Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2
Leather & Lark
by Brynne Weaver
Contents
Chapter Five: Threads
Overview
Lark returns to Aunt Ethel’s home and overhears her parents and Stan Tremblay suspecting Lachlan and Leviathan in a string of murders, even considering eliminating the Kanes. Ethel reveals she engineered Lark’s eavesdropping and counsels that family vows trump business. She implies Lark could protect Rowan and Lachlan by marrying Lachlan.
Shaken but resolute, Lark prioritizes Sloane’s elopement plans while contemplating Ethel’s strategic, sacrificial solution.
Summary
One year later, Lark arrives at Aunt Ethel’s seaside home, greets her sister Ava, and receives a text from Ethel to take the rear stairs. On the way, Lark overhears her mother Nina, stepfather Damian, and fixer Stan Tremblay discussing a pattern of murders every forty days. Tremblay floats Lachlan Kane—formerly of Leviathan—as a prime suspect, citing skill and Rowan Kane’s volatility, and suggests preemptive action.
Damian resists striking without proof, warning of Leviathan’s retaliation. Tremblay presses for decisive measures and hints at handling the problem “the Montague way.” Nina defers a decision for a week and excludes Ethel from the plan. After they leave, Lark, determined to protect Sloane and Rowan, grabs Ethel’s lotion and struggles to calm her rising panic.
Texts from Rose about transporting wedding items remind Lark of Sloane’s impending surprise elopement with Rowan. Lark considers urging the couple to flee but recognizes her family’s reach. She decides to collect Sloane’s dress and think of a better plan.
In Ethel’s craft room, Ethel admits she orchestrated Lark overhearing the meeting. They evaluate suspects: Ethel favors rival Bob Foster over the Kanes; Lark believes Rowan and Lachlan wouldn’t risk their family. Ethel, declining home nursing and embracing control over her decline, hints that promises and vows are levers her family won’t break.
Ethel guides Lark to a strategic conclusion: Nina and Damian will not violate sacred vows. If Lark marries Lachlan, her parents’ loyalty could shield the Kanes, neutralizing Tremblay’s push for violence. As Lark holds Sloane’s wedding dress, Ethel asks Lark to tell her more about Lachlan, cementing the proposal for a protective marriage.
Who Appears
- LarkProtagonist; overhears family plotting against the Kanes, resolves to protect Sloane and Rowan, considers marrying Lachlan as a shield.
- Ethel MontagueAiling but sharp great aunt; orchestrates Lark’s eavesdropping and proposes vows as leverage, implying Lark marry Lachlan.
- NinaLark’s mother; weighs Tremblay’s plan to target the Kanes, defers action for a week, keeps Ethel out.
- DamianLark’s stepfather; skeptical of acting without proof, warns against provoking Leviathan.
- Stan TremblayFamily fixer; argues Lachlan/Leviathan are responsible, pushes for preemptive elimination of the Kanes.
- AvaLark’s sister; managing Ethel’s paperwork, briefly interacts, unaware of the plot.
- Rowan KaneDiscussed; Sloane’s fiancé with a volatile history, potential collateral target of Lark’s family.
- Lachlan KaneDiscussed; ex-Leviathan killer suspected in murders; potential marriage-of-convenience to protect both families.
- SloaneOff-page; preparing surprise elopement with Rowan, central to Lark’s protective urgency.
- RoseTexts Lark about transporting wedding items, grounding Lark in immediate tasks.