He turned them toward the hallway that led to the garden door. “I certainly don’t want my sister to face those men alone, but I can’t let you put yourself in danger for it anymore either. Too many people have already been hurt.”

“And the perpetrators won’t leave me alone now, Oliver—they think I’m Beth. Even if she showed up, they wouldn’t trust her now. They’d think she was the pretender. Like it or not, I’m involved. So we simply need to determine how to solve this mystery, once and for all.”

Simply. Sighing, he led her out into the twilight garden. If only anything about this were simple.

20

Never in her life had a trip to St. Mary’s been such a cause for argument. And if Mabena’s head hadn’t still been screaming at her like a banshee, she might have even found it amusing that Casek and Oliver were facing off over which of them deserved the honor of sailing her and Libby to their cottage.

Amusing. But utterly irrelevant. And, headache or not, she needed to tell them so. So she stepped between them—always a dangerous undertaking—and first met her cousin’s gaze. “Why are you even arguing about this? You should stay home with your grandmother.”

The bobbing of his larynx told her how painful was his swallow. “There’s a better pharmacy on St. Mary’s. The doctor suggested a few things that might help, but we don’t have them here. I’d need to go regardless. I might as well take the two of you.”

“Very well, then.” It was the take that irritated her. She lifted her chin. “I’m not leaving the Mermaid here again though. Tas said he’d sail it over for me and then come home with whoever took us.”

Casek crossed his arms over his chest. Which drew her attention to the fact that his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and he’d discarded his jacket after the school day had ended all of three seconds ago. He must have run to the quay to meet them here, despite the fact that she hadn’t told him she’d be leaving today.

Her head was enough of a muddle with pain. It didn’t need any extra confusion from him and his hovering and those eyes of his that kept staring into hers as if all the secrets of the universe could be found there.

“There’s no need to pull your father away from his work, dearover. I’ll take your boat for you. You can even come along with me to make sure I do everything just the way you like.”

As if he didn’t know how to sail her little sloop. And as if it would impress her that he knew well she’d have made such an argument against anyone else handling her on a normal day.