Page 40 of The Rainbow Recipe
Except the wretched man heard her coming. He limped to the library door before she could reach the foyer. His conference was going on without him in the background.
“Where are you going at this hour? Are the twins asleep?” When he was tired, he rolled his r’s more.
She didn’t have an ear for accents. It was hard to tell whether that was Scots or Italian.
“They’re asleep. The monitor is hooked up to that device on your desk so you can hear them. I’m going for a short drive. You do remember I can drive?” They’d had a memorable one a few months back where he’d hung on for dear life and cursed her in three or four languages. She understood his wariness of her abilities, but the lack of respect burned.
“It’s dark. These roads have no lights. And you can’t read the road signs, when there are road signs, which there often aren’t. Why can’t whatever you’re up to wait until morning?” There were pain wrinkles around his eyes.
She wanted to sympathize, but she wasn’t that kind of girl. “Go back to your meeting. I’ll tell you later. I don’t think I can miss an entire town.”
“Well, yes, you can. If you’re not talking about the village, but any of half a dozen nearby towns, they’re not all accessible by vehicle. Again, why can’t it wait until morning?”
Not accessible by vehicle?How did one go there, on mule back? She’d figure it out. “You want me to take the twins on my fishing expedition?” she asked in annoyance. “They’re asleep now and relatively safe. Tomorrow, they’ll run circles around you if I leave them with you. Have you found a nanny yet?”
“Actually, I think I have. Stay. Let me finish this up.” He waited for her agreement, then returned to his computer.
Pris gnashed at the bit, but the knowledge that she couldn’t just drive into town and look for an address daunted her eagerness just a little bit. She should have known it wasn’t easy. She needed to take lessons in Italian. Her Spanish was rusty but she could see a lot of similarities.
He shut down and gestured for her to join him in the amazing library. He was a busy man with an aristocratic lineage and a mansion. She was a caterer with a lineage of witches and frauds. She felt as if she ought to be entering with a tray of drinks and nibbles or at the very least, potions.
Hiding a grimace, she perched on the edge of a worn leather chair. She preferred the kitchen, where she reigned supreme.
“One of my students is looking for work. She has many younger siblings and knows how to deal with little ones. She can come on weekends and Tuesdays and Thursdays. That’s a start, isn’t it?” He opened a bar built into his bookcase and held up a whiskey glass in her direction.
Pris shook her head at the offer of a drink and waited until he’d poured his and settled into his easy chair before she formed a response. “It’s a start, yes, if she has references. Once I leave, what will you do the other days of the week? I understand you travel extensively.”
He winced as he set his leg up on a stool. “I won’t be traveling much like this. Maybe I can find another student by then.”
“Have you heard from your mother? Do you know how long she’ll be gone?” Pris gave up and sat back, admitting she wasn’t going anywhere this evening.
“Her sister needs care after surgery. I can’t ask her to return. As much as I hate to admit it, you’re right. I’ve been behaving like a pampered prince and expecting others to handle everything. The twins are mine, and they deserve my attention. I’m just not sure how to adjust my life to accommodate their needs. A dig isn’t any place for children.” He frowned into his whiskey.
Or maybe it was Scotch malt. She wasn’t much into hard liquor.
“Well, at least you have a good excuse for staying home until you figure it out. But my job here is to find out who killed Katherine Gladwell so I can go back to my business.” She handed over her phone with Evie’s text. “The connections between her death and Lucia’s farm are growing stronger.”
He scanned the message. “Did she send the information about the deposits? We can drive over tomorrow and look for this shell company address, but the bank where the deposits are being made is a national one. There are branches all over.”
“You’re not really getting it, are you? Evie is saying that these depositsstoppedwhen you and your students took over Leo’s cave. We really have to go back there. And we can’t take the twins, not with what you felt on those carriers.” Pris didn’t mind being reckless for herself, but not when innocents entered the picture.
Fear and horrorwere powerful emotions. What had driven Lucia and whoever held those carriers to drop the children here and run? Ghosts? Who or what had made them fear for the life of the children?
“I’m not letting you go over to Leo’s on your own, especially if he’s hiding something. I need to oversee what’s been done on the tunnel. If we both go, we can take turns with the twins in the car. I’ll talk to the students. Then we’ll drive up and you can talk to Leo.”
“Take the twins to Lucia’s farm where bad guys might hang out? And here I thought you were the cautious one.” Pris shoved out of her chair.
“Leo isn’t a bad guy,” he said with a dismissive gesture. “He’s just overworked and fretting.”
Pris kept her opinion to herself. Just because Dante looked like lord of all he surveyed, didn’t mean he was people smart. She would do well to remember that. “When can your nanny start?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Next week, sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me. You’re the one stuck here.” She really needed to go home, she decided as she aimed for the door. She was getting too damned comfortable with this man. Manipulating Dante’s mind was like pounding her head against a brick wall, so she’d quit trying, but she still understood his pain and frustration. “How long before you can go up those stairs or drive yourself?”
“When I’m not eating pain pills?” He studied his glass as if the answer were there. “I promise I’ll do everything within my power to help you with your search for a connection with Katherine’s killer, if you’ll stay until the nanny arrives. I’ll manage after that.”
“Yeah, right. I’d better start on tomorrow’s meals if we’ll be jaunting about the countryside.” Besides, she had a powerful lot of energy she needed to work off before she could sleep.
