One Kiss Alone (The Penn-Leiths of Thistle Muir Book 3) by Nichole Van

Author:Nichole Van [Van, Nichole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fiorenza Publishing
Published: 2023-07-25T23:00:00+00:00

14

After five days in Whitby, Kendall darkened the door of The White Horse and Griffin once more—looking far too much like a specter of doom for Ethan’s peace of mind—and informed them all that the SS Statesman was repaired and seaworthy. They would resume their journey in the morning.

Ethan did not welcome the news.

He had known his time with Lady Allegra would be fleeting. But after days of basking in the glory of her society—or did he dare call it friendship?—he struggled to give up the effervescent joy of her private company.

But Kendall made his demands exquisitely clear.

“I shall dine with my sister and aunt alone this evening,” the duke informed Ethan. “I understand that you have escorted my sister to the abbey ruins and have taken a walk about town with her.”

And spent every daylight hour with her in the private sitting room, not to mention visiting the town bakery thrice, taking two turns through a local garden, and enjoying a long stroll along the country lane at the edge of the village.

Ethan wisely kept all that information to himself.

“Such intimacies are now at an end,” Kendall said, steel in his voice. “You will cease all association with Lady Allegra. She is none of your affair.”

The duke dismissed Ethan with a jerk of his chin.

Kendall must have said something similar to his sister, because Allie closeted herself with Lady Whipple all afternoon, scarcely meeting Ethan’s eyes as they passed in the inn’s hallway.

For his part, Ethan retired to the public dining room to lighten both his misery and his purse with some honest Scottish whisky.

Of course, he willingly adjusted that plan once the locals recognized who was in their midst. After all, why pay for his own whisky when admirers would happily supply it?

The rest of the evening passed in a blur. Enthusiastic sailors and workmen alike plied Ethan with pints of ale and glasses of amber whisky. The alcohol soothed the jagged edge of Ethan’s heartache and blanketed his senses in a numbing fuzziness.

The night was far gone by the time he staggered up the narrow staircase to his room, the walls appearing just as wobbly as his feet and thinking.

Had it only been half a day since he had last seen Allie? Had he ever missed anyone so deeply? Leah and wee Jack? Malcolm and his growing brood?

Ethan rather thought not.

How was he to endure a lifetime of missing Allie?

As if attending to his thoughts, his unsteady feet paused outside her door. On a sigh, he leaned his forehead against it.

This would likely be as close as he would get to his ladra, going forward. She truly was a thief. He feared she had stolen his heart and wrapped it in her wee palm.

Or . . . was it currently in her bedchamber? Where did thieves hide hearts?

Frowning, he tried to coax his alcohol-sogged brain into providing an answer.

He may also have hit his head against her door a time or three in order to help matters along.

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