by Nhys Glover
“You need to start with light objects. I think there might be some table-tennis balls in the nursery’s built-in wardrobe. The table was sold, but I don’t think the bat and balls went with it.”
Not that I’d ever played table tennis. That had clearly been something my aunt and mother had enjoyed when they were girls. My assumption was confirmed when Daphne clapped her hands in delight.
“Ohhh yes. I remember playing with Mummy. She was really quite good. Gilly was too little to be any competition for me though. But it was fun teaching her.”
I loved these small snapshots about my mother’s early life. Especially the positive ones. It felt like I was there sharing those moments with the sisters.
While I went in search of the balls, Daphne and Squib followed. Jake said he was heading for the shower, just where I hoped to head after setting up the ghosts. I knew I’d also have to explain myself to Jake. He still didn’t understand my rationale.
In the old nursery, I put a couple of balls on the bare floorboards. They rolled a little, as the floor wasn’t completely flat.
“Now, I’m going to have a shower. Squib, by the time I’m through, you’ll have finished your training session and be ready to start working with me. I’ll meet you in the solar then. All right?”
Squib hunched his shoulders like a school boy, grunting his agreement. With a smile at Daphne, I left them to it. It was a gamble, this game I was playing with Squib. I just hoped it paid off rather than backfiring and hurting Jake.
I met Jake in the hall. He was obviously on his way back to his room, fresh from the shower, and dressed only in a towel. My mouth was instantly dry as I watched trickles of water make their way from his wet hair, down his shoulders to his chest.
Jake laughed smugly. “If you don’t stop staring at me like that I might end up doin’ some of the dirty things you’re imagining.”
Guiltily, I dragged my gaze from his body and studied the floor instead. His bare feet were just as sexy as the rest of him, I discovered to my chagrin. God, I was a hopeless case!
“I wanted to explain,” I said after clearing my throat a few times.
“About why you’re helping Squib to fight me?” he asked with interest, his tone still light.
“Yes, that. I’m gambling that I can move him on faster than he can learn to move objects big enough to hurt you. While ever he’s still here he’s a saboteur in our midst. We don’t need that.”
“But giving a saboteur a weapon is not a bright idea.”
“Do you think he’ll be paying attention to his exercises or Daphne?” I threw back, hand on hip.
That had him smiling. “Your plan is for her to use her feminine wiles to distract him?”
I shrugged. “Kind of. He doesn’t like to work, she loves to flirt. It seems that combination will likely result in little real work being done by either of them.”
Jake sighed, running his hand through his wet hair. He hadn’t shaved, and there were several days of scruff on his cheeks. This image of him would be populating my sexual fantasies for some time to come.
“All right. I’ll go along with it, for now. But you need to monitor their progress. I can handle a ping pong ball in the face, I’m not sure if I can handle a rock.”
I grinned.
“Sure you can! You’re a big tough cage fighter,” I taunted, flirting outrageously.
Without planning, my hand snaked out to pull the end of the towel loose. Jake had to make a grab for it, to catch it before it fell away.
Laughing, I took off down the hall.
“You little...”
When I looked back over my shoulder, I saw he’d let the towel fall to the floor and was racing after me. It didn’t take more than a few of his long strides to catch up with my much shorter ones, especially as I was paying more attention to his naked body than where I was going. Luckily, the hall was long enough that I didn’t reach the end of it and fall down the stairs.
When Jake tackled me, in a move I’d seen him use on Squib, he took the brunt of the fall on his shoulder and back as he rolled us. When he stopped rolling, I found myself under a very naked man, my arms pinned above my head.
I twisted my hips, trying to knock him off me, laughing all the while. A hard length began to make its presence felt between my thighs. I stilled instantly, eyes wide in shock.
Jake’s smile became wolfish and smug. “Not such a clever move, huh?”
Turning the tables, I licked my lips. Seriously, where did I come up with this stuff? I had clearly read too many steamy romance novels.
Jake’s eyes darkened and his smile fell away. His expression turned feral. “Oh, the innocent little lamb is playing games with the big bad wolf is she? That’s the way to get eaten.”
His lips came down on mine in a crushing kiss. As his tongue plunged into my mouth, I moaned, arousal sweeping up and over me in a wave. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Hot and intense and overpowering.
“Get the fuck off her!” A voice intruded into my lust-fogged brain. Who...?
Jake broke the kiss and pulled back, looking up at Mason, who stood over us like some kind of avenging angel.
“M... Mason, it’s not what it looks like...” I stammered, sitting up, my face burning with mortification.
“Like he was trying to rape you? Hard to mistake it for anything else.”
Jake stood up—in all his muscular, naked glory—offered me a hand, and drew me to my feet. Then, with a nonchalance I envied, he prowled back down the hall to grab his towel. Once it was wrapped around his waist again, he grinned smugly back at Mason.
“I’ve never found forcing women necessary,” he said with a smirk, before swaggering off to his room, leaving me to deal with the fallout.
Bastard!
“We were playing. To defuse some of the tension. It just went a bit far, that’s all,” I said, guiltily.
Why I felt the need to make excuses was beyond me. It was my house, and Jake and I were both single consenting adults.
“You can’t play with men like him, don’t you understand that? He’s a predator, nothing more. He’ll break your heart and leave you, without a backward glance.”
As this touched on my own insecurities, I felt my temper flare. “That would be my business, wouldn’t it?”
Mason took my shoulders in his hands and lowered his head so his nose almost touched mine. “Alfie, you’re an innocent child next to that man. Can’t you trust me on this? All he wants is to get control of this house and the money from its sale. He’s not interested in you.”
I pulled away, hating to feel his hands on me. “We’ve had this talk before. I said if you couldn’t stop making unfounded allegations you’d have to leave.”
His mouth dropped open, and for a moment I saw something in his eyes that frightened me. Then it was gone. The gentle brown was back and his expression became contrite.
“I’m sorry, Alfie. It just drives me mad to see you with him when I want you for myself.”
His words sounded hollow and insincere, and for the first time I started to wonder who really wanted me for my house.
“I think you need to leave. When I’ve finished doing what I must, I will let you know and you can notify the relevant bodies about the chamber and books. Until then...”
He made to reach for me again, but I stepped a little further back.
“You don’t mean that. I apologised. You can’t do this without me. I’m the expert, after all,” he argued desperately.
“Yes, and I appreciate your help. But now I must do it myself. I’ll see you out.”
“My notes...”
“Everything stays here until I’m ready to reveal the site to the National Trust.”
I could see the war raging in his mind. Did he force the issue his way or give in graciously, with the hope of coming back later to mend bridges when I’d cooled down? I was relieved when he opted for the latter.
As we approached the front door, Fred came runnin
g down the stairs to wind himself protectively around my feet. He could feel the tension between Mason and I, and he responded to it. I was pleased for his concern but having him tangled around my legs made moving difficult.
Finally, I managed to extricate one foot well enough to reach the doorknob. With admirable poise, I got the door open without falling flat on my face.
Mason walked out. “I’m sorry you feel I stepped out of line. It was not my intention. You have to realise that when I saw you two grappling on the floor, him naked on top of you, it pushed me over the edge. Any man who cared as much about a woman as I do would have done the same, if not more. I should have pulled him off you and beaten him senseless.”
I imagined it would be true. A man who cared about a woman might be driven past rationality over the scene he’d witnessed. But I couldn’t get past the fact that his responses had been more territorial than protective. He wanted what Jake seemed to have.
“I do understand it must have been fairly shocking to witness. But it was a good thing you didn’t try to get violent with Jake. He would’ve hurt you, and I wouldn’t have wanted that.”
“I... I don’t care. I would’ve been defending your honour,” he huffed out like a sulky child.
“I appreciate that. As I appreciate all you’ve done for me in the last week. Without you, I would never have known about the truth behind the standing stone on my property.”
He nodded, mollified a little.
As I watched him turn away, heading down the few stairs to the gravelled, curved driveway where his car sat, I wondered what I’d do now. Did this mean I had to be the one to read the Logos? It felt like a monumental task. I’d barely read a few pages of my ancestor’s journal before my eyes had begun to cross. How would I go with the far older Logos?
Trudging back inside, I closed the door and leaned against it. My mind was in chaos. Had I made the right choice? Had I chosen the right man? Not just for this quest I was on, but romantically. Jake was as far from being a suitable match as anyone could get, while Mason was exactly the kind of man my parents would have wanted for me.
But my parents were dead, and they had never truly cared enough about me to want me to find happiness. They cared that I maintained the family’s reputation and kept control of Ahman Hall, certainly, but not about my personal happiness.
Had any of my ancestors married for love? Had any of them been happy? It appeared, if the journal was to be believed, the pagan families had successfully manipulated relationships down through the generations so they could keep control of the Way. Manipulation meant dishonest feelings. Even if the men in the family thought they loved the women from the pagan families, the women probably didn’t feel the same.
I thought about Daddy. He’d been coaxed into marrying Mummy, the opportunity to be Lord of the Manor too great to reject. The much younger and still beautiful Gillian, who took care of her appearance even in her forties, would only have been the icing on the attractive cake.
And Mummy? What would she have seen in the much older barrister? That he fitted with her new role? Maybe it had been as simple as that. She’d travelled the world, explored all sorts of different paths, and yet when the chance came, she’d happily returned to her roots and took up the path her parents had laid out for her.
Would I do that? Would I choose a Mason Smart over a Jake Landers because it was a better fit for my role? No, I didn’t think so. But then, I was not old enough to have followed many paths yet. Maybe when I had—if I ever did have that chance to follow different roads—maybe I’d end up choosing what my DNA required of me.
I shuddered at the thought. Then I dismissed it. This was not the time for thinking about the future. There was a dragon to capture and return to its home. If I survived that encounter I could think about the future then. A future that included finding the money to keep my home. A future that might include my art selling at exhibition, if it was a legitimate exhibition. There was still a cloud over the gallery I hadn’t wanted to explore. Even if we got the dragon dealt with, it wasn’t going to be a Happy Ever After for me.
Chapter Ten
After a shower, I went in search of Squib. I found him in the tool shed with Jake.
“I’m gettin’ it, you big prick. I’m gettin’ it. And when I do you’ll be as dead as I am. I’ll kill you like you killed me!” he was yelling at the top of his voice.
“Squib, time for our session. I hope you haven’t forgotten,” I said over him.
Jake turned to glance my way, gratitude written all over his face. From the way Squib was keeping a distance between them, it was apparent Jake had become frustrated trying to make him disappear.
Squib sighed heavily, turning in my direction, again like a naughty school boy caught truanting. “Aren’t you busy with reading, now you got rid of the prof?” he whined.
“I have half-an-hour I can spare you,” I said in my best school teacher voice.
“You sent him away?” Jake asked as Squib disappeared. I hoped he’d be reappearing in the solar.
I nodded. “I’d warned him he couldn’t keep insulting you. I had no choice but to follow through.”
“He thought I was hurting you,” he said, though I could see he hated to be supporting Mason in this way.
“No, he thought he was losing the fight for me. I didn’t get any sense that he was really worried I was being raped. I thought you two could get on for the good of the cause, but I was wrong.”
“Maybe I should be the one—”
“No. He’s at fault. And beyond that, I need you more than I need him. I feel safe with you.”
He smiled stiffly and turned back to his work. He was uncomfortable with me saying things like that. But it was the truth, and I was not going to hide the truth, at least in this matter.
When I got to the solar, Squib was sitting on the top of my easel swinging his legs.
“’Bout time. Stop for a quickie did yer?” he snarked.
I growled under my breath, before putting on a professional smile. “No, I came right here. Now, where were we? You were focusing on those last thoughts before you died, I think. You were terrified that Jake was going to remove a body-part or beat you bloody. You were desperate to find a way out. Desperate to talk your way out, I assume. Am I close?”
He nodded, a faraway expression on his face. “Aye, I was scared. You would’ve been too, if you’d faced him in one o’ ‘is rages. You think because you’re letting him in yer knickers that you’ve turned ‘im into a big pussy-cat. But you ‘aven’t. And one o’ these days he’s gonna turn on you and take a big bite outta you. One that won’t heal.”
“We aren’t talking about Jake and me. We’re talking about your feelings. There was fear, desperation, and then the pain in your chest. When you found yourself outside your body looking down, what was your first thought?” I coaxed.
“Confusion. I didn’t understand what’d happened. I mean, Landers was still gettin’ ready to beat the shite out o’ me. But I was lookin’ down at meself lyin’ on the ground in a puddle of me own... Well, that doesn’t matter.” He cut himself off, embarrassed.
He’d wet himself as he died. I think I’d heard about that happening on some crime show or other.
“So, you were looking down, and suddenly you realised you were dead. What did that feel like? What were your thoughts?”
“I... I got angry, o’ course,” he hedged.
I could tell there was something he didn’t want to tell me.
“And what else? What were you thinking?” I coaxed.
“Look, this is goin’ nowhere. Why don’t you ask me about me mam? I can tell you all the reasons I ‘ated the bitch.”
“You mean the woman who gave you her car to help get you out of trouble?” I fired back, even though I knew I was getting waylaid intentionally.
“That’d be ‘er. Used to beat me as a kid, you know. I guess that’s why I got so afraid that last time. Why I ‘ad a ‘eart attack or whatever.”
&nb
sp; “What were you thinking when you realized you were dead?” I returned to the original question. I wouldn’t let him derail me.
He jumped down from the easel and began pacing; his temper volatile and close to erupting.
“Come on, Squib, what does it matter now? You’re dead. It’s over.”
“I remembered that feckin’ fortune-teller... Awright? I remembered what she said to me when I was a bairn.”
That shocked me, and I consciously had to close my mouth, which must have fallen open.
“What did she say?”
For the longest time I thought he wasn’t going to answer me, then he stood tall and lifted his chin. “That I’d never get to ‘eaven unless I did one selfless thing in my life. One selfless act. And I looked down at me body an’ thought... There should o’ been time for me to do it, you know? There should o’ been more time for me to do summat unselfish. Hardly a big thing. Help a pensioner across the road. Volunteer at a soup kitchen for a weekend. Summat. But there I was, dead, an’ I’d run out o’ time.”
This seemed way too easy. Was this why he hadn’t moved on? Because he thought he hadn’t fulfilled the selfless act a gypsy woman required of him when he was a kid?
I could see him being told his fortune and brushing it off. Yet it had preyed on him for years, and he’d put off doing his act of selflessness like it was a major chore. Was it all that terrible to be selfless for a few minutes?
Not to me, obviously. I was guilty of the reverse. If a gypsy woman told my fortune she’d probably say I couldn’t get to heaven until I performed one selfish act.
Not that I was calling myself Mother Theresa or anything. But my default programming was to put others before myself. I couldn’t seem to stop. And that was as bad as always putting myself first, like Squib did.
But no. That wasn’t wholly true now. Since Jake arrived on the scene I’d started to view myself in a different way. And sending Mason away had been for my good, more than it had been for Jake’s. I didn’t need him constantly harping at me that I was making a mistake and being gullible. And I didn’t need him treating me like an insane person because I saw ghosts. I’d hurt his feelings by sending him away, something I’d never intentionally done before, but I’d done it anyway.
