The Heiress Strikes Back novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Cottage

Peter's cottage was a one-story house on a dead-end street in Stamford, with a woodstove and a blue door.

He made me eggs at eleven o'clock at night.

I ate them standing at the counter.

I had never sat down to eat in front of someone cooking for me.

"Sit," he said.

"I'm fine."

"Miranda. Sit down."

I sat.

He put a mug of tea in front of me.

He leaned on the other side of the counter, with his glasses pushed up into his hair.

The kitchen was small and warm and smelled of butter.

"You saw her do it," I said.

"I saw her do it."

"You told twenty people in front of Mr. Brightwell that his new daughter is a liar, and he threw me out anyway."

"He'll feel sick about it by morning."

"Will he?"

"He's not a bad man. He just wants it too much."

He turned his mug in his hands.

"I'd rather you were thrown out because I told the truth than kept because I kept quiet."

"I didn't ask you to."

"I know you didn't."

"I don't want to be saved."

"Good, because I'm not much of a rescuer."

He smiled at the counter.

"I bring people to the hospital, mostly. I have a pretty good record of getting them there."

I looked at his hands around the mug.

They were long, with a thin white scar across the right thumb, and steady.

I had been looking at those hands for six days.

I had been very careful not to count how many.

"I've never had anyone take my side," I said.

"I know."

"It makes me want to do something stupid."

"Like what?"

I stood up.

I came around the counter, and he straightened as I came, and I put my hands flat on his chest.

His heart was going hard under my palms.

"Miranda," he said quietly.

"If you say it's a bad idea, I'll hit you."

"It's a terrible idea."

He took off his glasses and put them down on the counter.

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