Elijah was behind his desk,quill in hand, papers spread before him. His head snapped up at the intrusion, his green eyes widening in surprise.
“Piper.”
“Ye have some nerve,”Piper announced, striding into the room.
Elijah’s expressionshifted from surprise to wariness. He set down his quill carefully. “If this is about last night?—”
“Last night?”Piper stopped in the middle of the room, momentarily taken aback. Then her anger reasserted itself. “I’m nae here to talk about last night. I’m here to talk about yer children!”
“Me what?”
“Yer children!”Piper’s voice rose. “The two bairns ye claim to care about but apparently cannae be bothered to actually spend time with!”
Elijah stood slowly,his jaw tightening. “I daenae think ye understand.”
“Oh, I understand perfectly.”Piper advanced on his desk. “I understand that yesterday ye told me nae to interfere with how ye raise them. That their discipline and upbringin’ were none of me concern. Do ye remember that?”
“Aye, I remember.”
“And yet here ye are, ignorin’them so completely that yer daughter thinks ye hired me just to get them out of yer hair! That yer son pretends he doesnae care about ye because it hurts too much to admit he’s desperate for yer attention!”
“That’s nae—”Elijah started, but Piper cut him off.
“It is!I just spent the mornin’ with them, Elijah. I looked into their eyes and saw the same pain I felt as a child. The same desperate hope that maybe, just maybe, their parent might actually love them. Might actually see them as more than obligations to be managed!”
“Ye daenae kenwhat ye’re talkin’ about,” Elijah said, his voice hard. “Iprovidefor them. I keep themsafe.”
“Ye ignore them!”Piper slammed her hands on his desk. “Ye hide away in this study doin’… doin’ whatever it is lairds do, and ye leave yer children to raise themselves! That’s nae providin’, that’s abandonin’!”
“How dare ye.”
“How dare I? How dare ye!”Piper’s voice rose a little bit higher, all her carefully maintained composure shattering. “Ye hired me to teach them. To guide them. But how am I supposed to do that when their own faither willnae even show them basic affection?”
The momentthe words left her mouth, Piper knew she’d gone too far. Elijah’s face went pale, then flushed with anger. His hands clenched into fists on the desk.
“Ye will nae speakof me in that manner,” he said, his voice deadly quiet.
“Why nae? Because the truth hurts?”Piper knew she should stop, knew she was crossing lines that couldn’t be uncrossed, but she couldn’t seem to make herself care. “Yer children deserve a faither, Elijah. Nae a ghost hauntin’ these corridors.”
“I am their faither.”
“Then act like it!”
“I am actin’like it!” Elijah roared, coming around the desk toward her. “I’m keepin’ them safe! I’m makin’ sure they have everythin’ they need!”
“Ye’re keepin’them at arm’s length because ye’re afraid!” Piper stood her ground even as he loomed over her. “Ye’re afraid that if ye let yerself love them, if ye let yerself be close to them, ye’ll fail them the way ye think ye failed yer wife!”
“Ye ken nothin’about what happened with Catherine.”
“I kenwhat yer children told me! That their faither doesnae have time for them. That he’d rather work than spend five minutes in their company. That they feel like obligations instead of?—”
“Enough!”Elijah’s voice cracked like a whip. “Ye’ve been here one day, Piper. One. Single. Day. And ye think that gives ye the right to tell me how to raise me own children?”
“Someone needs to tell ye!”
“Then letit be someone who actually kens them! Who’s been in their lives longer than a few hours!”
“Fine!”Piper threw her hands up. “Let it be someone who’s been watchin’ them suffer for years and never said a word! Let it be yer maither, who’s clearly as frustrated as I am but too polite to say anythin’! Let it be?—”
