The Book Eaters(61)
The sight of him, however, was a sharp reminder of her priorities. She needed these folks to trust her, or Cai would never be okay again, and Devon would never be free of Ramsey. Perhaps she ought to yield, just a little, just this once.
She turned back to a very amused-looking Hester and said, “About twenty grand.”
The other woman’s smile faltered. “Come again?”
“I took twenty-six thousand, three hundred and seventy pounds from Matley Easterbrook’s vault. There was more, but the rest didn’t fit in my backpack.” Devon picked up her jacket from the couch, shook it out, and stuffed her arms into the sleeves. “I’ve got about twenty thousand pounds left, I think. Need to sit and count it out. Plenty for a cheap old car.”
“You broke into the Easterbrook vault?!”
“Didn’t Killock take his father’s accounts?” Devon said, sidestepping the question. “This is no different.”
“Killock had years to plan, and all of us helping,” Hester said, equally evasive. “You were one woman alone.”
“What’re we doing this morning?” Cai wandered out of the bathroom looking cleaner than he had in a long while. But also moving a little slower, and the bright energy he’d carried yesterday seemed faded.
“We are about to buy a car,” Devon informed him. “Wanna do your starving orphan act? Should knock a bit off the price.”
“Not an act,” he said mournfully. “I’m really hungry.”
A week ago, those words would have twisted her gut. Today, Devon could smile apologetically and say, “Hang in there, love. Just a few more hours.” She counted out five hundred pounds in twenty-pound notes and handed them across to Hester. “Here. You and he should be the ones to do the purchase. I don’t have shoes and I look dodgy as hell.”
“Oh! I mean, sure, if you trust me to—”
“We’ll never finish this trip if we don’t start trusting each other.” She handed the money over in a thick wad.
“Right.” Hester took the proffered money and cleared her throat. “Innerleithen.”
“Pardon?”
“You wanted to know, right? I’m letting you know.” Hester folded the money with deliberate care and tucked it into a pocket. “We are going to Traquair House, on the outskirts of Innerleithen. It’s only a couple hours’ drive from here.”
“Never been there, never heard of it,” Devon said, nonplussed. “But I appreciate the trust. Thanks for telling me, even if I don’t have a bloody clue where it is.”
“Well. Like you said, the success of our journey requires mutual reliance,” Hester said, sounding embarrassed. “Informing you of the destination is a small enough gesture.”
“You’d have needed to tell me in the next couple of hours anyway.” Devon picked up the television remote and unmuted the news channel. “Come grab me when you’ve got the car, aye? I want to see if there are any updates about us, in the meantime.”
“It’s a plan.” Hester unlocked the door and held her hand out to Cai. “All right, young man. You get to be my accomplice.”
Devon sat patiently on the edge of the bed until they’d disappeared, keeping her eyes to the screen. When the door clicked shut after Hester and Cai, she got up, drew the bolt as a precaution, and rang Ramsey on her mobile.
He answered on the first ring. “Tell me this is good news.”
“Innerleithen,” she said, a little breathless. “We’re going to a place called Traquair House in Innerleithen, it’s—”
“A town in the border counties. I know it.” A pause. “Innerleithen, of all places! Why there, I wonder?”
“How should I know,” she said, exasperated. “Maybe it was the first place they could find? Anyway, I need a few days to settle in once we get there.”
“Fine. I need a little time myself, to organize things on this end.” He sounded serene, cheerful. Almost pleasant, like boy-Ramsey had been during his best moods. “Let’s set a date. December 26, at twenty-three hundred hours. Send a confirmation text once you’re there and keep your phone if you can; we can track it.”
“That’s tomorrow evening,” she said dazedly, counting up in her head: barely thirty-six hours. “Are you sure?”
“Why the fuck wouldn’t I be sure?” he snarled, roused to sudden ire. “It’s not a problem, is it? You’re not on goddamn holiday, Dev.”
“No. No, of course not.” A brutally tight window, but it would have to do. “It’s fine, I was just surprised. Is there anything else?”
“Don’t fuck up. Don’t try anything stupid. Look out for the knight I’m sending your way. See you in a day and a half.” The line went dead.
Devon watched the call disconnect and wondered how Ramsey had fared last night, stranded on that train with his superiors breathing down his neck. How he’d explained the dead bodies and everything else that had gone wrong with the knights’ actions. She suspected, with a kind of grudging admiration, that he’d not encountered any trouble. He was a tough person in his own, spiteful little way.
That toughness made him blind, though. Ramsey thought himself so strong and so frightening that no one would dare to get in his way, and thought of her as so desperate and so shaped by circumstance that she wouldn’t have a path around his enforced treachery and spiraling plans.