Page 35 of Before the Bond
I expected Elias to follow me even more. I didn’t bother to look back to make sure.
Now I was irritated for a different reason.
I got away from the manor so I could stop thinking about Caleb. Now I was forced to.
I heard Caleb’s words again.
“I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Whether Elias was right or just trying to mess with me, the sentence now had a whole new angle.
Who could the Ashwoods possibly hurt?
As the week drew to a close, the Ashwood estate’s energy transformed once more.
The first thing to change was the Ashwood siblings’ routines.
I didn’t see them much because I spent all day with Jake, but now I noticed Donovan was gone days at a time. I didn’t ask. I assumed it was estate work.
Caleb’s activity was the opposite. I usually saw him in the morning in the kitchen and then late at night at the fireplace. There were some days he’d be in his study, usually the middle of the week, but now his schedule felt more erratic.
I caught his footsteps at odd hours. Far deeper into the night. Far earlier than dawn.
“It’s a busy season,” Maureen said, while we were both in the kitchen.
She finished plating a dish she made for Jake. With him being in less pain, she threw herself into making heartier meals.
“Oh?” I didn’t know how to ask without sounding too invasive.
“Yes,” she explained. “It’s nothing to fret over. Things will go back to normal soon enough.”
But even that felt like a lie.
From my bedroom window, I would catch Tomas at the perimeter watching the woods.
“Afraid I can’t make it this week,” Stella said over the phone later that week. “Have some things to deal with at The Tap.”
After her first visit, she would come in every now and then. Usually with a few bottles in tow. We talked, she complained about the bar, made passive remarks at Donovan, and zipped.
But now, she was making herself scarce.
I thought back to Elias’s words.
“I’m telling you to trust those instincts.”
Perhaps the only positive change was Jake’s condition.
He was steadier since I’d adjusted his regimen last week. His exhaustion had eased, and his fever held just over 100°F.
The tradeoff was the silence.
We would chat our normal amount, but he had less energy.
I asked if it was his pain.
Jake merely looked at the window. I noticed he was gazing in the same direction Tomas always patrolled.
“I’m just extra tired, nowadays,” he explained. “Maybe my body’s just catching up from all that previous pain, you know?”
