Double fuck.“Oh, I help out, but I’m really in sales. I preferred to have some free time instead of being chained to a desk all day.”
Another blatant falsehood.
In reality, I liked the rigidity of my job as COO precisely because I hadn’t had anyone to spend my free time with in a really long time, so I hadn’t wanted any. Still didn’t. Especially not after this.
“I remember Will from when you guys came to visit all those years ago,” Eliza said quietly, a fond smile forming on her lips. “Back when you were still dating Eugenie.”
My heart thumped several times, kicking hard against my ribs. “You do?”
“Yes, he seemed so quiet.” Her gaze seemed far away for a moment before she blinked and looked back at me. “It was very clear that he didn’t like Eugenie, though. At the time, I understood why he might be worried about you.”
I smiled, happy that she remembered me from that time since I sure as hell remembered her. That was why this felt so incredibly fucking hard. I’d never forgotten about her, and in the meantime, Jesse had barely even known she existed.
“We have to go to London to catch our flight back to Chicago tomorrow, don’t we?” she asked after a quiet beat.
I nodded but I didn’t really want to leave. I liked it here. With her. In this gray castle. I liked Aaron and Miriam. Holly and Maeve. This quiet, rural life.
Jesse had hated it here. After he’d broken up with Eugenie, he’d ranted about the estate almost just as much as he’d badmouthed her. According to him, it was too quiet, too old, too boring, too wet, and too far removed from modern life and civilization.
That was what wrecked me the most as I watched Eliza turn to stare out the window with a wistful sigh. It really hit me then that this wasn’t fair to her.
Hell, it wasn’t fair to me either and it sure as shit wasn’t fair to Jesse. This entire situation had turned into a complete shit show—and I was the only one who knew just how bad it really was.
CHAPTER 18
ELIZA
After spending most of my day with Jesse, I was finally back in my bedroom, which was suddenly looking like it had been ransacked by extremely well-dressed burglars. Suitcases sat open on the bed and covered half the floor.
Miriam and Stella moved around with alarming efficiency, folding garments into neat piles before deciding which ones deserved to travel to Chicago with me and which ones, apparently, did not meet the mysterious standards they’d established in their heads.
“You cannot possibly take this many coats,” Stella said, holding up a camel wool jacket I loved.
“Chicago is cold,” I protested lamely.
Having been my lady’s maid for years, she regularly voiced her honest opinions and that was precisely what she did when she put the jacket in thestaypile. “It won’t be that cold in September, my lady.”
“It could be.”
“It won’t be,” she argued. “Not cold enough to justify all this, anyhow.”
Miriam didn’t even look up from the trunk she was organizing. “She’s not wrong, Eliza. You’ll be back in thesummer. Perhaps sooner. You can collect more clothes when you return.”
Eliza.
It was rare that she referred to me by the nickname. Rare enough that it really drove home how emotional they were about the fact that I was leaving. I sighed and watched another armful of my belongings disappear into a suitcase.
Tonight, we were packing and heading to London, and tomorrow, Jesse and I would be off to Chicago. To start a whole new life. It felt entirely surreal, like I was watching someone else’s life about to change entirely in the blink of an eye.
Stella moved to the wardrobe and started selecting dresses, snapping me out of my melancholy with brisk authority. She laid a red silk gown across the bed. “You have to take this one.”
“And this.” Miriam added another to the pile, then reached back into the closet. “Oh, and definitely this one.”
My eyebrows twitched as I watched them. “I won’t be attending the opera every night. Surely, I don’t need so many gowns.”
Miriam glanced up at me, an unusually gentle smile crinkling the corners of her eyes. “You never know.”
“I sincerely doubt it.”
