Page 70 of The Highland Heist
He followed her directions, chuckling quietly to himself. “You are a wonder, Mrs. Lindsay.”
In all his adult life, Frederick would never have imagined himself in a modest townhouse kitchen, preparing sandwiches for his mistakenly deceased brother-in-law after his sister-in-law went missing on a quest to find a will in a castle she wasn’t even supposed to be in.
He shook his head as he balanced the tray carefully.
And this was his life.
He met Grace and Zahra just outside the door to the library. Grace held a large blanket in her arms and sent him a look of relief. “Oh good. You’re going in too. I just wanted to make sure we all saw the same thing at the same time.”
Frederick paused, balancing the tray in one hand, and raised an eyebrow. “I assure you, Tony is quite solid—and alive. Though he may not feel like it at the moment.”
Grace peeked past him at the door, biting her lip. “I must admit, I’ve never read where a ghost chose to stand outside in the rain when he could very well materialize through a door. So at least that’s in his favor as proof.”
“I do not think ghosts are usually polite,” Zahra added, and Frederick’s grin slipped wide.
“Ah, Grace. More proof.” He gestured toward Zahra. “Ghosts are not usually polite.” Frederick gave a faint chuckle as he nudged the door open with his foot.
Grace rolled her eyes, though her smile almost made an appearance, until the door creaked open and Tony, still slumped in the chair, came back into view. “He still looks ghostly,” she whispered, following him into the room with Zahra at her heels.
Zahra tilted her head, her little face scrunched up in concentration. “He does not look very dead, only very wet.”
Tony let out a raspy laugh from the settee, accepting the blanket Grace handed him and wrapping it around himself. His teeth chattered, but he managed a weak grin. “I am that.”
“This is Zahra.” Frederick set the tray nearby. “She’s our daughter we adopted from Egypt.”
“Adopted?” Tony took a longer look of Zahra and pressed his head back against the chair. “What an introduction to the world outside of Egypt.”
“She’s probably seen worse.” Grace stepped to the tea and poured a cup, offering it to Tony, her expression still wary.
He shot Zahra a look before taking the teacup from Grace. His hands shook the cup all the way to his mouth, but after a few sips he offered a relieved sigh. “Thank you. It feels like I haven’t been warm in weeks. Definitely not since I woke up.”
There was a quietness about Tony Dixon, maybe even humility? Had that been a trait of his before his financial troubles, or was it something learned from hardship?
Frederick understood that type of life learning all too well.
“Where exactly did you wake up?” Grace slid down on the settee nearby, her attention fully fixed on Tony. Frederick guessed his wife was still trying to convince herself Tony wasn’t going to evaporate before her eyes.
Tony’s head lolled back against the settee, his body seeming less tense than it had been. “The morgue.”
Grace gasped.
“Good night, Dixon,” Frederick muttered, crossing the room to sit beside Grace. “Themorgue?”
“Nearly terrified one of the watchmen to death.” Tony’s eyes opened slowly, and he gave a weak shrug. “Once he called the doctor and consulted the coroner, they determined I wasn’t actually dead.”
“My faith in the medical community has just grown exponentially.” Frederick’s tone was dry, inspiring a tired grin from Tony.
Tony’s mouth twitched in a weak grin. “The doctor said the wound was shallow, but the blood on my shirt made it look worse. Someone must’ve assumed I’d bled out. The watchman told me they’d had several accidents that day, so I was sent to the cellar until the coroner could ‘process’ me for the police.” He shivered, and Frederick was certain those chills had more to do with the memory than the cold.
“Shallow wound?” Frederick clarified.
Tony nodded. “The doctor thought I’d been stabbed by someone untrained or interrupted in the process. The coroner believed that the cold in the cellar slowed my bleeding, my pulse, my breathing—it made everything look like I was …”
“Dead?” Grace finished for him, her eyes wide. “Tony, if you hadn’t awakened when you did …”
“Don’t mention it, Grace.” He raised a palm to stop her. “I can’t think about it, especially after waking up in a room full of coffins.”
“You must have felt like you’d stepped straight intoDracula,”Grace whispered.
