Oliver chuckled. Her kitten had strong opinions, that was for certain. “Perhaps you should bring him with you when you come to Tresco.”
Libby walked with him down the stairs, her brows raised. “On a boat? Cats don’t like the water, do they?”
“Not as a general rule—but how do you suppose they got on the islands to begin with?”
That sweet smile sprang onto her lips. The one that meant she was amused at herself. “Well, I don’t suppose they flew here. Perhaps if I tucked him into a basket?”
“He may meow, but he’d be safe and probably quite happy to be wherever you are.” And if it resulted in her extending her Tuesday evening stays to Wednesday nights too, and perhaps even Thursdays . . . well, who could blame him for removing her primary need to get back to St. Mary’s?
“We’ll have to talk to Mabena and see what she wants to do. If she wants to stay longer in general, someone can simply take me over for Darling and some extra changes of clothes. I only really need to be on St. Mary’s for the Wednesday deliveries for Beth.”
The reminder brought a quick splash of cold water. He’d been half expecting to catch Beth trying to break into the safe and steal back his copy of Treasure Island. He’d changed the combination, just in case she tried it. Anything to delay her longer and improve his chances of catching her. “Perhaps you should distance yourself from that too. Given what Mabena reported Beth said the other night, if no one is there, the items will be left somewhere for her.”
“Exactly. And then we won’t know what they are. It’ll all be up to Beth again.” She hesitated at the bottom of the stairs, clearly waiting to see which direction he would lead them.
He turned them toward the hallway that led to the garden door. “I certainly don’t want my sister to face those men alone, but I can’t let you put yourself in danger for it anymore either. Too many people have already been hurt.”
“And the perpetrators won’t leave me alone now, Oliver—they think I’m Beth. Even if she showed up, they wouldn’t trust her now. They’d think she was the pretender. Like it or not, I’m involved. So we simply need to determine how to solve this mystery, once and for all.”
Simply. Sighing, he led her out into the twilight garden. If only anything about this were simple.
20
Never in her life had a trip to St. Mary’s been such a cause for argument. And if Mabena’s head hadn’t still been screaming at her like a banshee, she might have even found it amusing that Casek and Oliver were facing off over which of them deserved the honor of sailing her and Libby to their cottage.
Amusing. But utterly irrelevant. And, headache or not, she needed to tell them so. So she stepped between them—always a dangerous undertaking—and first met her cousin’s gaze. “Why are you even arguing about this? You should stay home with your grandmother.”
The bobbing of his larynx told her how painful was his swallow. “There’s a better pharmacy on St. Mary’s. The doctor suggested a few things that might help, but we don’t have them here. I’d need to go regardless. I might as well take the two of you.”
“Very well, then.” It was the take that irritated her. She lifted her chin. “I’m not leaving the Mermaid here again though. Tas said he’d sail it over for me and then come home with whoever took us.”
Casek crossed his arms over his chest. Which drew her attention to the fact that his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and he’d discarded his jacket after the school day had ended all of three seconds ago. He must have run to the quay to meet them here, despite the fact that she hadn’t told him she’d be leaving today.
Her head was enough of a muddle with pain. It didn’t need any extra confusion from him and his hovering and those eyes of his that kept staring into hers as if all the secrets of the universe could be found there.
“There’s no need to pull your father away from his work, dearover. I’ll take your boat for you. You can even come along with me to make sure I do everything just the way you like.”
As if he didn’t know how to sail her little sloop. And as if it would impress her that he knew well she’d have made such an argument against anyone else handling her on a normal day.
All right, it did. A little. “And then what? Sail home with Ollie?”
He actually winced, which would have made her chuckle if not for the headache. “I’m sure there will be someone else coming this way.”
“You can come with me.” Something about Oliver’s tone—even, firm, steady—drew her gaze back to him. He wasn’t flushed with anger as he usually was when going toe-to-toe with Casek. His eyes weren’t glinting. He was just standing there, calm as could be, holding Libby’s hand as he’d been doing just about every time they were in the same room together.
Looking perfectly aware that only storms waited in that direction. But then, storms thundered over his house too. Storms loomed wherever Beth was. Storms were all he had just now.
Apparently Casek Wearne and his thundering just didn’t rate.
She turned back to him, not sure he’d see the same. Or, frankly, that he could be trusted to respect it. But Casek was regarding Oliver solemnly. And after another moment, he nodded. “It’ll do.”
Well. Mabena exchanged a gaze with Libby—surprised, impressed—before Libby apparently remembered that her complaints against Mabena still stood unresolved and looked away.
She sighed. The lady had been the soul of concern throughout the day and a half since the attack, tending her with care and consideration when she wasn’t doing the same for Mrs. Tremayne. But she never quite met her eye.
They’d have to settle things. Soon. For now though, she’d focus on some other settling. She let a hint of a smile touch her lips as she turned to Casek again. “Well then. Let’s be off.”
He hiked a brow even as he held out a hand toward where her boat was still anchored. “You’re not going to argue? Insist you’ll go with them?”
She tossed a smirk at where Oliver was leading Libby toward the Tremayne boat. “I don’t think they need my company just now.”
He grunted. “That’s going to end badly. Not that I much care, but I’d have thought you would, enough to warn them against it.”
“Oh, I did. But . . .” She shrugged. “I suppose I’m utterly failing at my chaperoning duties. Her mother will be appalled and no doubt sack me for it. And you know, I don’t care a bit. Let them steal an ounce of joy for a summer. They deserve it, both of them.”
She expected him to argue about the deserving bit. Instead, he latched on to the earlier statement. “Let her sack you. You don’t need to go back to the mainland. Just stay here, with us.”
Us, was it? He meant her parents, she supposed, and her siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles and neighbors. Her lips twitched. “I may, at that.”
Not what she’d expected to decide when she came back here. Frankly, she expected to grit her teeth through every moment, find Beth, and hightail it back to Telford Hall with Libby. But she’d underestimated the islands, their pull on her.
And she’d certainly underestimated this one’s ability to dig down past the sandy layers of hurt and betrayal. To dig straight down to the rock of her and anchor himself there.