A Taste of Temptation (31 page)

He kissed her hair just above her ear and then whispered, “I love you, too, Olivia. It must be love that I’m feeling, for I’ve never felt this way about another woman before. I don’t want to live without you.” Her arms circled his waist and she hid her face in his chest. “Please don’t say that if you don’t mean it.” Andrew lifted her head so he could look into her eyes.

“I mean it. I don’t know how it happened or why it happened. All I know is that I’ve fallen in love with you and I don’t want you to leave my side.”

“I can’t believe you love me. You thought I trapped you in to marriage.”

“I did for a long time. But not anymore. I now know you’re not capable of that kind of trickery.”

“Oh, Andrew, I’m so glad your no longer think the worst of me.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “It came as quite a shock to me when I finally realized it was love I was feeling for you. When I came down the stairs and saw the fire, I was truly frightened for the first time in my life. Not for myself but for you. At that moment I knew all these confusing feelings I had for you were love and devotion to you and no other.”

“Andrew, you’ve made me so happy.”

He laughed softly. “It does make you feel good inside, doesn’t it?”

“Very much so.” She reached up and placed her lips on his, but that one short kiss was not nearly enough.

Andrew bent his head and rained kisses on her lips, her cheeks, her eyes. Olivia leaned into him and he savored the taste of her. Admitting that he loved her made the taste of her all the sweeter and he wanted to kiss her everywhere.

But he knew they were under time constraints.

When he lifted his head, he looked deeply into her eyes and said, “You’re mine, my love. I can’t let anything happen to you.”

Olivia smiled up at him. “Nothing will as long as we’re together. I know I’m safe with you.” He brushed her hair to the back of her shoulder. “Olivia, I have a great fear that you might be hurt if you remain in this house. There’s a man who wants me dead and he obviously doesn’t care who dies with me.”

“Tell me who wants to kill you and why.”

“I’m sure the man is Willard Hawkins. He once worked for me. I found out that he had been adjusting the account books and stealing from me for years. When I confronted him, he pulled a gun and shot me. The bullet grazed my arm and gave him enough time to get away.”

“How can we find him?”

“We can’t. I’ve had men trying to locate him for weeks now. I was told they had tracked him here to London.”

“These men know he’s in London but not where he’s staying?”

“Right. He must have found a window open tonight, possibly the one in the parlor, and crawled inside to start the fire.”

“What about the other unexplained things that have happened in the house?”

“My guess is that he probably bribed one of the servants to let him in and create mischief, hoping it would look like an accident. At the moment I have no idea which one that would be.”

A curious expression came over Olivia’s face and she looked at him and said, “I do.”

27239_ch01.001-297.qxd 9/19/05 6:09 PM Page 274

Twenty

8

A
s they stood
in the kitchen, with only a low burning lamp for light, Olivia told Andrew how Ellie came to be her personal maid, including the fact that Whibbs had already had doubts about her. Olivia admitted she had rehired Ellie to be her lady’s maid because she felt sorry for her.

“Do you remember the evening I went to your room and told you I heard voices?” Olivia asked.

“Yes. You mean you actually heard voices? That wasn’t just a ploy to come into my room and steal a few kisses from me?”

“Certainly not,” she said indignantly before she noticed a teasing gleam in his eyes. “Andrew, this is not the time to amuse yourself at my expense.”

He grinned and dropped a soft kiss onto her lips.

“Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. There are some things that are very easy to tease you about.”

“And I will welcome it at a later time. But for now, I’ll continue my story. A few days later I heard voices again, and this time I knew you were not in the house so I went on a search to find where the voices were coming from. I found Ellie upstairs in the room directly above mine. She insisted there had been no one with her and that she had been napping.”

“She admitted to sleeping while at work?” he asked.

“And you didn’t dismiss her at once?” Olivia hated having to admit that she had not terminated Ellie’s employment, especially now when she could see how wrong she had been to keep the maid on.

“No. I know I shouldn’t have listened to her, but I was trying to be compassionate, so I agreed she could have another chance. I told her I would let the transgression pass, but if it ever happened again her employment would be terminated immediately.”

Andrew looked down into her eyes. “I’m glad you are a kindhearted person, but if someone has more than one problem at work there is usually a valid reason as to why one’s not up to the task.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked.

He nodded. “That somehow Ellie has been helping Willard Hawkins slip in and out of the house, and he is the one who has been creating the mischief, trying to get rid of me by way of an accident.”

“But how did she get him in and out without anyone seeing him? Or perhaps she has been doing the things at his direction.”

“That’s what we have to find out,” Andrew said.

“If we inspect the suit of armor I believe we’ll find that it was tampered with in some way to make it fall. And the urn that narrowly missed hitting you when it fell from the landing? It may have been manipulated so it would crash to the floor. Whibbs put the armor in the attic. We can easily check that, but I’m sure the broken urn has long since been thrown out.”

“Maybe not,” Andrew said. “I remember Whibbs saying something about saving the pieces until someone he knew came back to town. He thought she might be able to put it back together so that no one would know it had ever been broken. There’s a good chance it’s in the attic, too.”

“Let’s go up and check for both.”

“It will be daylight soon. Let’s get dressed and see what we can discover before Whibbs and the rest of the servants begin to stir.”

They hurried up the stairs to their rooms and quickly dressed. In the attic, they found the armor standing in a corner. Olivia held the lamp close to the hand where the pike usually rested. It was clear the fingers had been pried apart so wide that the pike wouldn’t fit securely in the fist and the least bit of jarring or disturbance would make it fall.

Next they checked the attic over for the broken urn. They looked in trunks, baskets, bags, and drawers. Andrew hadn’t seen half the stuff that was in the attic, as he’d never bothered to look at the things relatives before him had piled into the room. It was crammed full of possessions others had deemed too important or too sentimental to throw away.

Just as they were about to give up Olivia saw a wooden box sitting on top of a tall chest. Andrew stood on a chair and handed the box down to Olivia.

When they shined the lamp on the broken pieces of china they looked up at each other and laughed softly.

“What made us think there would be a clue in this?” Andrew asked as he picked up a couple of large pieces of the vase and looked at them.

“I think we’re trying too hard,” she said and glanced down in the box again as she started to take the lamp away.

Something caught her eye. She reached into the box and pulled out a single strand of white embroidery thread. It was attached to the broken handle of the urn.

“What’s this?” Andrew said.

“A piece of thread tied to the handle. Look how long it is.”

“I don’t think Whibbs would have tied this to the handle of a broken urn.”

“Me neither. Why do you suppose it is on there?” He studied the string. “I can only guess, but my thoughts are that someone tied the string to the handle so they could hide on one side of the landing and pull the urn off the landing from the other side.”

“And it could have been set up the night before. The thread is so fine it wouldn’t have been seen unless someone was looking for it. Someone could have been hiding almost anywhere upstairs and pulled on that thread.”

“And made the urn fall,” Andrew finished.

“That’s why no one was seen on the landing when it fell.”

“It’s a very clever idea.”

Olivia wrinkled her forehead. “I don’t think Ellie would have had time to do these things during the day without someone seeing her.”

“You’re right. It’s possible she let Hawkins in the house.

He could have accomplished these things while everyone in the house was sleeping.”

“I don’t like the idea of that man being in our house.” Concern etched its way across Andrew’s features and Olivia knew he was thinking that it was too dangerous for her to be in the house as long as this man was free. But she wasn’t leaving him.

“I don’t, either. And I sure as hell don’t like the thought that he might have been the man you saw in your room.”

“It couldn’t have been him. That first night my door was locked. That’s why I thought it must have been you. I knew you would have a key. But tonight, I’m certain it wasn’t you or Hawkins in my room.”

“Believe what you will about your phantom, my love. I would rather a ghost be in your room than a real man.” Olivia smiled. He was going to allow her to believe she had seen a ghost. “I love you with all my heart, Andrew.

I’m so happy no one has been hurt.”

Olivia reached up and kissed him. She would have made it a quick kiss, but Andrew cupped the back of her head, allowing the kiss to linger. The sweetness of it touched Olivia to her soul.

“I love you, too,”he whispered softly when the kiss ended. “I want to take you to my bed and show you just how much I love you, but right now we have more work to do.”

“There will be time for loving later, but what can we do now?”

Andrew lifted his head. “Let’s go up to the room where you found Ellie and see if we can find anything in there that will give us a clue.”

They quietly left the attic and walked belowstairs to the guest room. It was small and contained only a bed, a chest, and a slipper chair. Andrew ran his hands up and down the walls looking for a crack in the wood that would indicate a secret door, but he didn’t find anything.

“Where was she standing when you came in?” Andrew asked.

“By the bed. I remember thinking that the covers on the bed had been disturbed and wondered if she could have possibly had a man with her. I was sure I heard a man’s voice, but when she was the only one in here I assumed I was wrong.”

“Let’s move the bed and have a look at the floor.” Olivia helped Andrew ease the bed to the other side of the room. They knelt on the wood floor with the lamp at their knees and quickly found a trap door. Andrew slowly opened it. Cold, dank air rose up to meet them as he shined the lamp into the hole.

“There’s a ladder,” he said. “It appears to be some kind of narrow shaft that’s been built to run along the back wall of the house. Very clever. On this wall it makes it easier to hide the secret passageway with a fake outside wall.” Olivia shivered. “That means whoever built this house wanted to sneak out without being noticed.”

“Or he wanted to sneak in,” Andrew said and winked at her. She laughed softly.

“I love to hear you laugh,” he said. “You need to do it more often.”

“I have many reasons to be happy, my lord.”

“So do I,” he answered.

Olivia looked down at the opening again. “Where do you think this passage leads?” she asked.

“I don’t know. My guess is that it’s been here since the house was built. This fake wall isn’t the kind of thing you can add later. Here, hold the lamp while I climb down. I’m going to find out where it goes.”

“No,
we’re
going to find out,” she said.“I’m coming, too.” He put his hand on her shoulder. His touch was warm, strong, and comforting. “Olivia, I have no idea where this goes. It looks treacherous and I don’t want to take any chances on you falling. Stay here and hold the lamp for me.” She looked down at the shaft. “We’re in this together.

Don’t leave me out now.”

He reached over and kissed her softly, briefly, on the lips. “You are an amazing woman, you know that?” Olivia smiled at him and whispered, “I know that I love you.”

Andrew returned her smile. He placed the lamp at the edge of the opening. “Hold your dress away from your feet and take your time following me. Be careful of the light when you step down. I’ll go slowly in case you need help.” Andrew climbed down into the narrow shaft. Olivia grabbed the hem of her dress and started down the ladder. It was dark, cold, and damp inside the walls of the house.

Within a couple of minutes her hands and feet were numb.

It seemed they climbed down for hours, but Olivia knew it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before Andrew whispered, “I’ve reached the bottom. Stay where you are until I find an opening to the outside.” Olivia tried to look down but she couldn’t see anything but a little crack of light from some kind of opening in the wall. She was beginning to feel chilled all over when suddenly there was a creak of wood. She knew Andrew had opened a door.

“Come on down,” he whispered.

A few steps farther and her foot hit the ground. She let go of the ladder, dropped to her knees, and crawled out the door Andrew held open for her. When she stood up she saw she was on the ground at the back of the house. There was a very narrow clearing between the house and a row of tall yew trees.

Sunrise was just beginning to break the sky, turning the horizon from midnight blue to dusty pink.

“I guess we now know how Hawkins got in and out of the house without being detected.”