The Men Who Walked Out novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Not Housemates

Daphne's POV

Gordon stopped at the bottom of the porch steps with snow on his shoulders.

He looked at Elliot's hand on my back and then politely at the street.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's midnight. I'll be two minutes."

"Gordon." I kept my voice down for my father's sake. "How did you get here?"

"I took a cab all the way from Newport. Rose doesn't know."

He held up the envelope.

The paper had gone soft and brown at the edges, and it had no stamp.

"I wrote this the night before I left," he said. "I wrote two. I left the one that was easy."

"What's in this one?"

"The truth. I never mailed it." He put it in my hand. "Don't read it for me. Read it when you've decided I'm worth ten minutes."

"Where will you be?"

"The cab's waiting. I have a room at the inn on Mount Auburn Street." He looked at me for a long moment. "That's all. Good night, Daphne. Elliot."

He went back down the walk with his collar up.

The taxi pulled away, and the street was quiet again.

I carried the envelope into the hall and set it on the table under the mirror.

I didn't open it.

I turned around, and Elliot was standing in the doorway with snow melting in his hair.

"Tomorrow," I said.

"Tomorrow," he agreed.

He shut the door behind us and put the chain on, and the sound went through me.

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