course.
She usually sided with Hazel.
Fuck. I was so sick of people taking advantage of Sylvie.
I ran my fingers through my hair and shrugged off my coat. “Is she all right?”
They all shrugged. “She said she had things to do, and it was pretty clear she wanted to be left alone, so we made sure she was all right and respected her wishes,” Zara answered. “Why are you suddenly so worried about her? Don’t you two hate each other?”
“Nope,” Beth said, popping the ‘p’ like a brat. “They definitely do not hate each other.”
“Not the time,” I replied, shaking my head. “My office, right? I take it she’s staying here tonight?”
Mum’s lips curved up a tiny bit. “I asked Lizzie to prepare a guest room for her.”
I paused. “No need.”
“No need?” Zara slammed her hands against the counter. A loud screech ripped through the air as she pushed her stool backwards on her way to getting to her feet. “What do you mean, no need? Are you going to kick her out?”
“You imbecile,” Mum muttered, making Beth shake her head.
“There’s no need,” I said slowly, staring my sister down. “Because she’s going to sleep in my room. Now, if that’s all you need or want from me, I’m going to check on my girl.”
“Your girl?” my sister squeaked out. “What the—what have I returned home to?”
I waved off her question, turning away.
“Wait, wait.” She grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge. “Here. Take this to her. I know how to treat a woman, all right?”
All three of us stared at her, and she shrunk away under the weight of our gazes.
“Most of the time,” she murmured, slinking back to her seat like a shamed little lamb. She grabbed Beth’s arm and snuggled against her side, pouting.
“Don’t make that face.” Beth peered down at her. “If you know how to treat a woman, then I’m waiting for you to show me.”
“Yeah, I’m going to see my girl.” On that note, I spun around and headed straight for my office.
I had no idea what kind of Sylvie I was going to find in my office. Would she be sad? Angry? Frustrated? Exhausted? Was she going to be the Sylvie who pushed me away, or the Sylvie who leant on me?
Whichever version of her it was, it didn’t matter. I would be there for her no matter what.
Hazel had fucked up big time. I didn’t even know the whole story, but I’d seen Sylvie’s schedule.
It was planned out to the minute, and despite all the fuck ups that had gone wrong so far, she’d somehow managed to keep a cool head.
Her ability to fix any problem in record time was astounding, and when faced with a rare, uncontrollable situation like the incident with the veil, she didn’t panic.
She just knuckled down and got on with it, holding onto hope far longer than anyone else would have.
And just as things were working out, right on the back of another sisterly fight, right when Sylvie was planning on calling it water under the bridge and moving on, this happened.
I should have known Hazel would directly do something to fuck it all up.
She always did.
I knocked lightly on my office door, and it let out a low creak as I pushed it open.
Sylvie was sitting on the window seat in the dark, knees hugged against her chest, staring out at the garden.
She didn’t so much as flinch as I entered, and I ran my gaze over her beautiful face while I had the chance.
The flickering light from the stupid scented candle on my desk cast a gentle warm glow over her features, but not even that could calm the storm in her usually bright eyes.
I softly set the bottle on the desk, and the clink of the glass against the wood was what finally made her turn her attention my way.
“Oh,” she said softly. “Sorry. Am I in your way?”
I shook my head. “Never.”
The tiniest of smiles teased the corner of her mouth, but it never quite got past that.