No Desire Denied

by Cara Summers

  Nell sent Reid an amused glance. “I would imagine so. I can’t recall the last time I visited this place.”

  “I was here about an hour ago to check out security.” Keeping her close to his side, he circled to the spot and pointed at it. “I pushed enough debris away to uncover what must have been one of the steps that led up to the wooden floor. Someone has shoved it all back in place.”

  “You were here alone?” She poked a finger into his chest. “Who checked out the security for you?”

  When she poked him again, he captured her hand. “I had to look at the place, make a plan to keep you safe.” He swept his gaze along the top of the hedge to the hills beyond. “The sun was barely up. Skinner’s men would have still been looking for the casings in the area above the stone arch. Whoever it was used the shadows and the trees for cover.” He cursed himself silently that none of that had entered his mind while he’d been checking out the security. He’d been too distracted by the idea of reading Nell’s fantasies.

  Nell slipped her hand into his and held it tight. “He was probably watching you from the time you left the castle this morning. When you came here alone, he could have killed you.”

  “Or vice versa. I wouldn’t have made such an easy target this morning. And while Skinner’s men might not have spotted him, they were up there in the hills. Any kind of noise would have brought them down.”

  Nell swept her gaze along the tops of the hedges. “I’m betting he never left the area. After he shot at you last night, he could have slipped down into the garden and just waited.”

  She was right. There were plenty of places to take cover in the garden. In his mind, Reid planned the conversation he’d have with Skinner and Daryl. Some of the volunteers would have to patrol the paths, especially during the wedding rehearsal.

  “I want to get you back to the castle, but we have to look for the necklace,” Nell said.

  Reid looked at her. “You want to get me back to the castle? Who’s the bodyguard here?”

  “We both are. But you’re the one who got shot at. Whoever he is, he’s smart. But he’s not here now. We can relax for the moment.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “If he were still here in the garden, Alba would be raising the alarm.” She patted the dog’s head. “Vi claims her instincts are spot-on.”

  Reid glanced around. The sun was higher in the sky. Even in camouflage, an intruder was likely to be spotted by the volunteers patrolling the hills. Alba was walking around the perimeter of the stones that had formed the base of the old gazebo, sniffing as she went. Every so often, she paused to dig in the dirt, but she showed no signs of alarm.

  “Let’s just make it fast,” he said. “I was thinking about Daryl’s point that the cliff face isn’t in the painting, and I want to show you something.” He led her to the far side of the circle formed by the stones. “Turn around.” Once she had, he gripped her waist and lifted her up so she sat on his shoulder.

  “I’m thinking this is about the height of the bench Eleanor sat on for her portrait. The stone arch is beyond her right shoulder. Tell me what you see.”

  “The castle, the woods and the cliffs beyond. To the right, I can see the arch, more hills above it, to the left, the lake. She could see pretty much everything from here.”

  “Think of the position of her head in the painting. What is she directly facing?” Reid prompted.

  Nell shaded her eyes. “The top of the cliff where the cave is. It’s directly beyond the third floor of castle. She must have been looking straight at it.” The thrill in her tone gave Reid a great deal of satisfaction. He lowered her then. Her feet had barely touched the ground when Alba began to bark excitedly.

  Reid shoved her behind him, pulled out his gun and fanned it in a quick circle. Then he pushed Nell down behind the biggest pile of stones and checked the garden paths on each side of the tall hedges. No sign of anyone. Only the continued barking of the dog marred the silence.

  Turning back, he saw Alba pawing the dirt near the stone step he’d uncovered on his earlier visit.

  “She’s found something.” Dropping to her knees, Nell pushed more dirt aside. Sunlight glinted off metal as she lifted Alba’s unearthed treasure in the palm of her hand.

  “Another earring. And it’s not Eleanor’s.” She met Reid’s eyes. “My autograph lady was wearing this when she asked me to sign that book.”

  Alba barked as she pawed at the dirt again. Sunlight glinted off metal again as Reid squatted down beside Nell. But it wasn’t jewelry he saw in the little depression. It was a very sophisticated electronic listening device.

  “What—?”

  Reid silenced Nell by putting a hand over her mouth. Keeping her eyes on his, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist and tightened them. Good girl, he thought. He mouthed the words, “Follow my lead.”

  Something flashed into her eyes. Not fear, but excitement.

  He wanted to kiss her. Later, he promised himself.

  Someone had listened to everything they’d said. In his mind, he quickly reviewed the essentials of their conversation and wished he had more time to strategize. “Well, now our villain has a face. That will make it easier for Sheriff Skinner’s men if she tries to get on the grounds again.”

  That would give her something to worry about. She would know now that they’d put it together that she had to have been involved in the attempted hit-and-run on Piper.

  “We just need to find out who she is.” He wanted their listener worried but not in panic mode. “How sure are you that the necklace has to be here in the foundation of the gazebo?” he asked Nell.

  Reid saw the surprise flash into Nell’s eyes, then something else. Understanding? Amusement? She didn’t miss a beat before saying, “I’m absolutely positive. I think Eleanor planned where she would hide the jewels right from this very spot. It’s just a matter of finding the necklace before someone else in my family is hurt.”

  “C’mon,” he said. “Let’s go fill your aunt in on our discoveries.”

  * * *

  AN HOUR LATER, Nell sat on the couch in the main parlor trying to make her mind go blank. It was a technique she sometimes used when she had to write a scene and too many possibilities were flooding her mind. Daryl and Reid had been discussing them nonstop since Reid had hurried her back to the castle. As a precautionary measure, the two men had searched the room thoroughly for any listening devices, and now they were on their cell phones. Daryl had his pressed to his ear while he stood sentry at the French doors that connected the parlor with Adair’s office. Through the sheer curtains on the panes of glass, he could keep an unobtrusive eye on Vi and James Orbison as her aunt dealt with a young couple interested in scheduling their wedding at the castle.

  At least that meeting seemed to be going well. She only wished her meeting with Daryl and Reid had gone as well. But from the moment Reid had rushed her away from the gazebo and back to the castle, he and Daryl had done all the talking and decision-making. The only time they’d paid her any heed was when she’d advanced the possibility that autograph lady had been the shooter.

  Two full beats of silence followed her suggestion. She’d almost heard the wheels turning in their heads as she’d made her case. “The dropped earring makes us assume she lost it when she was planting the listening device. Why didn’t she assign that task to her ‘accomplice’ with the military training? Unless there was no accomplice?”

  At that point both men had gone to their cell phones. Neither had spoken to her since. She was beginning to feel like Jane Eyre standing out in the cold and peering through the windows at the life she would never be a part of.

  Her gaze settled on the gold earring on the coffee table, and once again she experienced the same icy sliver of fear she’d felt when she had first recognized it. It was her desire to keep her family safe that had kept her from getting angry that the two men were excluding her.

  But she had spent the past year establishing an independent life fo
r herself and wasn’t going to let anyone make all the decisions for her again. She would have to show them that her ideas were just as good as theirs. Maybe better.

  “The landscaper will begin excavating the foundation within the hour,” Reid said as he pocketed his cell phone and joined Daryl at the French doors. “That should buy us some time.”

  Nothing to argue with there, Nell thought.

  Daryl removed his cell phone from his ear. “Skinner’s men will have pictures of Gwendolen within the hour. My man is still researching, but her most recent husband had a brother who served in the British army. U.K. special forces. But the brother-in-law died six months ago.”

  Enough, Nell thought. Once again, they were talking as if she weren’t in the room. Rising, she said, “He could have taught her to shoot, supplied her with a weapon and night vision goggles at the very least. And six months seems to be a magic number in all of this.”

  When both men turned to look at her, it gave Nell a great deal of satisfaction. While she had their attention, she moved quickly to the original time line that Daryl had drawn on the whiteboard. “The article in the Times that triggered all the interest in the Stuart sapphires appeared about six months ago. The fire in the library on the Campbell estate in Scotland occurred six months ago. And now we find out our lead suspect’s brother-in-law with a military background died at roughly the same time. Coincidence? I sure couldn’t sell it that way in a book.”

  “You think our Gwendolen was behind that fire?” Daryl asked.

  Reid turned to Daryl. “I share Nell’s aversion to coincidence. Her theory is that someone discovered something about the location and the story behind how the sapphires came into Eleanor’s possession in the library at the Campbell estate, and then set a fire to suppress the details. Before that they may have discovered a clue that pointed toward where the jewels are.”

  “And they believed that the library here might also contain some of the details,” Daryl said. “Or hold the key to the location of the jewels—until they started popping up elsewhere.”

  “So far I’m just thinking about possible story scenarios,” Nell said. “But if Gwendolen is the mastermind behind everything, as a successful grifter, she’s become very adept at using what comes to hand— circumstances, people. I’ll bet Duncan would agree.”

  “I’ll update him on what we’re thinking.” Reid punched a number into his phone. Then he turned to Nell. “In the meantime, fill us in on what you’re thinking.”

  The type of warmth that flooded her at Reid’s words was new. “As a con woman, she’s played a lot of different roles, probably picked up many skills along the way. The image she presents to the public—the fashionably dressed matron—is only one of her personas.” Nell leaned over and picked up the gold earring, holding it so that it caught the light. “My first impression was that she would make a great villain because she looks so normal. A matron who dresses well, who wants a book signed for her granddaughter, who does volunteer work at hospitals. But she also has a string of dead ex-husbands. Not to mention a deceased brother-in-law.”

  There was a beat of silence as the two men exchanged a glance.

  “Nell is very good at spinning stories,” Reid said. “I don’t like this one, but it fits the facts.”

  “There’s another thing,” Nell said. “The person who visited the castle library over a period of six months was patient. She’s not patient anymore. She sent her stepdaughter in to kidnap Piper. She had another accomplice try to run Piper down. Now she’s doing things herself.”

  Reid looked at Daryl. “I don’t know why we need Duncan when we’ve got a behavioral analyst right in the room.”

  She was back in the game, Nell thought. Now, if she could just convince them to let her go to the gazebo...

  “I’ll put another man on it. I want to know how those husbands died, and what kind of skill sets she might have picked up from them.” Daryl was punching a number into his cell when Alba rose to her feet and whined. He glanced through the French doors, then at his watch. “Vi is through with her clients, and the wedding party should be arriving at any minute for the rehearsal. She’ll want to greet them. I’ll go with her and Orbison. I want the two of you to stay here.” He shifted his gaze from Reid to Nell and then back again. “Consider yourselves under house arrest.”

  “But the sapphires aren’t in the house,” Nell said. “And I’m supposed to find them. Reid?”

  “I agree with Daryl. More than twenty-four hours have passed. Once we start excavating the old gazebo, Gwendolen may decide we know where the necklace is, and we’re finding it. Or she may believe we’ve already found it and we’re stalling. Either way, she’s going to have to make a move soon. Planting that listening device was very risky. And you’re dead-on about her waning patience. If she still believes you’re the key to the necklace, she’ll make a move on you.”

  The words chilled Nell to the bone. Reid was right. She couldn’t have written it any better. But how was she supposed to find Eleanor’s necklace if they kept her locked up in the castle?

  “The castle’s security is state-of-the-art,” Daryl said. “She’s not getting in here. Skinner will have men posted at every entrance during the wedding rehearsal. And that will take place at the stone arch. All you have to do is stay put.”

  When Daryl exited through the French doors, Alba gave a whine, but she stayed right where she was.

  “Looks like the dog agrees that we’re the ones in danger,” Nell said.

  “Her instincts are good. And you can save whatever arguments you’re summoning up. I’m not going to take you to the gazebo.” He began to pace. “If your theory is right, she’s not just a class A con woman with some idea that those sapphires belong to her. She’s a stone-cold killer. When she tried to have Piper killed yesterday, it wasn’t just because you didn’t get up here to the castle fast enough. I’m betting it was because Piper was responsible for putting her stepdaughter in a coma. It was a pretty good plan. Motivate you and get revenge at the same time.”

  Nell thought she couldn’t feel any colder, but his words about her sister made her tremble. “I didn’t even think of that. You’re scaring me.”

  “Good.” Reid moved to her, then pulled her into his arms and held on tight. It was something he’d wanted to do ever since he’d gotten her back safely into the castle. “I’m scaring myself.”

  “Piper—”

  “She’ll be safe. Gwendolen is here focused on the necklace.” Which meant that Nell was the one in danger.

  When she wrapped her arms around him and held him as tightly as he was holding her, he couldn’t have named all the feelings rushing through him. Not the passion that he’d felt, not the explosion of desire that she could so easily trigger. This was what he’d felt when he’d awakened with her in his arms—that warmth moving through his veins with the slow but powerful strength of a river that couldn’t be held back or denied. He wanted this; perhaps he’d wanted it from the first moment he saw her.

  He would want this always.

  Drawing back, he met her gaze. What he hoped he saw was that she was experiencing the same thing he was.

  He wanted to ask her. But the timing was wrong. Her life was in danger. He knew that. But he also knew that it wasn’t just fear for her safety that was holding him back. It was his fear of her answer. It was that and that alone that made him release her for the moment and step back.

  “We need to find the necklace.” He put his hands on her shoulders to turn her to face the portrait. “You believe she put the clues in the portrait. So let’s go back to square one. What story is Eleanor telling in the painting?”

  Nell had to shove down the urge to object. He was correct. But if he hadn’t drawn back, if he hadn’t turned her to face the painting, the desire to stay in his arms would have kept her there. She might have given anything to stay right there. She might have given everything.

  That realization helped her focus. Everything wasn’t what he wante
d. It wasn’t what she believed she wanted, either.

  “Tell me Eleanor’s story,” Reid prompted.

  Pushing everything else from her mind, she tried to imagine she was seeing Eleanor’s portrait for the first time.

  “Talk me through it as if you were writing about it.”

  “I see a beautiful woman. My eye is drawn immediately to her. And then to the sapphires.”

  “What do you notice next?”

  “Her hair, the dress. It’s white like a wedding dress. She wants to remind us of her story. The stone arch in the background—that’s her history, and it’s the symbol of the love that triggered everything.”

  “Go on.”

  “The expression on her face. She’s glowing. So are the sapphires. She wants us to know how happy she is, and she wants to tell us about the sapphires. A picture limits the scope of the story she can tell. That makes the details even more significant.”

  “What else?”

  “Her— How slender she is, how small her hands are, the way her fingers curl over that pile of books.” Nell felt her hands tense. “I’m starting to babble.”

  Reid squeezed her shoulders. “Relax. Don’t think or edit. Just list the details.”

  “The flowers. She’s sitting in the gazebo in a garden that she designed and planted. She’s looking right at the cliff where the cave is. The third floor of the castle is also in her line of vision. But...”

  “What?”

  “The stone arch is in her past. I’m not surprised that she hid one of the earrings there because it’s the connection between where she and Angus fell in love and the life they built here. But her present and her future—that’s what she’s looking at. It’s almost like another painting. The castle is in the foreground and the cliff beyond. The cave must have meant something to them. Perhaps it was a place where she and Angus could sneak off to.”

  “Keep going.”

  Nell closed her eyes and reimagined the view she’d had in those moments when she’d sat on Reid’s shoulders at the gazebo. “She can see the glint of water at the top of Tinker’s Falls. The lake. The hills surrounding the castle—they’re all there either in her line of vision or in the painting.” Her stomach sank. She opened her eyes to focus on Reid. “Thinking of it that way, she’s got everything in there but the kitchen sink. How in the world are we supposed to figure out where she hid the necklace?”