Finding Laura (34 page)

She made her way slowly to the gazebo, not noticing the beauty of her surroundings today. Went inside and sat on the foot of the chaise, seeing nothing except the image of the mirror as clear as a photo in her mind.

It had always reminded her of a maze, that pattern, but she simply hadn’t made the connection until now. “Idiot,” she told herself without heat. It had been right in front of her—literally. Seen last night from Daniel’s window, she had finally recognized it subconsciously, because
that was the only vantage point she had yet found that showed the entire maze clearly.

But what did it mean? A mirror that was a key to a maze … or a maze fashioned after a one-of-a-kind design on the back of a mirror? The mirror had come first, since it had been commissioned—far away from here in Philadelphia—in 1800. The maze, according to Josie, had been planted here in the 1950s by David Kilbourne. Was that when the Kilbournes had come into possession of the mirror? Had David bought it somewhere for his wife, and later had the maze follow the mirror’s design?

Would Amelia have tossed unwanted into the attic a gift from her beloved David?

She would have if she really did drown him in their own swimming pool
.

Laura leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands, frowning. If Amelia had killed her husband, Laura had a strong hunch she wouldn’t be confessing to it, not now after forty years. But would she confess to knowing more about the mirror that had brought Laura here than she had yet admitted? Probably not. It
had
been more than forty years, after all.

And even if she did say that, yes, it had been a gift from David long ago—so what? She wasn’t likely to remember any more than that; considering the wealth of this family, Amelia had probably gotten a great many gifts in forty years, and one brass mirror would hardly stand out in her mind.

Laura had the depressed feeling that Dena’s final report on the history of the mirror would end with David Kilbourne buying it at a flea market or antique shop somewhere and that would be it. End of story. Nothing to explain why Peter had tried to buy it back from her decades later. No hint that it had had anything to do with his murder. Nothing to explain the evasiveness she felt in Daniel about the mirror.

And certainly nothing to explain why Laura herself had searched all her life for the tarnished brass mirror she had found in the Kilbourne garage one Saturday morning.

Dead end.

“No. It means something. It has to.”

“What means something?”

He had approached without her awareness, which said a lot for the mirror’s power to grip her thoughts and emotions. Now she sat up straight and looked at Daniel, and instantly she had trouble thinking about anything but him.

“What means something?” he repeated, stepping into the gazebo and towering over her. His voice was husky, and when Laura met his gaze she was immediately aware of all the long hours since she had left his bedroom. Too many long hours. Languid heat spread slowly through her, warming and softening the muscles that had been sore earlier, and her heart began to thud hard against her ribs.

Hardly aware of speaking, she said, “The maze. Where did David get the design for the maze?”

“From a stranger in a bar,” Daniel said absently. “It’s an interesting story. Remind me to tell it to you one day.” Then he went down on his knees.

Laura caught her breath when his big, warm hands touched her ankles and began sliding up, pushing the hem of her long skirt higher. She wanted to remind him that it was the middle of the day, that anyone might be strolling through the maze and happen upon them here, but somehow the words wouldn’t emerge. She could barely breathe, and she couldn’t look away from the hot glitter in his eyes.

“I’ve been thinking about this all day,” he said, his hands on her thighs now. “About you. Remembering last night.” His fingers slid up the outer curves of her hips and hooked into the waistband of her panties.

Laura felt herself lifting up a bit to help him as he pulled the scrap of cotton and lace down her legs. Letting
the panties fall where they would, he put his hands back on her, this time easing her legs apart as he pushed the skirt high on her thighs. She caught her breath when he gently stroked her inner thigh, and then her mouth was opening eagerly under the hungry pressure of his, and her hips were pushing toward him, her arms going around his neck.

It was like a tide washing over her, a living thing too powerful to resist. She wanted Daniel, right now this minute, and nothing else in the world mattered except that. She was hardly aware of the sounds coming from her throat, little purrs and whimpers of pleasure. She could only feel. His shaking hands on her breasts, wildly exciting even through her bra and sweater. His mouth feeding on hers as though he needed the taste of her to live. The softness of his hair beneath her fingers and the strength of his arms and the hard delight of his body.

And then he was inside her, stretching and filling her, and Laura cried out, her legs closing around him as her body arched to push herself even closer, to take more of him, all of him.

The pleasure washed over her in waves of heat and throbbing delight, building and building until it reached a crest of ecstasy so overwhelming that she lost herself in it.

There were tears on her face when Laura finally came back to her senses, and in that naked moment she accepted a truth that would no longer be denied. She was in love with Daniel Kilbourne.

J
osie fixed her gaze on the doorway of the library when she heard the front door open and close. A moment later, Alex appeared. “What the hell are you doing working on Saturday?” he demanded, far more abrupt than usual.

His tone might have made her bristle, but Josie could see that he had something on his mind, something that was worrying him. So she merely said, mildly, “I’m not working, actually. I was just writing checks, paying a few personal bills.”

His frown lingered for a moment, but then he laughed shortly and came into the room. “Sorry, sweet. My day has not been a lot of fun so far. How about yours?”

“Oh, it’s been okay, if you overlook Anne having some kind of breakdown over lunch and asking, among other things, if Jeremy would approve of me—um—having sex with his cousin.”

Alex sat down on the corner of her desk and stared at her, brows lifting. “I gather she used a less polite term?”

“You could say that. You could also say that in a few
short minutes, Anne managed to insult, expose, and alienate everyone at the table—with the possible exception of Laura, who was merely stunned.”

Reflectively, Alex said, “I’ve got to start coming home for lunch.”

Josie couldn’t help laughing, but she also shook her head. “It was horrible. She even attacked Kerry, saying she was a widow without ever having been a wife—and I’ve never seen Amelia so frozen after Anne got through needling her about her not really being the one in charge. If Daniel hadn’t come in and shut Anne up, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Alex took her hands and drew her to her feet. “You shouldn’t let her get to you, Josie. She’s a resentful and unhappy woman and gets pleasure out of causing as much trouble as she can. Just ignore her.”

“It’s a little hard to do that when she’s announcing at the top of her voice that we’re sleeping together.”

He looked at her steadily. “So she announced it. So what? Did the sky fall? Did Amelia fire you on the spot and order you from the house? Did everyone look at you in horror?”
Did the ghost of Jeremy rise up in wrathful condemnation?

He didn’t ask that last, but Josie heard it anyway. “No. But I felt so … defenseless somehow. And it hurt to have my private business laid out in front of everyone without so much as a by-your-leave.”

“But you didn’t feel guilty?” he probed. “Or ashamed?”

“No,” she replied slowly, a little surprised.

Alex smiled. “Then we’re definitely making progress, sweet.” He kissed her, lazily but with a difference Josie could feel and yet couldn’t define. “Maybe Anne’s little scene had some redeeming value, after all.”

“I don’t think Daniel thought so,” Josie said a bit absently. “I’ve never seen him look like that before.”

“How did he look?”

“Hard as nails and about that unbending. After Anne ran from the room, he told us it would never happen again, and then I assume he went after her. I haven’t seen either of them since, but I’m willing to bet he told Anne she’d better behave herself from now on, or else.”

Alex grimaced. “Not what he needed at the moment. I’ll tell you something, sweet—it’s not a barrel of fun being responsible for this family.”

She looked at him searchingly. “Are you and Daniel still … cleaning up after Peter?”

“Something like that. Also not much fun.”

“And you still won’t tell me about it?”

“Josie, there’s nothing you could do to help, and no reason for you to be worrying along with Daniel and me. We’ll get to the bottom of it sooner or later, and then I’ll tell you everything. All right?”

She eyed him. “You Kilbourne men are secretive as hell. Except for Peter, of course, who appears to have told Anne every blessed secret he knew.”

“Did he, now? That’s interesting.” Alex’s greenish eyes took on a faraway expression briefly, then cleared. He smiled at her. “Well, never mind. Why don’t we get out of this depressing house for a few hours? I’m sure we can find something to do.”

“I should check and see if Amelia wants me—”

“It’s Saturday. Whatever Amelia might want can wait.” He got off the desk, still holding her hands, and said casually, “By the way, though I didn’t get a chance to mention it this morning, you look great today.”

Josie felt herself color, and thought it was ridiculous for her to be blushing like a schoolgirl. “Thanks.”

He smiled at her and, gently, said, “I don’t think Jeremy would mind. As I recall, black was never his favorite color.”

A sudden lump in her throat made it impossible for
Josie to speak, so she merely nodded and went with him from the library, wondering if he had any idea at all that she had stopped apologizing to her dead husband for what another man had taught her to feel.

A
S THEY WALKED
slowly back through the maze toward the exit, Laura looked down at their clasped hands and wondered if it mattered to him that she loved him. He had to know. She doubted she was capable of hiding her feelings where he was concerned, not now, and besides that, from the day they had met he had seemed attuned to her moods and emotions. Surely he knew. He had brushed the wetness from her face with gentle fingers but hadn’t questioned or commented, and he’d been virtually silent since. Did he know? Did it matter to him at all?

“You’re very quiet,” he said finally.

Laura gathered all the casual calm at her command and said, “I’ve just been ravished in a gazebo. I’m entitled.”

He stopped and looked down at her, smiling slightly. “And I didn’t even say hello first, did I?”

“No. You said something …” Laura felt a slight sense of panic when she realized she couldn’t remember whatever it was he had said.
Oh God, will I ever be the same after this?

With his free hand, Daniel tipped her chin up and kissed her. “Hello.”

“Hello. Somebody could turn that corner up ahead and see us, you know. In fact, somebody could have gotten an eyeful just a few minutes ago.”

Dryly he said, “After Anne’s little display in the dining room, you surely can’t doubt what I said about secrets not lasting long around here.”

“No,” she agreed with a sigh. “In fact, since she seemed determined to expose everybody’s secrets, I half
expected her to blurt out that I was in your room last night.”

“How would she know that?”

Laura hesitated, then said, “She could have been in the hallway and seen me.”

“Her bedroom’s in the east wing, on the other side of the house; what would she have been doing near your room or mine?” Daniel frowned slightly as he looked down at her.

She knew the perception of that searching gaze and tried to avoid it. “Oh, you’re right. It’s just that I was the only one in the dining room she hadn’t attacked, and I figured I was next. Did you hear much of what she said?”

“Most of it. Laura, has something else happened? Something worrying you?”

She hesitated again, uncertain, then said, “While I was in your room last night, someone was in mine.”

He frowned again. “How can you be sure of that?”

Laura hadn’t planned to tell him she had the mirror with her, though she
had
considered just suddenly showing it to him in order to study his reaction. But she heard herself say, “When I decided to stay here over the weekend, I brought the mirror with me. When I left my room last night, it was lying facedown on the coffee table. When I came back, it was faceup.”

After a moment, his face showing no reaction to the information, Daniel said, “Amelia often walks the halls at night.”

“So she told me.”

“Did she admit to being in your room?”

“No. But … I got the distinct feeling she was toying with me. Do you think it was her rather than Anne?”

“I think it’s more likely.”

“Then she
was
toying with me.”

Daniel touched her face gently, his fingers lying against her neck and his thumb brushing her cheek. “Maybe. Or
maybe she just didn’t want to admit to invading your privacy.”

A little puzzled, trying to understand, Laura said, “It seems to me, given the history between you two, that you’d always think her motives negative ones. But you don’t, do you? Daniel, why do you let it go on? The way Amelia’s … testing the boundaries with you, struggling to get her own way, has got to be stressful, maybe even dangerous. Yet you’ve let it continue, all these years. Why? To spare Amelia embarrassment?”

With a slightly wry smile, Daniel said, “Call it quid pro quo, as Alex would say. You’d never know it now, but Amelia was very kind to me when I was a boy. My father spent time with me, but Mother was … distant. Completely wrapped up in Peter. Amelia paid attention, talked to me, took an interest. For a while we were very close. It made a difference, Laura. In my life. I can’t forget that.”