Just a Little Heartache (The Brotherhood #5) - Merry Farmer Page 0,5
it was John.
All the same, he didn’t trust himself to actually talk about it. Instead, he paused in the middle of pouring his tea and took Blake’s letter out of his pocket. He stared at it for a moment, then gingerly handed it over to John.
“What’s this?” John asked, taking the letter with a concerned look. As he opened it and scanned through it, Niall finished pouring his tea. He poured for John and the decidedly intimidated Mr. Oberlin as well. When John finished reading the letter, he blew out a breath, folded the letter and put it back in its envelope, and handed it back over to Niall. “Judging by the date, you’ve had that in your possession for some time now.”
“A week,” Niall admitted, voice hoarse. He took a sip of tea.
“So what are you going to do about it?” John asked, taking up his own teacup.
“I don’t know,” Niall said, sipping tea to avoid giving more of an answer.
“I’ve heard all about Blake’s current troubles,” John confessed. “Gossip travels fast in our circles.”
“It does,” Niall agreed, setting his teacup down. His stomach twisted a little too much for him to drain his cup, like he would have if it were whiskey.
“It sounds to me as though Blake could use a trusted friend right now.” The look in John’s eyes said something far different than his words. It said that Blake could use his old lover back.
“I don’t know if I can,” Niall sighed. “He hurt me, John. Ten years, and I still haven’t recovered.”
John reached across the table and patted Niall’s hand. “The heart is the most difficult organ to heal, but it’s better than leaving it broken.”
Niall glanced at his friend. John was right in theory, but in practice, forgiveness was much harder. Niall didn’t know if he was capable of it. He’d invested too much of himself all those years ago and had paid a steep price for it.
“What exactly happened between you and Blake anyhow?” John asked. “I mean, I know about Annamarie and everything the late Lord Selby demanded of Blake, but what happened between the two of you?”
Niall swallowed the lump in his throat, his whole body throbbing with bittersweet memories. He took a deep breath and said, “It’s a long story.”
Chapter 2
York – 1880 – Ten Years Earlier
The room Niall had been able to commandeer for auditions for the play he’d written over the winter as the last project of his final year at university wasn’t all that he’d hoped it would be.
“It’s too small,” he muttered to John and David as they helped set up chairs for their fellow students at the back of the room, who had come to audition. “It doesn’t even come close to approximating the stage in the auditorium.”
“At least it has a piano.” John nodded to the instrument in the corner.
“Why wouldn’t they let you hold auditions in the auditorium?” David asked, taking two chairs to the table that had been dragged into the center of the room for Niall.
“I’m just a student, and Professor Carroll is giving a lecture there this afternoon,” Niall answered with a sigh.
“That old windbag?” John snorted a laugh. “Lecturing about his trip to Egypt last autumn again, is he?”
“For your information,” a young man with sandy-brown hair piped up from the cluster of hopefuls at the back of the room, “Professor Carroll is a great explorer and Egyptologist. His excavation work in Thebes has garnered international attention.”
“Yes, of course, and I respect him highly for it,” Niall answered the young man graciously, then turned a scolding look on John. “Professor Carroll’s lecture is more important than auditions for a student play.”
“Yes, but aren’t you performing this as part of commencement festivities next month?” David went on, taking a few chairs to the front of the room, which had been designated as the stage area.
“That’s the arrangement I have at the moment,” Niall said with a wary sigh.
In fact, it had taken a minor miracle and the intervention of Professor Ballard from the English department to convince the committee in charge of commencement ceremonies to allow Niall to stage his original musical play during the most public week of the university’s year. Few of the men on the committee had wanted to take a chance on a green playwright. Even fewer had loved the idea of an all-male production of a show with explicitly female parts, particularly as it was a love story.