The Kiss (6 page)

“It doesn’t mar your perfection at all,” Eva said. “Intentional
or not.”

Running a finger over the fountain’s lip she took a deep,
satisfying breath, wondering why she felt strangely reluctant to leave her
Adonis.
Oh he’s
your
Adonis now is he?

A bell rang inside the house, audible even out here. Maybe it was
the wake up call? Eva looked around, almost guiltily. No, she did not want her
colleagues to catch her talking to a statue.
They’ll think you’re a fruitloop.
Normal people do not talk to inanimate objects. 

She sighed, since when had she ever been normal? She was an
artist after all, and if talking to her muse helped so be it. Though, maybe it
was best to do it when others weren’t likely to notice. With that in mind she
cast Adonis one last lingering glance, and sketch pad at the ready, breath
freezing in the air, she stomped off towards the gloriously embracing men.

Chapter
Eight

“Damn it, Grace, how many more times do you want me to tell it?”
Adam shouted from his seat next to the fire.

Grace cast him a reproachful glance and he shivered.
Must calm
down, must get a grip.

 “That’s what happened, Grace! Bloody hell, why would I lie?” He
shivered again and pulled his blanket a little closer.
What the hell is
wrong with me?
Adam was freezing cold, nothing was warming him, not the
roaring flames or the copious amounts of sweet tea Grace insisted he drink.

“Well it sounds like a load of old nonsense, Adam. Ye say she
burnt ye yet there’s nary a mark on you at all, and ye rode back to the hall
alreet.”

Why isn’t the fire working properly!
“I don’t even
remember riding back here, Grace. The first thing I recall is you standing over
me here a half hour ago, blanket and tea in hand.”

 Grace shook her head. “Granny can do some frightful things but I
would’nee believe even that of her. Probably she made you drink something and
ye don’t remember, ye have a nightmare and only now are ye just awakening from
it.”

“I know what happened damn it,” Adam insisted, though truth be
told he felt the memories slipping away from him. Like the first moments of
waking when everything is so clear but then slowly, surely, everything starts
to fade.

He clearly remembered Granny picking up the pan, flinging the
boiling water but after that? Nothing, nothing but pain and then darkness. How
he’d gotten home he didn’t know, but he had.
Maybe Grace is right, maybe
she’d worked some sort of spell and I imagined it all?

“That poor girl,” Grace said again.

But she said I’d suffer, that as the years passed I’d know.

“She’s ruined now, completely ruined. The blacksmith’s son was
a-looking to court her, he won’t now. How could he? This is bound to get out
and the shame would be too much.”

“They wouldn’t take any money,” Adam whispered. “I remember
that.”
She said I’d feel her pain, the burning was not enough to do that.
He
shook his head. “I didn’t think to ask about anything like that though. Maybe I
could talk to the boy if this does get out? Though I doubt Felton will be eager
to tell anyone.”

“Yes, ye have to find some way to make it better, my Lord, it is
ye’re responsibility,” Grace said. “Ye’ll have to do something to ensure she
doesn’t suffer any more.”

You know you bear the responsibility of this, boy.
Adam
nodded, Grace only called him ‘my Lord’ when she wished to remind him of his
duties.
“I will, Grace. I will.”

“Granny will forgive ye in time Adam, in time it’ll be right. Ye
did’ne hurt the poor girl now did ye. Despite yer reckless ways and yer stupid
stunts ye’d never do anything like that.”

“Not directly no, but this is my fault.” Adam picked up his cup
and took a sip of the tea. It did nothing to ease the chill and he shivered
under his blanket.
Maybe I’m in shock too.

Grace patted his hand. “We’ll make it better somehow. We’ve been
through worse have we, nay?”

“Did you tell them all to leave?” he asked, changing the subject.
He wanted his house guests gone immediately.
I’ll never hold another, those
days are finished.

“They’re all a-packing now,” Grace replied. “All shocked, they’re
not a bad bunch save
him
. He’s nowhere to be seen.”

“If he approaches the hall you tell me Grace, I’ll horsewhip him
again.”

Grace shook her head. “Granny’ll deal with him in her own way
Adam. Ye need to rest.”

“I don’t know if I can.”
I’m so cold.

“Ye’ll have to go back tomorrow, Adam. Offer help again, ye’ll
need your strength for that.”

“I will Grace, you know I will. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“I’d better be seeing that yer guests get off okay. I’ll come
back in a little bit.”

Adam nodded, watched her rise, and reached out impulsively to
grab her hand. “Thank you, Grace, not just for today but for the last years.” What
would he do without Grace and Finn? The two of them were everything to him, had
saved him from himself more times than he could count. Both in their mid
thirties they’d been with him long before the older Lord Winterwood died.

Grace smiled and when she did her face changed somehow, became
beautiful and youthful all over again. “What else would I be doing with meself,
eh?”

The moment Grace left the chill in the room increased and Adam
wrapped the blanket tighter around himself.
I’m so cold.

He lifted his gaze to his Papa’s portrait and felt a tear prick
his eyes. Every reckless, dissipated action he’d taken over the years was
coursing through him. A thousand memories all fighting for space and the very
pinnacle of them all was Evie, that poor scrap of a girl. “I’m so sorry, Papa.
I’ve let you down, I’ve let everyone down. Why the hell didn’t I realize what
an idiot I’ve been this last decade?”

The stern gaze of his beloved parent appraised him without
feeling. “I’m so sorry,” Adam repeated. “I’ll make it better I promise. I’ll
give Evie something to make things better and beg Granny’s forgiveness. I’ll
turn things around, take my rightful place as the Earl and look after my
responsibilities. I’ll do my duty.”

As always, Adam’s Papa did not reply.

“Though I deserve it, I hope to God this is over, that she’s had
her revenge.” Adam whispered but the chill did not subside, the memories did
not recede and Adam couldn’t help but feel that the worst was yet to come.

Chapter
Nine

December the twenty-first had come and the guests would be
arriving any moment, or so they’d been told.

Eva checked the dining room to make sure the cutlery was all in
place, the glasses were sparkling and the flowers perfectly arranged. 
Everything was exactly how she had left it several hours ago, ready and
waiting. For lack of anything better to do she wandered back towards the foyer
intending to check the flowers there.

Lily, one of the other staff was heading in the same direction,
she smiled in a friendly fashion and Eva smiled back.

“Looking for something to do?” Eva asked.

“Yep, you?”

Lily nodded, sending her long golden hair shimmering around her
face. “There is nothing to do though. I’m so bored I started cleaning my room
and that is so not like me. No internet, no TV, nothing but books. I’d kill for
some real work right about now but this place was near on perfect when we got
here.”

Evie couldn’t help but agree. Grace might have over egged the job
but she’d thought they’d still be busy, but there was nothing to do, like
literally nothing.
“Well they’ve just given us some settling in time I
guess,” Eva said trying, maybe, to reassure them both.

Lily raised one perfect eyebrow. “They’re paying us a fair bit to
spend near over a week lazing around.”

Again Lily was right. Eva had spent over a week waiting, a week
with not really anything to do, certainly no ‘light waitressing’. Lily had
arrived before so had even more
settling
in time. It was all very odd
but Eva was trying not to question it too closely.

This past week she had taken numerous luxurious baths, slept
peacefully in the comfiest bed in the world, sketched most of the statues, including
Adonis over and over again, and hit the gym constantly. She’d toned up a little
and relaxed a lot. It had been like a mini holiday interrupted only when she
was asked to arrange flowers or lay out silverware.

“It’s been like a holiday,” Lily said, echoing Eva’s thoughts.

“Yeah we’ll probably be worked to death soon though.”

In a way Eva kind of hoped so, once the novelty wore off she’d
wanted to get busy. Eva didn’t enjoy idleness and she was eager to start
working properly. When Grace had called everyone in for a staff meeting and
informed them all that the guests would be arriving tonight Eva was actually
pleased.

“I’m gonna check the library, again,” Lily said, “Maybe there’s
some dust on the gazillion books or something. Who even reads those books I
wonder? I don’t think this place even runs all year round.”

“What do you mean?” Eva asked.

“Well I was one of the first to get here,” Lily confided in a
hushed tone. Why it was necessary to whisper Eva didn’t know. “Everything was
covered up in those big white sheets, you know the type you see on TV. I helped
a little with that, removing dust covers and stuff—it was the most work I’ve
done so far. So I was thinking to myself that maybe this place is only open for
the time we’ve been employed for.”

Eva shook her head, she too had spent a fair bit of time
wondering about the odd contract over the last few days—December through to
March—but she’d assumed new staff were brought in throughout the year, for
different seasonal periods. “But why would you have a huge house like this and
not open it up during the summer months? It’s stupid. Country houses make all
their money off tourists. There’s a package tour thing, I remember seeing it in
the newspaper. You get to visit a bunch of country houses over a few weeks and
believe me it wasn’t cheap.”

“Maybe they just prefer opening for Christmas?” Lily suggested.

“So why are we here till March? If it was a Christmas only thing
we’d be sent on our way in the New Year.”

Lily nodded eagerly, clearly pleased to have someone to voice her
concerns to, or maybe just to gossip. “I don’t know, that’s my point. Why have
all those books, all this space and everything if people only come for a couple
of months? And the amount we’re being paid? And all those contracts we had to
sign?”

“Lily, what are you getting at?”

“I’m thinking this must be like a celebrity hideaway or used by
the government or something. The house is opened specially for that.”

Eva laughed in relief at the banality of Lily’s ideas. She didn’t
want to say anything but she was just as curious and baffled as Lily seemed to
be, and maybe even a little… worried as the days went by. The land all barren
around them, the lack of a proper entrance to the Estate, the strange ‘season’.
Who would have such a weird time frame? Grace’s explanation seemed to get
thinner and thinner the more Eva thought about it. Then there was the plush
luxury Grace seemed to think appropriate for her staff, not to mention the huge
wages. It felt almost like they were being prepped for something and Eva had no
idea what.

 She shook herself inwardly and smiled at the other girl. “Maybe,
I could see Grace as M.”

“Huh?”

“James Bond character.”

“Oh. Well just think, Eva, we might meet some famous people.”
Lily’s flushed face was a clear indication that this thought found favor with
her.

“Or government people, working from your theory.”

“Urg I hope not. Those guys are always so tight, we’ll get rotten
tips.”

“Celebs it is then. Right, I better go and check the foyer.”

Lily nodded and wandered off in the direction of the library, Eva
musing on what she’d said. The flowers in the foyer were fine, as Eva suspected
were the books Lily had gone off to dust. She fiddled with them a bit simply
for lack of anything better to do, checked the mirrors to make sure they were
sparkling, and the floor to make sure there were no muddy footprints, but
everything was fine.

What’s the significance of the season? Why is it niggling me?
Eva wished she could fire her laptop up and check but she was uncomfortably
aware of Grace’s ‘no contact with the outside world’ rule. Under normal
circumstances Eva would have just ignored it, but she didn’t know if the house
even had a wifi connection and she didn’t want to be caught tapping into a
network, fired and left penniless.
If you leave before the contract ends you
get nothing.
Hadn’t that been what Grace had said?

She’s got us all exactly where she wants us. How can we question
it?
And why would they want to? A week’s holiday, plenty of good food and
lots of money to come.

You’re over complicating things girl.  So they’re a bit kooky,
the season is a bit weird and the setup a bit odd—so what. Think of the money.
Maybe Lily is onto something, celebs or something. Just do your job and leave
it at that.

She noticed a ribbon slightly askew on the huge Christmas tree
and bent down to adjust it slightly.

“Bored?”

Eva turned to see Ryan, one of the male staff standing by the entrance
to the great room. He’d crept up out of nowhere and she wondered if he’d been
eavesdropping on their conversation.

“A little.”

Eva smoothed down her work skirt, which she had realized once
she’d tried it on, would not hang on her hips and so was far shorter than she’d
anticipated. She fervently hoped she hadn’t given Ryan and eyeful of her
backside.