Before that, though, he felt compelled to ask, “Is that it? Are there any more secrets I should know about?”
Amethyst ticked off the points for him, “Ghosts, family legacy, crazy and possibly possessed con man out for revenge, Kat’s has prodigious psychic abilities—Oh, Gustavia’s father is Senator Roman and her name used to be Eloise. I’d say that about covers it.” Except for the fact, she still had feelings for him.
“Okay, then. Tell me about the treasure.”
***
An hour or so later, after crawling into the hidden library nook and getting Finn to show him how they had lowered the chandelier, Reid had also learned that the next quest probably involved the spectacular stained glass window in the room he currently occupied.
He insisted they all inspect it for clues.
“We should have asked Julius about the key before he left on his mysterious mission.” Gustavia stated the obvious.
“He hasn’t left yet. I can still feel him nearby.” Kat explained, “Let me see if I can get him back.”
She concentrated and after a moment, blinked. Reid felt the hair stand up on his arms as her fixed, blind gaze cleared for a few seconds then went blank again.
“He said, ‘Tell Amethyst that life often gives us second chances. She’ll know what to do, and that’s the clue’.”
“Illuminating.” Reid commented. “And do you know what to do?” He turned to Amethyst.
“Nope. As usual, he was a fount of information.”
“He’s not allowed to tell us anything directly.” Kat informed Reid.
“Allowed?”
She shrugged. “He’s also not allowed to tell us why he’s not allowed to tell us anything.”
“I see.” He didn’t but he accepted that this was the system. He took a stab at defining the system as he saw it. “Each key has been a physical item that somehow fits into the window and works with the angle of light provided at a certain time of day during the solstice or equinox to illuminate a clue to the hiding place?”
“Yes. The first key was the big portrait of Julius in the library. The second was the locket full of lenses that led us to the architrave mechanism,” Tyler passed him a binder full of the notes he had printed out, organized and even cross-referenced with colored tabs.
“Then, logically, this window should have some physical anomaly, same as the others.”
Julie was amused that Reid seemed to be taking over. They had all been through this twice before and while the search was still exciting, it was fun to watch someone going through it for the first time.
The window with its winter theme was her favorite of the four. Intricately rendered, the mostly monochromatic colors were both stark and beautiful. Bare, leafless trees in shades of black and gray speared up from the snow-covered ground into a delicately blue, wintry sky. On one branch, a brilliantly red cardinal provided an intense pop of color, which drew a viewer’s eye making it the natural place for Reid to begin his scrutiny.
First, he ran his hand over the small, brightly colored bird. Nothing out of place there. Then, he carefully checked the rest of the glass panes. All normal—as were the casing and frame. Reid turned to the others and shrugged. “Now what?” He asked.
“Let Kat give it a try. She seems to have the magic touch,” Gustavia suggested.
Reid stepped back as Gustavia murmured to Kat, “It’s about five paces straight ahead,” and Kat confidently made her way to the window.
Her fingers, sensitive from years of reading Braille, seemed to fly over the right side of the frame as she lightly touched it. Bare seconds passed before she emitted a soft, “Hmmm,” and moved to the corresponding area on the left. She nodded then turned to the others, “I’ve found something, I think. There are two small pinholes on each side.”
When Tyler stepped up, she guided his hand to the holes then stepped away so each of her friends could look.
Gustavia looked at Julie, “Paper clip or one of those hairpins Grams used to have?”
“Hairpin. I think I saw some in the library. I’ll get them.” Julie left the room to return quickly with several of the wide-throated, wavy, wire pins in her hand. She handed one over to Reid since he was closest to the window. His excitement was palpable as he fitted the first pin into the holes. When it fit perfectly, his eyes widened and lit up.
Gently, he pushed the pin deeper and was rewarded with a soft click.
When nothing happened, he gestured for Julie to pass him another.
He fit that one into the holes on the other side of the frame and pushed. Another click and something shifted slightly. A shove and the lower section of the right side of the frame slid away to reveal a small cavity holding something made from a thin, wrought iron rod. First Tyler gently pulled on the piece but nothing happened so he tried a little push. The spring-loaded bit of metal popped from the opening and spun into place. A triangular holder now sat at right angles to the window.
Something about the shape flirted with Amethyst’s memory but kept sliding away before she could pin it down.
“Well, that was fun. What do you think goes here?” Reid asked.
Frowning, Julie replied, “I don’t know but it reminds me of something.”
“I thought so, too,” Amethyst confirmed. “Can’t seem to get a visual on it, though.”
***
“Things just keep getting more interesting but I’m supposed to be leaving tomorrow,” Reid looked up from inspecting the mechanism in the window frame. His eyes slid toward Amethyst but he pulled his focus back to the room in general. “You’ll keep me posted on what happens?”
A quick look passed between Julie and Tyler before Julie said, “You are welcome to stay—as long as you like—unless you already have other plans.” She ignored the sharp elbow to her ribs that Amethyst delivered.
This time, when his gaze fell on Amethyst, he let it linger, intensify. “Another week, then.”
It was time to come clean with her and he dreaded that conversation.
Chapter Eight
“Amethyst, could we talk somewhere in private?”
Shrugging, she led him to the library where she curled up in one of the leather chairs, flashed him a defiant look meant to hide her true emotions, and said, “So talk.”
Now that the moment was upon him, his mind went blank for a split second.
“It’s about the divorce, there’s something you should know.” Reid would rather pull out his toenails with pliers than have this conversation but he knew she deserved the truth. Still, there was some small hope that she might be happy to hear they were still married. Okay, maybe that was only in his wildest fantasies.
He faltered.
Amethyst impatiently waved her hand in a circular motion to indicate that he needed to get on with it. She could tell by the way he refused to meet her eye that whatever he had to say was not going to be good news.
He couldn’t bring himself to say it so, instead, he told her to wait, walked out the door then returned a moment later with the papers and handed them to her.
She recognized them immediately; they still had the sticky note flags on them where he was supposed to sign. Without fully scanning the documents, she looked back at him, eyes wide and questioning.
“These are the divorce papers. I still don’t know what you are trying to say, just come to the point, please.”
“I never signed them because I was still hoping you’d come back. Didn’t you think it was weird when you never got a final decree in the mail?”
Amethyst sighed, “I moved twice in a short time and thought it just got lost in the mail.”
Then it hit her. She was not normally this slow on the uptake but now she understood exactly what he was trying to say.
“We’re not divorced at all, are we?” She asked, surprised by the exultant surge of happiness shooting through her. The next words that popped out of her mouth were not the ones uppermost in her mind. “Well, sign them now.”
Hope d
ied with barely a sigh.
In a choked voice he asked, “Is that what you want? Are you sure?”
“Yes. No. Probably.” Amethyst ran a hand through her hair. “I need a minute to think; to process this. We’ve been married all this time and I had no idea.” Her voice rose as shock gave way to anger.
“Is that such a bad thing?”
“You tell me.” Her voice rose even higher, “I think knowing whether you’re married or not is kind of a big deal. You couldn’t have taken a minute out of your busy day to let me know?”
“I didn’t know where you were. You disappeared without a trace. No note, no goodbye, nothing. I came home and you were gone. It nearly killed me, Jane.”
“It’s Amethyst,” she corrected him through clenched teeth, “And you know my parents could have reached me at any time.”
“Whatever,” his voice now dripped with scorn, “Call yourself whatever you want, you walked away without a second thought; just poof, you were gone. Out the door and off to start a new life with your new name.”
Did he really think it had been that easy?
“Is that what you think? That on a whim, I just up and decided it was time for a new start. I was dying inside. Losing myself in some race to be Nancy Normal—Stepford Corporate Barbie Wife—dress her up and pose her but never let anyone know she is real or different or unique.”
“So you just gave up.”
“What do you want from me, Reid? I panicked, okay. I admit that. One day I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize my own face. I couldn’t be that woman anymore. The harder I worked to become the kind of woman you needed, the more I lost myself. I figured I was doing you a favor and you’d find someone else to fit the profile.”
“I didn’t want someone else.”
“Well, you didn’t want me, either. Not the real me, anyway.”
He should have known this was how she would see it and that in the simplest terms she spoke the truth.
“I see auras in the same way you need to breathe. Sure, you can hold your breath for a while but not forever. I could have lived with the clothes, the hair. Those are superficial, but you asked me to stop seeing auras. You asked me not to breathe. How can you not see the difference? You didn’t want me so I left.”
“I loved you.” It was his only defense.
Amethyst turned away, threw up her shields, and ruthlessly closed off the part of her that had matured over the past three years, the part of her that saw how trapped he had become. It cost a great deal of effort to paste a flat expression on her face but she managed. It would be only too easy to give in, to run to him. Instead, she reached back inside to touch on anger; to let it build and give her the strength she needed to steel herself against him. She had determined long ago that no one would ever hurt her that way again, most especially, not Reid Grayson. Her husband.
***
“You mean nothing to me. I moved on a long time ago.” Her tone, cool and dismissive, hid the fact that her heart was racing and her mouth was dry. She mustered every ounce of courage to keep from letting on that the sight of him brought back all the good memories along with the bad.
Moments spent laughing and planning their future, secure in the knowledge that they would always be together. Children, a house with a big backyard and a tire swing. She had intended to grow old with him, to trace the years together in the wrinkles on their faces and to look at their grandchildren and see his eyes or her mouth and be proud.
Worse, she knew he had loved her. Just not all the parts of her.
It started out innocently enough with her ability giving her insights into his office life that he found invaluable. Then had come the day she noticed the unmistakable melding of auras between two coworkers. Coworkers who were each married to other people. What people did on their own time was none of her business. The mistake had been in telling Reid about the possible affair. From then, it became, for him, like one of those magic eye posters that once seen cannot be unseen.
Eventually, the tension became so strong he felt it necessary to call both workers in for a chat. The upshot was that both resigned in humiliation leaving Reid feeling like he had been a part of something dirty.
That day was the beginning of the end. He asked her to see if she could stop seeing auras. She tried. It felt all kinds of wrong, but she found that narrowing her vision enough blocked out the special something that showed her the colors and moods of a person. He was delighted; she felt betrayed. This was a slippery slope, one she had less than zero interest in navigating.
The next day she had packed her things and run.
That she had really wanted him to come after her was something she barely admitted to herself.
Six months later, the divorce papers had gone out and she assumed he had signed them. When the final decree never came, she just figured it had gotten lost in the shuffle during the two times she moved that year.
She had gone through all the stages of grief and now to find out it had all been for nothing was a blow.
Fists clenched and red-faced she rounded on him. All at once, the cool demeanor was gone; replaced by pure fury.
Reid’s heart flared with hope. No way would she be this angry with him unless somewhere, deep down, she still cared.
So, he poked the bear; the cute little purple bear, “I only asked you if you could stop seeing auras; I never said you should stop seeing them.”
“Semantics.” Her eyes widened, then narrowed as she began to rant. “That’s a load of crap and you know it.” As she continued to lay out his every sin, he stopped listening, the way he saw it, the more she ranted, the more she cared. It gave him hope. He could get her back.
His heart leapt again and before he could school his expression, a smile—barely more than a quirk of the lips—flashed across his face.
Amethyst saw it and her anger ratcheted up another notch.
“You find this amusing, do you?”
Look at her, he thought, she’s perfect, beautiful. My wife. For better or worse; for richer or poorer; we’re still married. Whether she likes it or not.
That fire—the one that burned in her—made for a spectacular temper when she chose to unleash it and he liked fireworks.
This time his smile was full and cheerful.
The more she ranted, the wider he smiled until she finally ran down. It was hard to stay angry with a complete fool who refused to fight back.
“What?” She asked. “Defend yourself. Don’t just stand there grinning like an idiot.”
What was the man thinking? Had he lost his mind?
“I love you. I’ve tried to stop but I can’t because it has always been you. Just you—you’re it for me. My wife.”
His words, the truth of them shone in his aura and stopped her dead. He had never been able to lie to her and he wasn’t now. But, what was she supposed to say to him? After all this time, after not fighting for her when it counted, it was too late. Wasn’t it?
Snapping her mouth shut and narrowing her eyes, Amethyst turned on her heel and walked away. Reid whistled a happy tune.
She might be mad but mad was better than indifferent. She might even think she hated him but he was determined to win her back at any cost. All he had to offer her was love but it would be enough. It had to be.
***
The man was bat-crap crazy. I tell him that I am totally over him and what does he do? Crazy man pastes on a foolish smile and refuses to accept it; she tried to stifle a smile of her own. Today he had given her a taste of the old Reid. Not corporate robot Reid who, she now realized, had come home at the end of the day wearing optimism like a thin coat of paint over a piece of weathered wood. It might hold up at a distance but under close scrutiny the cracks always showed. At some point, she had stopped looking; couldn’t or wouldn’t see that he was desperately unhappy, too. Not with her, but with his job.
Totally over him.
Those words were a big fat lie; she knew it and he knew it.
Sh
ame washed over Amethyst at her part in their separation. Immaturity had been a factor. Had he come right out and asked her to stop seeing auras or had she overreacted? Why on earth would he want a second chance with someone who had walked away and refused to fight for their relationship?
Stuck in their endless loop, her thoughts then swung back the other way. What if he still couldn’t handle her abilities? What if he asked her to stop doing the only thing that made her special again?
Amethyst shook her head to dislodge these thoughts. Ultimately, it came down to trust. Trust and forgiveness. Could there be one without the other?
***
If it had been anyone else calling, Tyler would have been tempted to ignore his vibrating phone; he was just as curious about what was going on in the library as everyone else, but when he saw the caller was Zack Roman, Gustavia’s older brother and the cop in charge of finding Logan, he figured he’d better pick up. Estelle had already warned them about Logan’s return; maybe the police had caught him.
“You want the good news or the bad news first?” Zack asked without even a hello.
“Hit me with the bad. Or wait, I bet I can guess. Logan’s back in town.”
“Nail on the head.”
Tyler waited for the good news without telling Zack he had a source. So far, the man had not encountered either Estelle or Julius and he was not about to be the one to have to explain to Zack that he and the others had been consorting with ghostly informants. Zack probably wouldn’t believe him anyway.
“We picked up a lead and tracked him back to a rental cottage just across the state line. Rent was paid through the end of the month but the owner says Logan was only there for two days before he skipped out again. I’m on my way over there now. Preliminary report is that one wall was papered with photos of Julie and the rest of you. Mostly Julie and Gustavia.”
Not surprising news since Julie was the mark who gotten away and Gustavia had popped on Logan’s radar as a big part of the reason his con had gone south.
She Shall Have Music (The Psychic Seasons Series Book 3) Page 6
