Adrian felt his stomach tighten. "Malcolm."
"Yes."
"Thank you. For the lies. For coming."
"Don't thank me yet." Malcolm slowed the car. "You have a board to face, a guard to fire, and a maid to apologize to. And Adrian?"
"Yes?"
"Next time you want to find yourself, try a retreat. They have brochures."
"Noted."
"And Adrian." Malcolm's voice went serious. "When we walk in there, you are the chairman again. The beard is gone. Whatever you learned in that shed, spend it wisely. These people have waited three days for their king to come home. Don't waste the homecoming."
Adrian laughed, and it surprised them both, and the car rolled through the gates of Whitmore House, and the experiment was over, and everything else was about to begin.
Chapter 13: The Return
Grace got back from the station at half past four with nothing to show for it but a parking ticket and a hollow feeling behind her ribs.
They had not let her see him. A tired clerk had told her through the glass that Whit was being processed, that these things took time, that she could call in the morning. She had sat in the plastic chair for an hour anyway, because leaving felt like abandoning him twice.
Now her Honda rattled up the estate drive, and something was wrong before she even saw it. The front steps, usually empty at this hour, held a black town car. And Mrs. Park stood in the open doorway with both hands pressed to her mouth.
Grace parked crooked and ran.
The great hall was full of whispers. Staff lined the staircase, maids and gardeners and kitchen help, all staring at the figure by the tall windows. Someone said he had been kidnapped. Someone else said Zurich. Mrs. Park kept wringing her hands and saying nothing at all. He stood with his back to them, looking out at the lawn, hands clasped behind him. Silver hair. A suit that fit like it had been sewn onto him.
Grace stopped at the edge of the crowd. Rosa grabbed her arm.
"Tell me you're seeing this," Rosa whispered.
"I don't understand."
Tommy appeared on her other side, breathless. "Is that... Grace, is that him? The boss? He looks like Whit with money."
"Quiet," Rosa hissed, but she was staring too.
The man turned.
Grace's knees went strange. The beard was gone. The grime was gone. But the eyes were the same cold gray, and the height was the same, and the way he stood, utterly still, was the same.
"Whit," she said, before she could stop herself.
Every head turned. Adrian Whitmore looked at her across the marble floor, and something crossed his face that she could not name.
"Miss Miller," he said. "Welcome back."
The words landed strangely, formal and absurd, and Grace realized she had no idea what to call him now at all.
Mrs. Park made a small sound. A silver tray she had been holding slipped from her fingers and rang against the floor like a bell. Nobody picked it up.
"Mr. Whitmore," Mrs. Park said faintly. "We thought... Malcolm said..."
"Malcolm said I was restructuring my calendar." Adrian's mouth twitched. "He wasn't wrong. I was restructuring everything."
Victor pushed through the crowd from the back, cap in his hands, face pale. "Mr. Whitmore. Sir. I didn't know you were... I mean, welcome home, sir. If there's anything..."
"There is," Adrian said. "Assembly. Everyone. The great hall. One hour."
"Sir?"
"You heard me, Mr. Haines. Everyone."
Victor nodded too many times and backed away. The crowd began to dissolve into frightened murmurs. Grace stood frozen while the staff scattered, and then Adrian was walking toward her, and Rosa melted away with remarkable speed for a woman her size.
"Grace," he said.
She looked up at him. Three days of soup and gravel and gray knit caps rearranged themselves in her head. The laugh over the bowl. "Call them. I'll wait." The thermos warm in her hands.
"You," she said.
"Me."
"You ate my soup."
"I ate everything you gave me. It was the best food I've had in years."
She stared. "You let me get suspended."
"I didn't know until last night. Tommy told me." His voice was quiet. "I'm sorry."
"You're sorry." She laughed, a short disbelieving sound. "Do you have any idea what the last three days have been like?"
"Some idea. I lived them."
"From the other side of the bars." She folded her arms. "You watched Victor threaten my job. You watched me..."
"I watched you be braver than anyone I've ever employed," he said. "Including me."
She shook her head slowly. "Three days I brought you food. Three days Victor... Do you know he told Officer Cole I was unreliable? That I was suspended for insubordination, as if feeding someone were a crime?"
"I know."
"And Tommy? He showed you the photos?"
"He showed me." Adrian's jaw tightened.