“Miss Taylor, I can explain everything if you just give me one more moment of your time”
“I’m sure you can, Mr. Majers.” She purposefully addressed him in a formal manner as she edged away from him toward to the office door, with a close eye on the guards.
“I’m just not positive I’m ready to believe everything you’re about to tell me.”
She didn’t miss the fact that one of the security officers stepped away from Anna and moved a little closer to her retreating figure before the professor swiftly shook his head in alarm.
Her hands shook slightly, but it didn’t stop her from raising her head high and leaving the office with as much shaky confidence as possible. She didn’t know what was happening and she surely didn’t know what to do about it, but she could walk out like she had every right to. There was plenty of time to sort through everything later, as long as there was a later.
Chapter Five
When the late summers were really dry you could see someone coming a mile away down a country dirt road.
The sky was perfectly blue, the kind of color that an artist dreams of recreating, but is never really able to capture the brilliance of the light. The dust cloud looked pretty far off to Danielle as she sat on the peaceful porch, and she could not help but be curious about who might have the need to come down this primitive trail on such a lovely Saturday afternoon.
Her tether was ringing in the kitchen, or so she had come to think of the telephone. A good night’s sleep had done nothing to shed a different light on the happenings of the previous afternoon, and so the tension remained in her neck and shoulders as she waited for the other shoe to drop in this bizarre country drama.
She sidled up to the counter and reluctantly picked up the handset. When you weren’t expecting any friendly calls and didn’t have much of a reason to, it was usually a Telemarketer or a Satan worshipper on the other end. Either way, they always wanted your soul.
It was this line of thinking which encouraged Danielle to hold the receiver to her ear and listen before she committed herself to a conversation.
“Oh? Hello?” a somewhat distraught Mary Jane came clearly over the line.
Oh, damn. Here it comes.
She had been waiting for a call from Anna’s Mother, of course. That one probably fell into the Satan worshipper category. She braced the palm of her hand on the cool tile counter and rested her forehead in the other as she prepared for the verbal onslaught that was surely coming her way. After everything she had witnessed yesterday, she’d walked out and left Mary Jane’s daughter to face her fate alone, which was hardly justified no matter how much the girl disliked her.
It was that thought, more than anything else that plagued her conscience. There were always a hundred things a person thinks of that they could have done after the fact.
“I just had to phone and apologize for what happened with Anna yesterday,” the woman managed to get out, and Danielle had to question what she had heard.
“I don’t understand…”
She tried to call up all the reasons she had stored in her head over the course of the night to give Mary Jane, but the unexpected apology threw her off course.
“Of course you don’t, dear!” The friendly woman exclaimed with a relieved tone at the sound of her voice, obviously pleased Danielle was willing to speak with her.
“I’m sure you noticed Anna wasn’t quite right the other day when she brought you the pie?”
“I may have observed a little unusual behavior at the time…” she answered generously, but she privately wondered to herself if the girl had a selection of fashionable straightjackets in her closet. She also wondered if there was one in her size she might borrow as a secondhand thought.
“Things have been hard for Anna, ever since we lost her brother during a military excursion overseas. It was terrible for all of us, but I think it was most difficult for her. She would hate it if I told you, but she still keeps his dog tags in a special box on her nightstand. I know she seems tough to you, but sometimes, late at night, I can’t tell if she’s crying or praying.”
Danielle was already tired and emotionally torn. Her eyes instantly brimmed with tears. She had never lost anyone in the military, but she knew others who had and she had seen how it affected entire families. She may not have always agreed with the reasons they went to fight, but she always felt the soldiers who did needed everyone’s unconditional support.
“Mary Jane, I am so sorry to hear about your son. If there is anything I can do to make it better for you, please let me know,” she answered the older woman with sincerity.
“Andy is gone, but Anna is here and Professor Majers has done a great deal to help her—to help all of us—through this. And I really do hope, with all my heart, that Anna did nothing to cast him in an unfair light in your eyes. He has been the very soul of kindness to us and has done his best to guide our troubled young daughter through these difficult times.”
Danielle didn’t feel it was necessary to recount the terrible scene she had witnessed in the professor’s quarters the day before and if pressed for detail, she was beginning to question her own perception of the events that occurred before her very eyes. She pushed aside whatever uneasy feeling remained and focused on the present conversation.
“Anna is doing all right, then?”
“The best that we can hope for right now,” Mary Jane answered in an honest tone.
Before she could express her relief, the sound of a car pulling into the rutted, worn gravel drive caught her attention.
“I’m sorry, Mary Jane, but I think I actually may have some company in the front yard.”
“Now there is one thing that doesn’t surprise me,” the smiling voice of the woman on the other end of the line responded. “I’ll let you go, then…and thank you again for understanding.”
Danielle gently hung the receiver on the wall and realized that with everything she couldn’t figure out in this world, there was so much she really did understand. Life happened to everyone, in the city, in the country, and all over the world. Maybe these people weren’t so different after all and despite the strange circumstances of her arrival, they deserved a chance.
* * * *
The front screen door didn’t fit completely in the frame, so the light knock on the grey wood banged and echoed down the hall as Danielle made her way to the foyer. She could see the dark haired professor through the rusty screen and had to repress a smile when she regarded his casual blue jeans and black T-shirt. Somehow he appeared a lot less daunting outside of his crisp, proper uniform for the university.
He stepped back a few feet when she approached and had an unmistakably shy smile on his face.
“I know it is quite improper for me to arrive unannounced, but I was afraid if I said I was coming you would arrange to be unavailable.”
“How do you know I’m not unavailable now?” she countered, and though her words were reprimanding, she allowed a bit of playful banter into her tone.
He swept a critical eye over her gardening outfit, complete with grass stains and an apron full of holes before he responded.
“If you plan to entertain the Queen or any other such noble company, then I am remiss…but you should go change your clothes.”
“Her Majesty does not arrive until the evening,” she said loftily. “Therefore, I suppose you may come in for the time being.”
She pushed the screen door open with her left arm, and he entered with a subtle, and probably accidental, brush against her bare skin.
Danielle was about to invite him into her parlor, something she had been waiting to do with any guest since she’d arrived and saw the glorious sitting room, but she was disappointed when he strolled in as if he had been there before.
“I guess I don’t need to show you the way,” she spoke with a little hesitation, looking closely at his expression when it changed to surprise.
“I apologize, how boorish of me to assume. Professor Wilde and I were c
lose colleagues; many a night we spent in discourse by the fireplace, or in the library.”
“Well, the other rooms in the house are off-limits, I’m sorry to say,” she answered with frustration, wondering if he was here to see her or the house.
Of course, she then had to wonder if she wanted him to be here for her or the house.
“Let me explain.” He smiled in a disarming manner, quickly slipping a canvas bag from his shoulder. “Mary Jane mentioned there was some work to do on the farmhouse, and she was worried about you being here all alone. There was some talk about poison and stabbing, I believe?”
“And you thought you could…” Danielle prompted, not willing to give an inch to the man in her sitting room when she wasn’t sure he deserved it yet.
“Well, you know; two birds, one stone, that sort of thing?”
“I’ve actually never killed any birds, but I hear you English types are different.” She smiled sweetly, and finally gestured toward the couch for him to have a seat.
Her guest appeared a little uncomfortable and it suited her just enough to relax and feel a bit guilty about her defensive treatment. If he had reacted with hostility she might have been justified for judging his character, but he merely appeared to be bewildered and unsure of himself.
If she wasn’t careful, she could lose a perfectly good handyman.
“I have an idea.” He took two steps toward her instead of sitting down, and she didn’t disappoint him by moving away.
“Let’s start again. Yesterday was stressful for all of us, and I’d like another chance to introduce myself.”
The last thing Danielle wanted to be was rude, so she coolly tilted her head in an effort to show she would accept his olive branch.
“I am Britton Majers, head of the Department of Antiquities and your humble servant.”
“I am Danielle Taylor, the latest person to acquire this lovely farmhouse, and I admit it may be in dire need of repair.”
“Then perhaps you could put the kettle on for tea and we could discuss…your needs?” He raised an eyebrow suggestively, but his facial expression remained perfectly civil and proper.
It was all she could do to walk steadily out of the room, down the dimly lit hall and into the kitchen where she spent so many hours with the telephone and kettle. A part of her was thrilled the professor had shown an interest, any kind of interest, in her situation. The other part was waving so many flags of caution that she would have flown right off the track if she had heeded them.
After her last miserable failure involving a man she was supposed to be able to trust she wasn’t sure she was a good judge of character at the moment. Though she was at least aware of her feelings there, she was cognizant enough to realize her previous relationship may have given her an unfair impression of a perfectly innocent Englishman. Perhaps she should do as he suggested, and allow for a fresh start.
Even as she resolved to let go of the past and embrace the present, her mind wandered to the picture in the broken frame, and her heart ached unexpectedly for the impulsive fantasy she’d buried deep in her mind for the intriguing man she had never even met.
Be sensible, Britton Majers is here and now, she chided herself, but no amount of self-reprimand could convince her heart to rise to the passion of that one single daydream and meet the professor who was waiting in the next room. It was no use, but if she was smart, she might be able to get the dark haired visitor to talk about the man she really wanted to know more of.
* * * *
“He would go up into the mountains of Northern Peru for days, sometimes weeks. Most of the faculty at the University thought he was quite mad, but other sources backed his little expeditions and paid the college handsomely for his irregular absences. His workload often fell to substitutes or other staff members, though nothing was ever ultimately done about it. I’m not surprised he met with an ill fate at the rate he was going.”
As Britton sipped his tea and sighed deeply, Danielle noticed he did not meet her eyes when he spoke. She wondered how much he would tell her and decided to choose her questions carefully and delicately.
Sometimes her mind and her mouth were on two different wavelengths, however.
“How do you know he met with an ill fate? I thought he was just missing, never found a body.”
Britton gave her a startled glance after her direct manner and then settled back in his chair as he regarded her with a new and calculating look. If he had underestimated her before now, it surely wouldn’t happen again. Curse her strong will and dislike for beating around the bush. She had to turn it down a notch and see where this was all leading before she started digging deeply.
“When one is missing in the rugged and unfriendly mountains of Peru for an extended period of time, one can easily be presumed dead as a doornail, to be perfectly truthful. After all, you are the person who purchased his house. Would you have done so if you hadn’t thought he was gone as well?”
Britton didn’t understand that Danielle had spent the last several years with the master of manipulation himself, so she was very aware of the fact he was turning her own scrutiny around and laying it in her lap to take the heat off his own words. She decided to go along for the time being. Perhaps it was best if she played the silly girl card and catered to his ego at the moment to discover more.
“It’s not exactly like the realtor put a big ad in the paper that said ‘Probably Dead Professors House for Sale—but if he’s not, he might bring back the Holy Grail or something’. I was hoping for a deer head at the most, really.”
The professor relaxed a little and chuckled. His gaze discreetly swept over her sitting figure with appreciation, and she realized it had been a very long time since anyone, even someone with questionable motives, had regarded her in such a way.
“I thought you two were friends, at any rate,” she pushed on while she had him talking. “You said you sat in this very room and discussed theories all night at times.”
“We were colleagues, certainly, but he specialized in Ancient Civilizations while I mastered the actual artifacts they spawned. This last obsession of his brought out several rounds of particularly heated discussions.”
“Gosh, what do you mean?” Danielle asked sweetly when she noticed the frown on his face. She didn’t want his thoughts to turn inward and was relieved when he appeared willing to continue.
“He was focused on an unusual tribe of people who allegedly existed in Peru during ancient times. A very mysterious society that had established themselves well before the Incans grew to power, though the Incans were the ones eventually responsible for their demise. Or so Jake claimed.”
The bitter turn of his monologue was not lost on Danielle during his last sentence, so she attempted to bring him back to the story and away from his personal feelings for the missing professor.
“What made them so unusual?”
“Ah, therein lies the mystery of it all. Almost no knowledge remains of their people or their culture, but what little we do understand has been meticulously scribed by the explorers during that period. This particular tribe was known for their fair skin, as well as their blonde and red hair. It has been noted throughout the writings of the time that their people had the ‘whitest skin’ ever seen by any explorer or native of Peru. If it hadn’t been for the Spanish Conquistadors and their reports, nothing would have ever surfaced about the Cloud Warriors.”
Danielle was immediately reminded of the smashed photograph in the trash bin. That particular South American resident stood proudly next to the missing professor, and his skin color was as dark as any she had ever seen on the Discovery Channel.
“I admit I’m not a historian or anything, but isn’t that kind of strange? Where did they come from?”
“If you asked Jacob Wilde, he’d probably say outer space or something similar.” Britton scoffed openly, setting his tea cup down on the table a bit abruptly.
“I could tell you more, but it seems to be getting a bit chilly in here
. If you’ll allow me to start a fire and open a bottle of wine, I’m sure I could be persuaded to continue.”
Danielle seriously weighed her options and realized she wanted to know as much about the previous owner of the house as she possibly could. She told herself it was for purely financial reasons, in the event he ever did return to claim his stake in her home, but her heart thrilled at the sound of his name. Though he wasn’t here and most likely dead as a doornail, she felt strangely closer to him with each statement that apprised her of his passions.
“I haven’t lit a fire since I arrived. I don’t really know what manner of animal life may have made their nest inside the chimney. I also am lacking in the bottle of wine department.”
Her houseguest cast a discerning eye toward the fireplace and the bed of charred wood cradled in the bottom.
“It doesn’t look as if it has been too long since it’s been used,” he said carefully. “We’ll give it a try and if it smokes, we’ll put it right out.”
“We can do that, but we are still without the wine.”
“What kind of gentleman caller would I be if I didn’t come with such an offering?” Britton smiled widely and reached into his canvas bag. After removing a few honest tools, he freed a dark green bottle of what she thought was Merlot.
“All right, I’ll open this, and you get the flames burning?” she suggested, and he put the glass bottle gently in her hands.
“I assure you, I will do my best.”
“I’ll be back with two glasses…I hope,” she added hastily as she pulled her fingers from his lingering grasp. It was easy to see why Anna looked at him with such adoring eyes, but it was also easy for her to see there was more about him than he let on.
The kitchen light flickered for a few seconds as it came on and illuminated the room with a harsh, white glare. She took a moment to catch her breath and break Britton’s mesmerizing hold on her willpower.
It wasn’t wrong to accept a small amount of attention, but it would be a heinous crime to allow more to happen tonight. She was worth so much more than a passing fancy and she knew it. Danielle resolved that they would have these drinks and he would be on his way.
Through Ancient Eyes (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 5
