The Perfect Bride - By Kerry Connor Page 0,50
pushed away from her, rising to his feet. He stood glaring down at her, his expression rigid with controlled anger. “If you really believe someone pushed you down the stairs, then I’m sure you’ll be wanting to leave as soon as possible. No reason to stay where someone means you harm, or to bring your wedding guests to such a place.”
“Is that what you want?”
“I told you, what I want is for Meredith not to be hurt, and you seem determined to do just that.”
“I’m only telling you what happened.”
“Really? Because it sounds like you’re making an accusation. If that’s the case, I’m not interested. You can say anything you want about me, but don’t ever say a word about my sister.”
She stared at him, torn between admiration of his loyalty to his family and suspicion of what it meant. Meredith was an adult. Why was he so protective of her? What was he hiding?
She was still contemplating the question an instant later when he turned on his heel and strode toward the door.
Another figure was standing there, she immediately noticed. Ed filled the doorway, holding a tray in his hands, his usual smile nowhere in sight. His eyes shifted between her and Adam. She wondered how much he’d heard.
Seemingly recognizing his boss’s anger, he shuffled to the side just inside the door, allowing Adam to brush by him without a word.
“Is that for me?” Jillian asked.
“Meredith said to bring you tea, and Rosie thought you could use some food. Sounded like you might not be eating enough, getting dizzy and all.”
Jillian fought the urge to frown. Is that what everyone was thinking—she’d simply fallen? She supposed it made sense if you didn’t know any better, which she did.
She managed to muster a smile. “That’s very kind of her. Thank you for bringing it.”
She expected him to move forward and bring the tray to her. Instead, he continued standing there, eyeing her with an expression she couldn’t quite read.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“Shouldn’t talk bad about a man’s sister,” he said. “Family means everything.”
“Of course it does,” Jillian agreed cautiously. “Do you have a sister?”
He hesitated briefly. “I used to.”
The admission seemed to spur some reaction inside him, because he suddenly dropped his eyes and started forward. Without looking at her, he moved to the bedside table and carefully set the tray on top of it, then turned and walked from the room.
Strange, Jillian thought, as she had so many times since she’d arrived at Sutton Hall. She half wondered where Ed’s sister was now, only to dismiss the idea a moment later with a shake of her head.
Throwing her legs over the side of the bed, she rose to her feet, ignoring the twinges of pain in her legs as she made her way to the door. It wasn’t Ed’s sister she was interested in. It was Adam’s. And it was long past time she got some answers.
* * *
JILLIAN FOUND MEREDITH in the dining room, sitting on one side of the massive table. She made for a lonely figure, dwarfed by the size of both the table and the room around her. She might as well have been the only person in the world.
She acted like it, too, not looking up when Jillian entered, her attention fixed on whatever she was writing on the paper in front of her. The pencil in her hand scratched across the paper in furious strokes, the noise the only sound in the room.
Jillian opened her mouth to announce her presence, only to ease it shut again. Curious what the woman was focused on so intently, Jillian moved closer, keeping her footsteps quiet on the floor’s thin rugs.
She finally came close enough to see that Meredith wasn’t writing. She was drawing. The half-formed image continued to develop before Jillian’s eyes, as Meredith’s pencil slid over the page, filling in details, shading in nuance.
It was a bride and groom, dancing together in the middle of a ballroom Jillian recognized as the one upstairs. In a few deft strokes, Meredith had managed to depict the space so that it was easily identifiable, though the room in the drawing was decorated for a party, not empty like the one upstairs. The couple was holding each other tightly, positioned so that only the bride’s face was visible. Beaming, she tilted her head back, her eyes closed, her mouth open as though she was laughing. Jillian could almost feel it herself, feel the joy shining from the bride’s