Page 4 of The Tides of Time (Storm Tide #1)

T he parlor was silent other than the popping and crackling of the fire. Though Lili wasn’t looking at him any longer, Armitage hadn’t the least doubt she was as aware of him as he was of her. The woman dripped distrust and hostility as surely as she had dripped water earlier. And it had arisen almost immediately, without instigation, then had disappeared with Grandfather.

She didn’t make sense, and that made him wary. His grandfather was usually the distrustful one, with Armitage offering people the benefit of the doubt. Yet in the matter of Lili from France, they had undertaken an almost instantaneous role reversal.

Armitage tucked his hands in the pockets of his trousers as he walked toward the door to the galley. “You’ll be warmer nearer the fire,” he tossed back to her.

“ C’est généralement le cas. ” He didn’t understand the words, but he easily recognized her annoyed tone.

He stepped into the galley. Grandfather was at the stove, watching the kettle. He truly was making tea for the prickly woman.

“I’ve not seen you fuss over somewho like this,” Armitage said.

Grandfather shrugged. “Her needs help.”

“So have others who’ve been rescued from the water and brought here. You didn’t make tea for any of they.”

“Didn’t have to, did I?” Grandfather looked back at him. “ You saw to it those times.”

Armitage felt the accusation in the words but didn’t acknowledge it out loud.

“Why are you so cold to she?” Grandfather asked. “It isn’t like you.”

“Because her is lying.”

“I’d say her is more wary than truthless,” Grandfather countered.

“More hostile than wary,” Armitage further corrected.

Grandfather eyed the kettle once more. “Her isn’t hostile to me .”

“A calculated decision, that. I watched she make it.”

Steam began puffing from the kettle. Grandfather pulled over the various items needed for preparing the tea he’d promised Lili. “Could be, Armitage, that my willingness to show the woman kindness led she to show me the same in return. What you saw as calculation was relief washing over a woman who’s far from home, in a place where the language is not as familiar, who spent heaven only knows how long in the water before bein’ found, and having the man that plucked she from the waves decide immediately that her was the enemy. I was kind, and perhaps that gave she a bit of comfort.”

The rebuke hit its mark, yet it wasn’t entirely deserved. “I wasn’t ‘immediately’ untrusting of she. I gave all the aid and help and showed all the concern I always do. Not until Lili from France began spitting insults and dismissals did I begin wondering what sort of person I’d pulled from the water.”

In a voice quieter than Armitage had heard from his grandfather in likely years, the old man asked, “How is it you know what sort of person her is after mere minutes? You don’t usually rush to judgment.”

Armitage pushed out a tense breath and paced a bit away. He really wasn’t acting much like himself. But neither was Grandfather. Not since Armitage’s parents’ deaths ten years earlier, and certainly not since Grandmother had died four years ago, had Grandfather been tender toward anyone. He wasn’t unkind or unfeeling; he was simply a bit unreachable.

Until now.

“I can be more patient with Lili from France.” Armitage managed not to scoff at the fact that he was apologizing for not trusting someone who wouldn’t even tell them her surname.

“Your father had more patience than anyone else I’ve known.” Grandfather’s tone was full of longing and heartache. “‘People aren’t always at their best after a harrowing experience,’ him’d say. And when people weren’t at their best, Romilly would work all the harder to be at his.”

Dad had truly been remarkable. So had Mum. It was a legacy Armitage would do well to attempt in this moment to live up to. But he also knew that neither of his parents would allow this chance-met Frenchwoman to hurt Grandfather. And neither would Armitage.

“Us’ve had others stay here until all was sorted out,” Armitage said. “It’d not be a terrible thing, I suppose, if Lili did the same.”

Grandfather turned back toward him, a cup of steaming tea in his hand. “And you’ll have little time for finding she a thorn, considering us’ll have the new keeper to train.”

“Criminy,” Armitage muttered. He’d forgotten entirely. A green-gilled lightkeeper sent by Trinity House would be arriving the day after next, and there was every chance Lili would still be at the lighthouse.

He followed Grandfather back into the parlor, where Lili had set herself in the chair nearest the fire, sitting right on the edge, as if ready to bolt at any moment.

“Here you are, then.” Grandfather carefully handed the cup to her. “It’ll warm you.”

“ Merci beaucoup. ”

Grandfather sat in the other chair, leaving Armitage to either hover or step farther still to sit on the settee. While he was choosing, Grandfather took up the conversation.

“I remember enough French from my daughter-in-law to know I ought to respond to that with, ‘You’re welcome.’”

Lili smiled at him. Hers was a beautiful smile, truth be told. Almost shockingly so. And it disappeared the instant her eyes wandered in Armitage’s direction. Her features slipped into absolute neutrality, but her gaze hardened.

“Don’t you mind Armitage,” Grandfather said. “Him’s a bit sore just now is all.”

Lili watched warily over the rim of her teacup as she sipped. She was studying him, attempting to sort him out. He didn’t know how long she would remain at the Loftstone Lighthouse, but theirs seemed destined to be an uneasy dance until she left.

“When you’ve had time to rest and find your land legs,” Grandfather said, “let we know where word ought to be sent. Us’ll go to the village and send a telegram.”

The offer confused her. Did she think they were so stingy as to not send word to whomever was waiting for her to arrive?

“Us could also see you onto the train if you’d rather journey directly,” Armitage said.

Her confusion deepened to complete bewilderment. Though she still leaned over her teacup, she didn’t seem the least aware of it any longer. Her eyes darted from Armitage to Grandfather and back a few times.

“Surely, you can believe my grandfather, at least, is generous enough to make such offers.”

Her forehead creased more intensely. Her lips moved silently. Tension rippled through her posture. “You have ... confusing words.”

Grandfather, in a further shift from his usual, leaned a bit closer to her and spoke in fatherly tones. He didn’t often use paternal tones with Armitage. “Your English is impressive, far better than our French. And your mind is tired. That’ll make sorting through the words more difficult.”

She nodded, gratitude touching her expression.

Grandfather eyed Armitage sidelong, a bit of censure in his gaze once again.

Lili from France was in unfamiliar waters, as the saying went. And English was not the language she usually conversed in. Armitage was willing to grant her that. But being generous regarding her grasp of English didn’t erase the very real hostility she directed toward him.

She was sweet and kind toward Grandfather, then cold and suspicious toward Armitage. And Grandfather was mirroring that disapproval in his interactions with Armitage. Lili had upended his family and his life too suddenly and too entirely to not put him fully on guard.