“I don’t care. You snuck in here like—like a viper in our bosom, and you took him away.Wecould have helped him, stopped him from being such an idiot all the time.”
“You know where he’s gone, then?”
“I’m not achild,Nate. He’s in rehab. In bloodyGermany!”
“We’re too close to him. He needs professional help.”
“No, he doesn’t. He wasfinebefore you came along. He likes to do stupid things, but that’s Charlie. He always has. You know that.”
“To the point where your father described him as volatile? Ella, he was heading for real trouble. Now that he’s receiving help, perhaps your father will reconsider and won’t take away his shares.”
She was staring at me. “What are you talking about, take away his shares?”
Oh, shit. Oh,shit.“I mean, as your father thought he was volatile, perhaps he’d have considered transferring his shares to Steven. Or to you. That’s all I meant.”
“Daddy would never do that to Charlie.” She was adamant. “You’re wrong.”
“I was just theorising what my grandfather might do in that situation. Of course your father would be different. Forget I said anything.”
“I’ll never forgive you for this, Nate.Never.”
I rubbed my hands over my face as she stormed out of the room. Could this day get any worse?
ALEX
“Alex.” Nate’s voice jerked me from my thoughts.
I turned to find him in the doorway.
“Can I talk to you?”
“Sure.” I followed him out of the room and along the landing.
At the bottom of the staircase, Mr Taylor found us. I thought he must have installed a pressure mat under the stairs because he always seemed to know when people needed their coats. It turned out, however, he’d been looking for us. Or rather, for Nate.
“Mr Mortimer, I was coming to find you. Mrs Fortescue would like to speak to you.”
Of course Nate agreed to see her, though his shoulders slumped at the prospect. In all fairness, I didn’t see how he had the option of blowing off our hostess, but I didn’t feel like being fair. Right now, it felt as if consideration was only going one way.
“Sorry, Alex. I’ll find you afterwards.”
“You’d better,” I said, and I wasn’t joking.
I retreated to the drawing room, where Fiona came to lean against the wall beside me. “What’s up? You look grumpy. Well, grumpier than usual.”
I blew out a gusty sigh. “Nate,” I said. I wasn’t one for talking about things, but I could do with an outside perspective on this. Though when I thought about complaining that Nate wanted to spend time with every single member of the Fortescue family before me, I couldn’t say it. I wasn’tthatpathetic.
“You mean the man who looks at you as if you’re more precious than treasure?” she asked. “That Nate?”
He did? I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to tell if she was serious.
“God, men are blind sometimes.”
I wondered if she’d been spending time with Ella. It sounded like an Ella sort of thing to say.
Maybe my past experience had primed me to jump to the worst conclusions. Maybe there was a very good reason for Nate’s behaviour since he’d been back.
The fact remained, he’d run off somewhere with Charlie and hadn’t told me where. He’d refused even to leave Charlie’s side long enough to reassure me before he did so.
