“I can talk about intimacy all you want.”
“Talk about Bellgard.” Her gaze was unwavering.
“No. We are supposed to be taking turns here. I showed you mine.”
“You already know where I’m from.”
“But by suggesting we play this game, I assumed you had secrets of your own to share.” I tried to sound nonchalant, but I was desperate to know more about her. I wanted to know everything and anything.
“I do have secrets. Ok, want to know who Dale is?”
“Yes, I would.” I wanted to know who had made such a beautiful girl so upset that she became agitated at the mere mention of his name.
She cleared a box off an old sofa and sat down on the dusty cushion. I took the cue and sat next to her. “He’s the guy who dumped me for my step-sister.”
“For your step-sister?” I spat out.
“Do I have to repeat it?”
“And she agreed to this?”
“She agreed to it before he dumped me. And before you say it, yes I was that idiot girl.”
“Why would you be the idiot when you were the one who was hurt? They were the dumb ones. The both of them.” I touched her arm gently. I wanted to kill the guy and the sister. How could they do such a thing? Did family mean nothing to them? It was not as though family meant much to me, but I had never had a real family. My father had lost any ounce of humanity by the time I could talk.
“Because I didn’t see it. She was always the one who got the guys, but I thought Dale was different. I thought he was the one.”
She was really opening up to me, and it made me want to do the same. “I was the idiot who did not notice I was supporting someone evil.”
“Someone evil? What do you mean?’ She wiped a tear from her eye.
I would punish Dale eventually. “My father. His name is synonymous with evil where I come from. And I am his son. That should explain a lot.”
“But you aren’t evil.”
“How would you know?”
“Because you’re in the attic in the middle of the night trying to find something for a pregnant friend. That’s not being evil.”
“How do you know that is what I was doing? Maybe I had a nefarious plan you foiled by waking up.”
She put a hand on my arm. “I don’t know. I already admitted to getting the wool pulled over my eyes for six months, but—”
“Six months? They did that to you for six months before you found out?”
“Yeah. Like I said, I was an idiot.”
“Have you spoken to your sister since?”
“Once. I’ve avoided her which probably explains why I have no life. I refuse to hang out with any of our shared friends because they all knew. They all knew and kept the truth from me.”
“Except for that other friend? The one who introduced you to the dashing Brad?”
“Yeah, Grace. She’s not friends with my sister.”
“You deserve a better man.”
“I know.” She sighed.
“I want you to see Bellgard.”
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to make my decision tonight?” She threw my words back at me.
“It is morning now.” I didn’t have a watch on, but I knew it had to be at least after midnight.
“The sun isn’t up.”
“You don’t need the sun to call it morning.”
“We probably should get some sleep.”
“I need to find a bassinet in all this mess.”
“It’s probably in that back corner over there.” She pointed across the room.
“Why do you think so?”
“Because there’s a box labeled nursery next to it.”
“But a nursery is a garden.”
“It’s also a baby’s room.” She stood up. “How do you not know that?”
I stood and carefully made my way around boxes and furniture over to the corner where she had pointed. Ainsley followed.
She pointed triumphantly at a small cradle. “See.”
“Yes, this must be it.” I examined the small wooden crib. One leg was broken.
“I bet there’s other stuff she’d want from here.” Ainsley opened up the box marked nursery. “What is she having?”
“A baby?”
Ainsley sighed. “Is she having a boy or girl?”
“How would I know?”
“You’re useless.” She pulled out a frilly dress. “There’s tons of baby clothes in here. Boy and girl.”
“Oh, I will have to ask her if she wants that.”
“And some toys.” She held up a rattle.
“I will fix the cradle while you are at work tomorrow.”
“You mean I’m not getting a ride?”
“I don’t mind dropping you off.”
“As much as I love your car, I’ll drive myself.”
“Or you could borrow my car.”
“No way.”
“What?”
“You’d lend me, a girl you barely know, your priceless car?”
“If I cannot trust you with my car, then I certainly cannot trust you enough to take you to Bellgard.”
“It’s that secretive of a place?” She carefully closed up the box.
“It is a fortressed city.”
“Fortressed? Come on.”
“You will see for yourself.”
“If I decide to come. Remember, I was leaning toward saying no.”
“You want to come.”
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“You came up here. You searched through baby clothes. You told me about your past. You want to come.”
“I still don’t know enough about you.”
“You know I am the son of evil. I live in a fortressed city far from here, and I enjoy a good Pinot and fast cars as much as you do. Is there anything else you need to know?”
She seemed pensive for a moment. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
“A girlfriend? No.”
“Then a wife, or anything else?”
“None of the above. And if it puts you at ease, it has been longer than I care to admit since I have been with a woman.”
“It doesn’t put me at ease. It means you’re desperate.”
“Desperate? If I were desperate I would have slept with the girl hanging all over me at that dive bar the other night.”
“You hang out at dive bars?”
“It is the atmosphere that attracts me. I like to blend in. I go there because no one knows me, and no one cares.”
“Sounds kind of sad.” She played with the hem of her pajama shirt.
“It is no sadder than you turning into a recluse because of what happened to you. They are the ones that should hide. Not you.” I took her chin in my hand. “You should never hide.”
Our eyes locked, and I didn’t think. I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers. She didn’t respond at first, but then she started to move her lips against mine. I sped up the kiss, and she put a hand on my shoulder, pulling me in. I pushed my way into her mouth, wrapping my arms around her waist as I eagerly explored her mouth. I was out of control, I could not think straight. All I was aware of was her sweet taste, and the way her fingers were tangled in my hair. I wanted to devour her, experience everything she had to offer, explore the places that no one had explored before. But I couldn’t. Not yet. I forced myself to break the kiss. I stepped back.
She watched me, breathless, and with wide eyes. “You kissed me.”
“You kissed me back.” I smiled. I was as affected as her, but she was not doing a very good job at hiding her reaction.
“I did. I kissed you back, and since we are all about being honest, I want to kiss you again.”
“You can.”
“Now?”
I laughed. “That eager?”
“You ended it too soon.”
“I ended it before I moved things too fast.”
“I thought you liked things fast.”
“Not this. Not with you.”
I had to be careful with her.
“Not with me?”
“I need to show you Bellgard first… before I take things further.”
“Why?”
“Because I am trying to be a good man. I am trying to fight against the nature I was born with. I know that I am not going to be able to let you go once I have you, and you need to know who I really am, where I really come from before that happens.”
“I asked for another kiss, not a lifetime of commitment.” She grinned.
“But I want more than another kiss. I want to take you downstairs into bed and show you exactly what intimacy means to me, but as I said I will not be able to let you go after that. I know it. I finally understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Get some sleep. Go to work. We can talk about everything after that.” I could not share everything with her yet. I refused to scare her away, and I needed to figure things out myself first.
“But I don’t want to wait.”
“Trust me, neither do I, but we have to think things through. I cannot be reckless.”
“I want to be reckless.” She raked her teeth over her bottom lip.
I smiled. “Coming to Bellgard with me will be reckless enough. We might as well plan things out.” I picked up the crib. “Ready to go downstairs?”
“Are you going to go to sleep too?”
“I should probably get some sleep. It is going to be a busy day tomorrow.”
“Wait.” She froze. “Not busy because you expect me to go to your hometown tomorrow, right?”
“No. I don’t expect you to drop your life like that. Besides, I assume you want to get to know me better first.”
“But you won’t kiss me again until we go.”
“I will kiss you again… just not late at night right above your bedroom.”
“I like the no kissing rule actually.”
“Changed your mind so fast?” I started the walk back to the door.
“I need it. If I still want to go after a few days of no physical contact, then I’ll go.”
“No physical contact?”
“If we’re not kissing what else is there?”
“You really do need a lesson on what to expect from a man.” I held out my free hand to her. “And I plan to be the one to show you.”
“Oh yeah? You going to play teacher?” She accepted my hand.
“Why do you manage to make everything sound dirty?”
She laughed. “I don’t mean to.”
“‘I will show you mine if you show me yours?’ Play teacher? Get your mind out of the gutter.”
“That would require getting my mind off of you.”
“You have no clean thoughts about me?”
“Do you have clean ones about me?”
“Yes, but with dirty ones mixed in.” I waggled an eyebrow.
“Were you serious about me borrowing your car?”
“Yes. I’ll leave the keys out for you.”
“Where will you be when I wake up?”
“I might sleep in.” I had no plans to. I had no plans to sleep at all, but I did not want to tell her that.
“I’ll take care of your car.”
“I know you will.” I turned off the light as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs. I closed and locked the attic door before following her.
“Why did you lock it?”
“To keep you out,” I teased.
“I mean it. Half the rooms in this house are locked. Like the one right there.” She pointed at the door across from where she slept.
“That is where they keep the dead bodies, didn’t you notice the smell?”
She pushed my arm, and I used it as an excuse to pull her into my arms. I kept my lips mere inches from hers.
“Easy there. We are limiting the physical contact.”
“Limiting, not avoiding it completely.”
“What’s in there? For real?” She stepped out of my embrace. “And why is there a light on? I swear it wasn’t on when I passed by it a few minutes ago.”
“It’s an office. It’s locked because there are a lot of personal mementos in there, but I didn’t notice the light earlier either.” A sense of dread washed over me. “Why don’t you go on to sleep?” I didn’t like the light suddenly turning on, but I tried to stay calm. No matter what was going on, I wanted Ainsley safely out of the way.
“No. I’m wide awake.”
“Ok, then how about you wait in your room anyway?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m waiting right here.”
I nodded. This was not an argument I was going to win. I went through the keys, selecting the one I thought went to the office door.
Ainsley waited at my side as I tried the lock. I guessed right the first time. I pushed open the door.
“What happened in here?” Ainsley peered into the completely ransacked room.
“Nothing good.” I stepped over piles of scattered papers and turned over drawers on my way to the windows. One was slightly ajar. “Change of plans.”
“What do you mean?”
I bent down and sorted through a pile of watercolor photos. They depicted scenes from a place that very few had seen. But it wasn’t the pictures that caught my eye, it was a piece of parchment with two words written on it. Ainsley Bales. Before turning it over I knew what I would find. The unmistakable M was there. I closed my fist around the parchment.
“What do you mean, James? What’s changed?”
At the sound of my name I moved to standing. “You need to pack a bag. We leave tonight.”
“What? Why?”
“Someone has been here. I have to warn Charlotte and Liam, and I will not leave you here. Whoever did this may return.”
“I can stay somewhere else.”
“I am sorry, Ainsley, but somewhere else will not cut it.”
“You can’t tell me what to do. Remember?”
I opened my fist. “I can, and I will.”
He eyed widened as she took in the parchment in my hand. “That’s my name.”
“Exactly. Whoever was here knows you. And these are not the kind of people who are going to give up easily.”
“But how would anyone know about me? From the contract I signed?”
“I need to know everything. How you found out about this house sitting set up. Everything.”
13
Ainsley
“Tell you everything?” I repeated his words, still dumbstruck that my name was on a piece of fancy paper in a room that had been locked since I’d moved in. Logically someone could have written it before my arrival, but why on a small sheet of fancy paper?
“Tell me how you found out about this place. How this rent free thing fell into your lap.” His serious face let me know he wasn’t teasing me about living rent free this time.
“A former professor, my advisor, asked me if I needed a place to stay after graduation. He is a friend of the owner’s, and they were looking for someone to live in the house while they were out of the country.”
“Who is the professor, and why did he ask you? It seems like a strange thing to ask a former student.” He shifted his weight.
“Professor Morgan, and I used to house sit for him when he went away. I’d feed his cats and stuff. He knew I was responsible and wouldn’t destroy a house I guess. He also knew I was going through a hard time with the break up, so maybe he was trying to help me keep my head in the game. He has always been very supportive.”
“In theory that makes sense, but I don’t like that your name was in here.”
“Could the owners have left it? Maybe after Professor Morgan gave them my name?”
James shook his head. “No.”
“Why not?” I didn’t like how quickly he dismissed the idea.
“Because Stan and Emma don’t have access to this kind of parchment.”
“How do you know?” I put a hand on my hip. If he wanted me to listen to him, he was going to have to start sharing mo
re information.
He flipped over the paper. “Because of this.”
I peered at the M embossed on the back of the paper. “What does that M mean? Is it some kind of crest?”
“Yes. Exactly.” James stared at the M as though he expected it to tell him something.
“What does it stand for?” I touched the raised crest.
“Mendel.”
“Who or what is that?” The word meant nothing to me.
“My family.”
“So someone in your family left it?”
“Not exactly.” He finally tore his eyes from the paper. “More like a supporter of my father.”
“Wasn’t your father hated by everyone?”
“Not by his men. He had many loyal followers.”
“You can’t really expect me to leave with you.”
“I must insist. You are not safe here.”
“There is no reason any of your father’s friends would know about me. Somehow Stan got that paper. There’s no other explanation.”
“That is an impossibility. And I don’t know how they found out about you. Maybe it was my fault.” His face darkened. “And if that is the case that I am eternally sorry, but it doesn’t change the fact that you must come.”
“It changes everything. It means staying with you puts me in more danger.” I took a step back.
“You think staying away will help you? It will do nothing. If they discovered you through me they know I care. You staying away changes nothing. And it may not relate to me at all. There may be more to why you were asked to care for this house. I don’t understand it yet, but I will.” His hand clenched into a fist. I knew it wasn’t anger toward me, but for the first time since our initial meeting I felt a shiver of fear. James was strong. He wasn’t someone I wanted to be on the bad side of.
“Even if I agree to leave Charleston, and I’m not saying I will, where would we go? You can’t think returning to your hometown is going to help the situation.”
“We need to get to the castle. There is a reason someone was in that office, and I need to get word to Charlotte.”
“Castle?” This was news to me. Where was his hometown anyway? “And call her. That’s a lot faster than driving.”
“Yes. A castle. I grew up there and will show you, but I cannot call her.”
Forged in Stone Page 9
