This was where Eddy lived.
It was too late to back down now. I went up to the door and rang the bell. My heart started pounding and I shoved my hands in my pockets so that they wouldn't shake. This might have been the first time that Eddy and I were meeting on purpose instead of by mistake and that was making me nervous. I heard footsteps on the other side of the door and then it opened.
An older woman, with a slightly surprised look on her face smiled out at me from the doorway. I felt my body release. I had been holding my breath in anticipation that it was Eddy.
“May I help you, sir?”
“Yes. Hello. I'm a guest of the Baroness. I'm here to see Eddy. I mean, Edwina. The Baroness.”
“Who might I say is calling?”
“I'm a friend of hers. Niall Bridges.”
The woman nodded. “Allow me a moment to see whether the Baroness is available.”
She slammed the door in my face before I could say that it was okay. I blanked, wondering whether it was just me. Usually, protocol dictated that the guest was shown inside and allowed to wait in a sitting room for the owner of the house to appear. Even I knew that, and I wholly rejected the stuffy, ancient manners that the aristocracy held onto. It wasn't like I could force my way in and redress the woman so I waited. A few minutes later, the door swung open and it was her. Her hair was up, and she was not dressed to receive but my body reacted to her presence again.
“Eddy,” I said. Instead of letting me in, she came outside and closed the door behind her, crossing her arms over her chest.
“What the fuck do you think you're doing here?”
12
Edwina
“No, don’t even tell me,” I said when he opened his mouth. “You need to leave, right now.” Just then, I heard Riley squealing, his quick little footsteps running towards the door. Oh, Christ. I lunged for Niall, grabbing his arm and pulling him off the porch, away from the house.
“It’s nice today. Why don’t we walk and talk,” I said.
“What?” he asked. I looked up. The sky had been grey all day and clouds were gathering. It was going to rain. So, the weather matched my mood. Perfect. Just perfect.
I pulled him off towards the back garden which was an overgrown wilderness. If I wasn’t so frantic about hiding Riley, I would be a lot more embarrassed about the state of the grounds. I led us towards the pond in a little grove about fifty feet from us.
“You found me,” I said.
“I did.”
“You realize you can’t just come here to my home unannounced,” I said, letting go of his arm.
“It wasn’t that difficult, to tell you the truth,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. Once you got to Belishire, finding the house was not difficult, he was right. He was trying to make me feel like this was normal behavior though and it wasn’t.
“So, what was so important that you had to come all the way here to do it?” I asked. I wasn’t as upset as I was trying to make him believe. Being in his presence again, despite the circumstances was making me buzz.
“I understand how this looks and how it must make you feel, but I didn’t have a chance to tell you at the party. I wanted to ask about the watch.” I swallowed, glad that we weren’t facing each other. I didn’t have the damn thing anymore. I had sold it for money that I was already planning to spend. I won it in a game. The thing was mine. In any case he wasn’t getting it back because it was gone. I laughed a little.
“If I remember right, I won it in a game fair and square.”
“You cheated.”
“I won regardless,” I said.
“Still. Here’s the thing. It’s an heirloom and I would like to have it back.”
I looked at the ground, watching the dried leaves that had accumulated on the ground crunch under my shoes. An heirloom, was it? Why didn’t he say that before? Now I felt bad about it. My stomach started to hurt.
“I would buy it from you obviously. You can name your price,” he said. I kicked myself mentally. I shouldn’t have sold it so soon. I should have waited and actually gotten the full thirty thousand now instead of settling for the ten thousand that I got.
“Surely you have other heirlooms,” I said.
He laughed. “Of course, but that’s the thing about heirlooms, isn’t it? They aren’t replaceable. That watch is particularly important to my family.”
“This is quite something, Niall,” I said.
“What?”
“I never would have guessed that that was the case when you took it off and chucked it on the table that night.”
He laughed again. “Well, now I’m paying for it. I hope I can persuade you to part with it.”
I tried to think. This was an opportunity to cash out. The watch wasn’t here anymore but I was thinking maybe, if I could get it back, I could sell it back to him for the price of my choice. It sounded tedious and would take forever but more money meant more time. I looked at him, putting on the best flirty face I could manage with no makeup, in my frumpy house clothes and hair in a bun.
“You must be swimming in dough if you’re asking me to name my price on a watch you handed over with no problems
