Page 21 of The Runaway
“A hundred and fifteen,” Connor announced, after a quick mental calculation, and without thinking about the consequences too much. The jovial mood was contagious, and it was so different from anything he’d experienced before that he’d momentarily let his guard down.
But as one, the rest of the omegas turned to gape at him, and he felt his cheeks flush. “Is that right?” Henry asked, looking baffled.
“The fuck should I know?” Helen replied. “I can’t do that sort of calculation in my head.”
“Then why did you ask me?”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t know the answer.”
“Fuck me, would you shut up,” Max interrupted the pair of them. “Good God, Connor… Can you read?”
Connor swallowed, wondering how he should reply. “Well enough, I suppose,” he said in the end.
“And you can do calculations and adding up in your head?”
“I guess so.”
“Does Antoine know about this?”
Connor felt a cold weight settle in his chest. “I don’t think so.” How could he have been so foolish? “Are you going to tell him?”
Max looked at him shrewdly. “Did you master ever get you to read anything?”
“No.”
“And does he know you can read?”
Connor looked around apprehensively. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“It’s all well and good,” Helen said, interrupting anything anyone else might have said. “Max is going to mind his own business now.”
The loud clopping of a horse’s hooves outside the barn interrupted the conversation, and the omegas got back to work. A bit of playful banter was fine, but it wouldn’t do to be seen slacking off.
A few minutes later, Cirroc arrived, casting a brief look around the barn. “Michelle, Adalene, come over to the kitchen,” he said, when he saw that the two women had finished the chicken coop. “Jean-Luc Lavigne and his son have come for a visit and Antoine wants you to help prepare lunch.”
Michelle and Adalene hastily put down their pitchforks and headed out of the barn. But instead of following them, Cirroc cast another wary look around the barn. “Connor?” he called. “Come over here for a minute.”
Suddenly feeling like he was in trouble, Connor went over, shoulders tense, eyes downcast. “Yes, sir?”
“It’s probably best you stay out of sight for the next hour or two,” Cirroc told him. “Don’t leave the barn, and if anyone comes in, make yourself scarce.”
“Yes, sir,” he said. But even though he knew it wasn’t his place to question orders, he couldn’t help asking, “Is there a problem?”
“The Lavignes are our neighbours,” Cirroc said. “They’re good folk, not likely to stir up any trouble, but Antoine thought it best to keep you out of sight. Less risk that way.”
Connor nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said again. Cirroc hurried away after that, and Connor went back to work. But the unusual warning played over in his mind. Antoine thought it best to keep him hidden? That the order had come directly from the master of the house was unsettling, but not because he thought Antoine had any ill intentions. Quite the opposite, in fact. Keeping Connor out of sight would mean less chance his master would find him. Which meant that Antoine was actively trying to help him. Which meant that the decision to allow him to stay was not a dismissive one, or even a self-serving attempt to get more work out of an extra pair of hands. It meant it was a deliberate attempt to help him. Connor had no idea what to make of that. Alphas didn’t help omegas. They didn’t care about those less worthy than themselves. And yet Antoine was breaking all of the rules Connor knew, going out of his way to keep him safe.
What sort of men were these, who ran the Calvet estate? Connor didn’t understand it at all.
CHAPTER NINE
Gabriel nailed the last of the planks onto the western side of the pig house, then stood back, feeling pleased about the progress he’d made. The fencing around the yard was complete and he’d finished the roof on the shed just that morning. All that remained was to finish building the walls and then the new pigsty would be ready.
It was roughly four weeks since Gabriel had arrived at the Calvet estate, and it was now the middle of October. The weather had cooled, though the first snows were still two months away. But even now, they’d had a week of blustery wind and a heavy rainstorm the day before. Antoine had been right to be dubious about getting the pigsty finished before winter. Most of the work Gabriel had done himself, with the betas and omegas occupied with harvesting the fruit from the orchard and preparing the barn for the sheep. There had also been a strong effort to fill the woodshed with enough wood to last the winter. Gabriel had been gratified to learn that not just the main house and the cottages, but the kitchen and the omegas’ quarters were all kept warm with fires that were kept burning around the clock. On this estate, the idea of an omega freezing to death in the depths of winter was unheard of, though he was well aware that it was all too common on a lot of other estates.
Gabriel moved around to the north wall, ready to get started on nailing on the next lot of planks, but he realised he was running short of nails. With a shrug, he headed back towards the main yard, intending to getting more from the store room.
But as he approached the yard, a shout caught his attention. “Whoa, no, no, Gabriel, stop.” Cirroc came rushing over to him, blocking his path. “Where are you going?”