“Typical dragonling behavior. My cousin Theo used to make his mother crazy by bringing home every stray animal he found. He had terrariums full of tortoises with cracked shells and broken legs, and cages full of birds that had fallen from their nests.”
“Are you telling me, that my future includes a lot of hermit crabs? I think I preferred it when he collected stones.”
“We’ll have to see if we can redirect his enthusiasm.” Lars pushed an energetic pair of hermit crabs back on top of their companions.
“Can’t I keep them in my room?” asked Matteo from the doorway. “Please?” He had the blue plastic bucket Lars had found for him in his hand. His eyes entreated Lars.
“You can keep two. No more,” Lars was careful to keep his voice unbending. “And we have to have a lid for whatever we keep them in. But first, we have to take these ones back and put them in the sea. They need their dinner.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Matteo was never a difficult child. He had been easy from the beginning. A contented baby who slept when he was supposed to sleep and ate when he was supposed to eat, who crawled and walked and talked on schedule. But tonight he was overexcited and too wound up to settle into his routine. Two days of undivided adult attention seemed to have turned her son bratty.
He didn’t want to go to sleep. He didn’t want to stay in bed. He kept running over to the little aquarium that Lars had helped him turn into a miniature tidal pool. He wanted to take his crabs out and play with them. Nicole had to remind him three times that he had promised Señor Lars he would not disturb the little creatures.
“Just for a minute,” he wheedled. Nicole was losing her grip on her temper.
As if by magic, there was a tap on the half-open door. “May I come in?” asked Lars.
“Yes,” shouted Matteo. “Mom won’t let me say good night to my crabs.”
“They still need time to get used to their new home,” Lars said flatly. “They need to feel calm enough to go hunting. And if you don’t leave them alone, they’ll hide until they starve to death.”
Matteo scowled and his hands remained on the lid of the tank. “But we put them there yesterday! I could tell them that there was nothing to be worried about, and that those bugs they eat are hiding in the sand.”
Lars put his hand on the boy’s head and led him back to his bed. “You may talk to them in the morning. Tonight, they will be too frightened.” His voice wasn’t loud but it calmed Matteo at once. “Get into bed.” He pulled the covers up to Matt’s shoulders. “Go to sleep,” he commanded.
To Nicole’s complete astonishment, Matteo’s dark lashes swept down onto his cheeks, his rosebud mouth opened slightly and he fell deeply asleep. She looked suspiciously at Lars, but he was aligning Matteo’s blankets neatly. He ushered her out of the room with a gentle hand at her waist, as if they had done this together every night for years.
“You should be perfectly safe here. But just in case, you should know about the escape tunnel,” Lars told Nicole.
“What tunnel?”
“If someone comes into the house, you grab Matt and head for the kitchen.” Lars herded her towards that room. He pressed a button on the underside of the counter of the island. The entire unit slid away when he pushed on it. The tiled floor underneath looked the same as the rest of the kitchen floor. Maybe a little dustier but nothing more.
Lars tapped on one of the tiles that had been covered by the island. A four-foot circular section rose to reveal a spiral staircase. “Wine cellar,” Lars said. “Pneumatic lift. Works even if the power is out. You go first.”
If there was one thing that Nicole did not want to do, it was go down that winding metal staircase into the dark. She put a hesitant foot on the first tread. Lars’ voice came from behind her. “On your right there’s a switch. Smack it.” She did so and soft light flooded upward. She grabbed the flashlight hanging on the wall and continued down with more confidence. It was cool. Not really cold, but cooler than the house.
“There’s room for you and Matt down here. There’s water and food. Enough for three days. It’s not suitable as a long-term haven. But as a refuge, until someone comes to help, it’s more than adequate.”
“And what if no one comes?” Nicole asked tartly.
“Shouldn’t happen. But there’s a tunnel.” Lars was right behind her.
Nicole jumped. He moved very quietly for such a large man. All she could see were rows and rows of wine bottles on wooden racks. Lars reached around her and pushed on the shelving. It swung open at his touch.
“This is a latch. You have to push it just right or the door won’t open.” Lars closed the door again and demonstrated the mechanism, before he took the lead into the tunnel. He reached up on the wall, located another flashlight and turned it on. A narrow beam of light illuminated the rocky floor. “We have to use flashlights in this section. Batteries are on the right. This is a bedroom.” His flashlight played over a bunkbed and a commode. And shelves of food and bottled water.
Lars kept going. “If we follow this passageway to the end, it comes out in a sheltered bay. We have an inflatable stashed. You should be able to paddle away.”
“To where?” Nicole asked. “The mainland is a long way off. I don’t think I’m strong enough to paddle all that way.”
“You don’t have to. Tomorrow I’ll show you how you get from that bay to where there’s a motorboat.”
“Why don’t you just put the motorboat where the tunnel comes out?” she asked.
“Because this escape route uses the natural network of caves that existed before the house was built. They have merely been enlarged. But the bay it comes out by is too shallow to launch a motorboat. And the deeper bay is too far away from the tunnel.” Lars turned around to make sure she was keeping up.
“We seem to have gone a long way already,” she said.
“That’s because it is a long way.”
They proceeded in silence. Lars turned around occasionally to make sure she was okay. The floor was a little uneven, but there were no holes or loose rubble. She trotted after him in her sandals. She had to remember shoes in an emergency. Bare feet would jeopardize an escape down this rough passage. Even her sandals were a problem.
Eventually they came to a dead end. “Now what?” Nicole asked.
“Now you push here.” Lars demonstrated. “You try it.” Nicole shoved hard at the outcrop he indicated. The blank wall slid away and revealed a manhole cover. Lars reached around her and lifted it away. He said, “You have to crawl through here until you come to the beach. Go ahead, I’ll be right behind you.”
It was only about ten feet or so. Lars was using his flashlight, and moonlight filtered through the irregular opening ahead of her. Nicole crawled out and found herself standing on a sandy beach. Waves splashed against rocks. Bushes grew down almost to the sea. Moonlight sparkled on the sea. She turned in a circle. She could see nothing that resembled an inflatable boat.
“It’s hidden in the bushes. And I’m afraid you can’t practice with it. It has to stay in its sealed pouch until you need it. Once you open it, it expands instantly, and you can’t get it back into the box.” Lars showed her the hidden Zodiac. It was concealed in what appeared to be a boulder crusted over with barnacles.
“Where are the paddles?” She asked.
“There are collapsible ones underneath the boat. There aren’t any life jackets, so you have to be careful. Especially if you have the boy with you.”
The return to the house seemed to take far less time, but Nicole was surprised when she saw that the entrance to the wine cellar was closed and locked. “It wouldn’t be much use,” said Lars reasonably, “If you had to leave it open. It seals to prevent the bad guys from following you.” He showed her how to pull the lever that reversed the operation. He went ahead of her and helped her out. Together they moved the kitchen island back to where it had been.
“When you use the lever inside the wine cellar, the staircase descends. The cabi
netry moves back into place, and if you’re fast enough nobody will know where you’ve gone. You won’t get a second chance, so you have to move fast. Oh, one more thing: once you turn and lock the lever, and the staircase descends, no one can open it from the kitchen until you unlock it.”
“How do you get to us then?” Nicole worried.
“There’s a speaker-phone that I can access from my phone. You can hear me once you’re out of the wine cellar proper, so long as you’re not too far down the tunnel. Unfortunately, you cannot contact my phone directly. The tunnel and bedroom are soundproofed, and the rock interferes with telecommunications.”
Nicole nodded numbly.
“Now what do you want to do?” Lars asked her as she headed to her bedroom.
“I want something to read,” she said apologetically. “I’ve never gone so long in my entire life without having a book in my hand.”
“Help yourself. The library is full of books.”
“What library?”
Lars’ high cheekbones flushed. “Why don’t I give you the half-dollar tour?”
Lars opened the doors into a number of rooms. “Theater,” he said. Nicole peered in at a large flat screen TV and rows of comfortable recliners.
“Games room.” This one held a billiard table, a miniature football table, an elaborate and heavily inlaid wooden table that didn’t match the rest of the casual surroundings, and a couple of sofas.
“Small sitting room.” Three tables with chairs, a window seat that looked out at the beach, and the chaise longue. “Library.” Tall shelves behind glass doors ran floor to ceiling. Two large step stools on wheels stood in front of the shelves. “If you want to use these,” Lars tugged them into the room, “be sure you set the brake before you climb up.” He demonstrated.
“I will.” Nicole already had two doors open and was looking at a collection of well-worn paperbacks. “But I don’t think I need a ladder to find something I want to read.” She extracted three novels by her favorite authors. And A Brief History of Time.
“Satisfied already?” Lars asked.
Nicole chuckled. “I think you forget that I’ve been a single parent for seven years. This is about how long I ever get to choose a book. And usually I’m having to buy them. I’ve learned to pick quickly.”
He took the books out of her hand. “Pretty heavy reading,” he said looking at A Brief History.
“I’ve never had a chance to read it in English,” she explained.
“You read it in Spanish?”
She bristled. “I may not be educated, but everyone has read that book. It was a best seller.”
“Steven Hawking sold a lot of copies. But I don’t know how many really got read,” he said grinning. “Easier to buy than to read.”
“But it’s fascinating!”
“You don’t have to convince me. I think astrophysics is cool too.”
“You do?”
“Certainly. I’m an engineer. Goes with the territory.”
“I thought you were a submariner?” She was puzzled.
He chuckled. “A nuclear sub is a glorified steam engine, running on radioactive fuel, operating half a mile below the sea. To say nothing of the sonar and other equipment. Everyone on board from captain on down needs an engineer’s expertise.”
“Oh. I guess you’ve read this,” she waved Hawking’s book at him.
“I’ve met him.”
“Really? What was he like? What did you talk about?”
“He was small and frail and intense. Someone else gave the lecture he had prepared for our group, and read his answers to our questions. I got to stand in the back row when we thanked him.”
“In the back row?”
“Thirteen students from the Naval Academy were invited to attend one of his lectures. Afterwards our teacher thanked him, and gave him our gift. We saluted and left. I got to stand at the back because I was the tallest.”
Nicole laughed. “Of course you were. Serves you right.”
His handsome face was laughing down at hers. Every nerve in her body was suddenly taut with anticipation. Naked longing showed on his face and the laughter drained out of his expression. He raised a hand as if to touch her and let it fall back to his side. Her disappointment frightened her.
“Come sit and talk with me,” he said taking a seat on the broad couch.
Nicole hesitated, but Lars was leaning back into his own corner and his hands were folded. “We can’t ignore this spark between us,” he said.
Nicole perched on the other end of the sofa and clutched her books to her chest. “I won’t let you seduce me,” she warned.
“If there is any seduction going on, dragoness, it is I who am being beguiled.” She shook her head and Lars chuckled. “Have we not flown together?” he demanded. “Have you not lured me with your song?”
She shook her head harder. “No,” she said shaking her head despite the truth of his words.
“You called as a dragoness seeking a new mate calls. And your song has woken my sleeping heart.”
“That’s just words,” she objected.
He sighed. “You need to believe that you have the freedom to choose. And to trust yourself to choose.”
“Do I?”
“You’ve had precious little choice in your adult life. And I think you feel like you have no choice now. I’m bigger, stronger, richer than you are. It’s not a level playing field. And yet, despite your misgivings, we are married. I don’t blame you for feeling trapped and resentful.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I wonder if I give you something to stand on, so we are eye to eye, if you would be less scared.”
“I’m bigger than you are in dragon,” she said warily.
“So you are. It often happens so. And yet you are using your books as a shield. But I was thinking that if you had money of your own, you would feel freer,” he explained.
She laughed bitterly. “I don’t feel right about taking your money. Besides, I thought you said dragons are hoarders.”
“So we are. I just don’t happen to covet wealth. I’m good with money – I don’t deny that – but it’s not what I stockpile.”
“What is?”
He shook his head.
“No, tell me,” she insisted
“You really want to know?”
“You know all my secrets.”
“Do I? I wonder.” He paused. “I crave honors.”
“That isn’t something you can hoard. How can anyone hoard honor?”
“Not honor, honors. Theo has more medals than I do. I am jealous as hell.”
“Oh. Why does he have more?”
Lars lips twisted. “Luck.” He corrected himself. “No. Audacity. Daring. Theo and I are friends. Dear friends. But I resent that he is a Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim. And I will never be.”
“Why not?”
“Those knighthoods are generally reserved for Swedish royalty.”
“Theo is royalty?”
“Nope. He just served the crown so well and so valorously that the King gave him a special medal.”
“You could steal his,” Nicole suggested irreverently.
He laughed hollowly. “It would still be Theo’s. No, I am just a shallow son of a bitch who covets his best friend’s glitter.”
“I am sure you are just as brave and intrepid as Theo.”
“You think?”
“Yes.”
She slid closer to him and stretched out a hand to touch his. “You aren’t ignoble because you have the occasional ignoble thought. It’s our actions, not our thoughts, that make us evil. I’ll bet your envy of Theo’s honors would be more likely to make you volunteer for something dangerous, than to lie in wait and stab him in the back.”
“Probably.” His voice was gloomy.
“You sound depressed,” she said.
“I believe the correct expression is conflicted,” he said ruefully. He stood up. “It’s late, we better go to bed.”
She got up too, still clutching her books. He bent his head and brushed his lips against hers. Nicole stiffened.
Lars immediately stepped back one pace.
“You said this marriage would just be a formality.” Nicole hugged herself and felt even more unhappy.
He folded his arms across his chest and stepped away from her. “I’m not claiming my marital rights. I thought you wanted to be kissed.” His voice was gentle.
She flushed crimson. “I thought I could trust you,” she accused.
“You can trust me. But is it me that you don’t trust, or yourself?”
Her mouth fell open in genuine surprise. “I don’t know what you mean.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Lars moved away from her altogether. He sat back down on the couch. “Sit back down,” he coaxed. He waved a hand at the armchairs opposite. “We need to talk. I think I need to tell you all the ways in which I’m different from your late husband. For a start, I don’t tell lies. And secondly, I really am your champion. No matter what happens between us, my job is to protect you and your boy. And I’ll do whatever it takes to do so. Even if you don’t want to be kissed.”
“You make me sound like some kind of tease.”
He shook his head. “You’re no tease, Nicole. Quite the opposite. I think you have to forgive yourself for being attracted to Felipe. He set out to seduce you, and it’s no surprise that a lonely, socially isolated teenager was taken in by him. Hell, he deceived my entire family. And I assure you that the Eldest of our house is no unsophisticated young girl.”
“What do you mean? Forgive myself?”
“I think you somehow feel, in your heart of hearts, that it was your own fault that Felipe was able to get you into bed. I think you feel guilty because you were initially attracted to him. But, sweetheart, Felipe was an attractive man. You weren’t his first conquest, and I doubt if you were his last.” Lars paused. “I think you had better tell me a little bit more about how you and your stepfather wound up in Argentina.”
Nicole was huddled on the recliner. She hugged a cushion in front of her like the teenager she was inside. “After my mom died – she had ovarian cancer – none of my relatives wanted to look after me. It was like they thought her cancer was contagious. But Stan said we were a team, and we would stay together. He said he had a new job in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. So we moved there.”
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