Page 14 of Scarlet Angel

“Do you not live here?”

“Of late, I do. Not by choice.”

The limousine parks in front of the house, and Lina opens the door, not waiting for the driver. I scramble out, sliding across the seat to exit through her door.

“What do you mean?” I ask, following her up the stone steps.

The windows of the first and second floors line up symmetrically, but the third floor is styled differently with many small windows, and I can’t ascertain if it’s an attic or if it’s the location of the servants’ quarters.

There’s a formality to the architecture of the house, and I expect a butler to open the door, but Lina twists the handle and swings the heavy oak door open.

“How long has this house been in your family?” I ask, with one last glance at the third-floor eaves.

“Ask questions like that, and everyone will know you’re clueless.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a country estate. The kind that stays in families for generations. Nick bought this, oh, maybe ten years ago. The heir couldn’t afford the taxes and sought to sell it to a hotelier. Nick swooped in. Bought it sight unseen and furnished.”

The front door opens into a foyer with a grand marble staircase and a polished mahogany railing. The same gleaming banister wraps around the upstairs balcony.

“The house is a Robert Adams, but it’s been renovated so many times it’s lost the mystique. Or, perhaps, the renovations spanning nearly two hundred years give it the proper countryside mystique. I don’t know and don’t care. It’s stuffy and boring. Give me the city, any city, over the countryside.”

She may not care for it, but it is beautiful. There are homes in Italy that are equally as grand, although the most sought-after homes in our area have stunning Mediterranean vistas.

“It’s beautiful, but it’s not what I expected Nikolai to inhabit.” She ignores my comment.

The wood floor shows its age, but a mammoth Oriental rug covers all but the outside edges of the foyer. To each side of the entryway are rooms with quaint antique furniture befitting a museum and ten-foot doors that presumably lead into formal rooms.

I follow Lina’s lead and remove my shoes, but rather than kick them up against the wall, I dangle my heels from one hand.

“This Nikolai business. Where’d you get that? Did someone introduce him to you as Nikolai? Not Leo. Leo called him Nick.”

On the day of Leo and Willow’s wedding, when he arrived in a tuxedo with a garment bag slung over one arm and a velvet pouch, I don’t believe anyone introduced us, but I heard Leo call him Nick. My uncle calls him Nikolai. And Lina did just instruct me to call him Nikolai, didn’t she?

Lina looks at me inquisitively, wanting an answer. “I’m not certain we were introduced. I don’t know your brother well.”

“Eh, well, that’ll change.” She pauses at a painted door. “I wonder where he’ll put you. I should’ve asked.” She snaps her fingers. “I’ll call him.”

She lifts a mobile to her ear, and I step forward to the window and look out over the courtyard at the gray day. Off in the distance, a man with shears thrown over a shoulder strolls past a line of trimmed bushes. There’s nothing in this landscape that’s remotely colorful. Even the greens feel muted.

“All right. I got the answer. You want to change those clothes? Your things are in your room.”

“Sure.”

I follow her down a musty-scented hall and up a back staircase to another hall with a room that looks out on the side of the property. The lawn extends beyond the shrubbery to a mix of evergreens and hardwoods.

“How big is the property?”

“All told, around two thousand acres. This one was only twelve hundred, but he bought the place next door, too. It was farmland, some dairy cows. The farmer still works the land, only Nick now owns it. Pays the taxes. Win-win for the farmer.”

“Why does he want so much land?”

“Country estates are all the rage. Didn’t you know?” She laughs, but it’s not a carefree sound. No, it’s slightly demented. “Give it time, is what he tells me. I’ve been trapped here for months, and it blows balls. But”—she snaps her fingers and grins—“now you’re here, and we’ve got business in London.”

“You wish to live in London?”

“You’ve been, yes?”

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