Page 55 of Auctioned to the Cruel Highlander
Isobel blinked. “What?”
“Me hair, then. Or me face. Do I look strange?”
A look passed over Isobel’s face that would have become laughter if she had been less kind. “Ava, ye look perfectly fine.”
“Perfectly?”
“As near to it as any of us are likely to come in this life.”
“That wasnae the certainty I wanted.”
“It is the certainty ye are getting.” Isobel reached up and smoothed back a loose strand near Ava’s temple. “There. Now, go before ye invent some new flaw and lose yer nerve entirely.”
Ava gave a short breath that might have been a laugh if her pulse were not suddenly working against her. Then she turned back toward the spot where she had seen Ciaran standing.
Except he was gone.
She stopped so abruptly that the gravel shifted under her slippers.
Hector still stood there, half turned toward the path beyond. Ciaran did not. There was no sign of him except the empty patch of ground where he had stood a moment before.
Ava did not move.
But he was right there a second ago.
Isobel came up beside her but said nothing.
Her silence told Ava enough.
She could have called after him. She could have asked Hector where he had gone. She could have pretended it meant nothing, that he had simply remembered some duty and stepped away before she could reach him.
She did none of those things because she didn’t need to. Doing that would only delay the inevitable and put her in denial. Thetruth was sitting right in front of her, clearer even than the morning sun.
He was avoiding her.
Ava looked once more at the empty place where he had stood, then lowered her gaze.
The knowledge sat plain before her now. Heavy. Clear. Past argument.
When she had gone to his study, she had hoped she was imagining it. When she had spoken to Isobel, she still wanted a different explanation. Now, she had none left to borrow.
He wasavoidingher.
“Ava—” Isobel’s voice rose behind her.
Ava shook her head almost immediately.
“Look, ye daenae have to?—”
“Oh, trust me, Isobel, I understand yer brother perfectly. He doesnae want to see me.”
“I daenae think that is why. He probably had something urgent to do.”
Ava scoffed.Urgent.“We need to start calling it what it is, Isobel. Yer brother has grown tired of me.”
“Ava—”
“Let us walk back. I want to lie down.”
