“My bad. It’s late, my mind’s all over the place,” Edward said. “I wouldn’t be offended if you went to bed or something. It’s… late? Early. I don’t know. Time is funny here.”
Here being Hanbury Manor.
The last time William checked his phone, it was gone eleven p.m. If he hoped to go to sleep after earlier, he’d need more wine to help with that. Thinking about how he’d sleepwalked outside the house still freaked him out. Putting off the inevitable a little longer wasn’t a bad thing.
He kept thinking about the ‘what ifs’. What if Edward wasn’t here to stop him? What if he’d continued walking all the way to that overflowed ford Edward had mentioned, drowning before he woke up.
“I’m not tired,” William lied. “Are you?”
Edward shook his head, crossing his legs on the sofa beneath him. “Not at all. Unequivocally wired, one could say.”
Somehow William knew Edward was lying too.
“So, about this game…”
Edward’s eyes lit up. “I see you’ve warmed up to the idea.”
Whether he was a stranger or not, the concept of being so vulnerable made him uncomfortable.
“You could can thank the soup for that,” William said, fighting a wine-induced hiccup. “It’s worked wonders on my soul, just as you expected. Now, you can go first.”
Edward no doubt understood why William hesitated to go to bed but didn’t question it. Instead, he leaned back, tugged the woollen blanket over his lap and extended both arms to either side of him, resting them on the back of the sofa. William marvelled at just how long his arms were. Edward caught him looking and smiled, an expression that completely changed his face.
“All right then,” Edward said, fire crackling across the room. “Let me think.”
“Don’t strain yourself.”
Edward laughed, his question following soon after. “What drives someone like you purchase a place like Hanbury Manor?”
Wine sloshed around in the glass as William shot forward. “Someone like you? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Edward pulled a face, scrutinising William’s expression. “Hold on, you’re the one asking me questions now? I thought the rules of the game were that you must answer the question before asking one.”
“I get the impression you are a stickler for rules?” William rolled his eyes before taking a long swig of wine. For comfort or courage, he was unsure.
“That’s a questionandan observation,” Edward said. “Now I’m getting the impression you don’t want to answer my question, William. Dancing around the conversation on two left feet.”
Edward wasn’t exactly wrong. William didn’t particularly want to divulge the truth behind how he got the manor without opening himself up to criticism. But then again, it was a game, and he couldn’t stumble over the first hurdle. The William before his trauma always loved to win. And Trust went both ways, so William answered. “I might’ve told alittlewhite lie to you earlier.”
William considered this personal growth, opting to tell the truth for once.
“A plot twist. Care to tell me how so?” Edward narrowed those rich eyes on him.
“I didn’t buy Hanbury. It was… given to me. By someone I loved.”
Edward looked away, down at his nails. “They must’ve really loved you then, giving you a place like this. That certainly beats any Christmas present I’ve ever received.”
“Well, actually, thelovepart is still debatable.”
“Really?”
William drank some wine for courage. “I caught my fiancé cheating on me. They died not long after I found out, and then ta-da, free manor house listed in my name. Less of a Christmas present, and more of a ‘I fucked up, here is my apology’ present.”
It wasn’t a lie. Nor was it the whole truth.
Edward’s dark brows rose into his hairline, his mouth parting in a subtle o-shape. William enjoyed watching the surprise settle over Edward’s face. “That sounds…”
“Tragic? Explains the cold soul. Not what you were expecting, was it?”
