Page 129 of Perfect Liar

“Not me, never me, Thomas.”

He shrugged.

“But why couldn’t he tell me this?” I asked.

I understood, because the desire for revenge still burned inside me, even if achieving it was beyond the scope of my abilities. I’d been stupid to ever think I had that kind of power.

Will had the power, though. He would get his revenge.

Thomas patted my hand.

“Come on, Ellie…right or wrong, you know he would move mountains to protect you from this. Just understand we’re at war here. Not a grand war of countrymen defending a kingdom, but it is war. And he worries about your nightmares. I hear they’re quite awful.”

I shrank away from his intense gaze. Because it was so similar to Will’s.

“You know about that?”

“Yes, of course. I can’t stay in this room with you, but if you want to sleep downstairs in the drawing room or library, I can be close if you need me.”

The idea of anyone other than Will too close made me uncomfortable. Even Thomas. But he would always be my protector in Will’s absence, the next Hastings in line with the family ink, and I needed to get used to it.

Will had inherited more responsibility than most were challenged with in a lifetime. I had to be more supportive and give him the space he needed, but my fucked-up desperation to always be with him made that an internal battle for me.

“I’ll be fine here. Seriously, I’ll be okay. But thank you for offering,” I said.

While nodding, he wrinkled his forehead.

He knew I was lying.

Thomas stopped me in the corridor late the next morning.

“Ellie, you’ll come down and have breakfast with me. A bite of toast in your room isn’t enough,” he said.

I shrugged.

“I’m not a breakfast person. And you know Mrs. Bates would take a switch to us both if she found me in the kitchen with all of you.”

He pointed to the staircase.

“Fuck that. Let’s go.”

I rolled my eyes, then went down to the kitchen with him, where John was giving a heated explanation to a table of men in their military-style training clothes.

“I’m telling you, man, the earls of Arundel and Sussex were the same back then. The names were interchangeable for quite a long time,” John argued.

At the buffet, Thomas handed me a plate and started filling it.

“The kid’s right,” he said.

I grabbed Thomas’s hand as he scooped up another piece of sausage.

“Stop…that’s too much…take the sausage back.”

He took the sausage on my plate and put it on his own.

“American women don’t eat like English women,” John teased.

I frowned, and Thomas chuckled.