Elodie walked right past him and headed straight upstairs.
Jarrod glanced back at her retreating figure, then turned and entered the nursery. He took the little toy from Cara’s hands. “Here, I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry, you go ahead with your work.”
Cara looked puzzled, but she nodded and left the room.
Jarrod stood by the crib, carefully fixing the component back in place. He ran his thumb along the rail, then finally turned and walked out.
After dinner, Elodie assumed that, as usual, Jarrod’s grandmother would return directly to her own house for the night. But instead, the old lady had already instructed the staff to prepare a guest room. Then she turned to Cara and said, “Go and make that restorative tonic for Elodie.”
She looked Elodie up and down, frowning. “You’ve been working too hard. Look at you—you’re all skin and bones. Didn’t Dr. Badgers used to prescribe you those supplements? You stopped taking them because you got busy, but you really can’t neglect your health.”
Just hearing about those tonics made Elodie’s scalp prickle. In the second year of her marriage—though cracks were already forming by then—Jarrod had arranged for Dr. Badgers, the same specialist who took care of his grandmother, to help her recover physically. His grandmother had been more than happy to see it, always making sure she had the most expensive supplements and medicines.
With their help, Elodie had slowly regained much of the strength she’d lost from years spent caring for her sick mother, and later from the injury she’d suffered protecting Ivan Harcourt.
But she’d never been good at refusing the concern of elders who cared for her, so she simply nodded. “Thank you for thinking of me, Grandma.”
Still, her mind was elsewhere. She wondered how she was going to excuse herself tonight. With Jarrod’s grandmother staying over, it wouldn’t be easy to slip away unnoticed. Jarrod was in his study, working. Maybe she’d find a chance to talk to him about it later.
Elodie didn’t go downstairs. She stayed out on the terrace, sending messages in her work group chat, ironing out some project details with the tech team.
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