Page 37 of Ashes To Ashes
He strode out of the coach house. The rain pummeled him again and formed puddles in the low lying corner of the courtyard. He was already wet through to the bone and a few more drops didn't matter.
"You have to bring her home," Seth shouted. He was closer than Lincoln expected.
He turned to see they'd both followed him and stood in the courtyard as soaked as he was. "Go inside," he told them. "Dry off. Neither of you will be of use to me if you become ill."
"Neither of us will be of use if we refuse to work for you!" Gus shouted back.
So it had come to that after all. "Are you leaving my employ?"
Seth once again held up his hands in a placating gesture. Rain dripped off his hair down his face. He swiped angrily at his eyes. "Can we go inside to discuss this?"
"There's nothing to discuss."
"Bloody hell." Seth shook his head, spraying droplets. "Don't you see that this has affected you?"
That wasn't what Lincoln had expected him to say. "I'm the same as I've always been."
Gus snorted. "No, you're not," Seth said. "You're acting erratically and have been ever since she left."
"You're mistaken."
Gus shook his head. "You don't care about your own safety no more."
Lincoln had never cared. He went to walk away, but Seth's words stopped him.
"No, that's not what I meant. I meant you've lost focus now. Answers that were once easy to obtain have become elusive. Details that were obvious are now less so. You do foolish things that jeopardize your own safety because you're distracted. You thought she was a distraction when she was here, but her absence is doubly so. Isn't it?"
Rain thundered on the tiled roof of the coach house and stables. Drips slid past Lincoln's collar and down his spine, leaving a painfully icy trail in their wake. His men watched him through the veil of rain, their gazes searching, questioning. Hoping. They didn't know for certain. They were only guessing at Lincoln's motives and state of mind.
He clung to that as if it were a buoy.
"You miss her," Seth said, more quietly. "You miss her terribly."
Lincoln squinted up into the sky, ignoring the rain splattering his face. The heavy clouds seemed to blanket the whole world, smothering every breath. He should go inside. He should walk away from his men and not answer them.
But for a reason he couldn't fathom, he wanted to answer. "Yes. I miss her." He tilted his head forward and looked at each of them in turn. He needed to get his next point across. "But it will pass."
They scoffed. Gus shook his head. "You're a fool if you think we believe that," Seth said.
"You're a fool ifyoubelieve it," Gus added.
Lincoln's face heated. He could feel his temper rising from the depths of him, bubbling to the surface. "How would you know?"
Neither seemed to think it a question worth answering. But the longer the silence stretched, the more Lincoln realized his question was sincere.
"I owe you much," Seth said, folding his arms up high on his chest and not meeting Lincoln's gaze. “I don't know where I'd be now if it weren't for you. I like working for the ministry."
Lincoln looked to Gus, but his craggy features gave nothing away.
"I don't want to leave," Seth went on. "But I feel I must. I can't work for someone who acts irrationally. And she kept you in check."
"In check how?" Lincoln asked.
"You shot a man in the foot!"
"I didn't kill him."
"You traversed the city over rooftops. In the rain."
