Jumping in Puddles (19 page)

“No, I’m sorry, I don’t. She’s hiding something.”

Jago stiffened. It annoyed him that Henry had changed his tune. “Maybe you’d better leave money lying around as a temptation. She was the one who paid for the strawberries yesterday.”

“Is your mother’s jewelry secure?”

“Locked in the safe, and no, she didn’t see me open it.” Jago refused to accept Ellie might be a thief.

“Don’t bite my head off. Have you asked her how she knew about the ring I gave you?”

“Not yet.” He’d meant to. He’d forgotten. Sort of.

“What are you going to do if you don’t like her response?”

Jago walked away because that was a question he couldn’t answer.

It took him quite a time to reach the summerhouse because he was waylaid by so many visitors. He surprised himself by how easily he slipped into role as Lord of the Manor. He didn’t feel he’d done anything to deserve the respect, but people kept telling him how much they loved Sharwood, and he felt humbled.

Adults waited by the summerhouse steps and inside. Ellie was surrounded by kids either brandishing balloon animals or wearing them on their heads. She sat on the seat, looking gorgeous, twisting and turning the balloons while a little girl in front of her chattered away.

It was good to see children so happy. Most of the youngsters he’d had anything to do with were sick. Leukemia wasn’t always a killer, but it was a body blow to parents when he told them. The worst part of his job was when there was no medicine or operation that could save a child. The best when they left the hospital skipping. He’d worried he’d never want children, knowing what might befall them. He’d lost sight of this side of life. The happy side.

Wow, she’s good at this
. Not just the chattering but making things out of balloons. Swords, dogs, bears, fish, handbags—was there anything she couldn’t make? She looked up suddenly, stared straight at him, and smiled.
Down, boy
. Jago really didn’t need to get an erection in front of everyone. He also didn’t need to act on the desire to pick her up and carry her to his bed like some desperate caveman.

“Give me a hand?” she called, and he made his way to her side.

“Blow them up. I’m running out of puff. I thought the guy would leave me a pump, but he didn’t.”

Jago glanced at her pale eyes as he sat at her side, and then picked up a long red balloon.

“Don’t fill them too full, or they’ll pop,” she said.

As he blew, he watched Ellie transform three orange balloons into a monkey.

A little boy tugged at his trousers. “I’d like a tortoise.”

Ten minutes later, Jago had produced what he thought was a credible tortoise, but the kid didn’t think so. The boy let out a long-suffering sigh, his lips trembled, and Ellie whipped the mess of balloons out of his hand and in literally the twinkling of an eye, turned the thing into what it was supposed to be.

“You’re running out of balloons,” he said. “Better warn your fans.”

There were ten kids still in line.

“There’s enough,” she said.

He didn’t think so, but when he put his hand in the bag for what he thought was the last couple of balloons, there were several still in there. Jago frowned. They must have been caught up in a crease in the paper. When every child had gone away happy, Ellie grabbed the last four pink balloons and inflated them.

“This is for you,” she said as she twisted them into two intertwined hearts.

“What’s it supposed to be?”

Ellie tsked and threw them out of the open side of the summerhouse.

“I didn’t mean I didn’t want them.” He leaped down the steps only to see them rise into the air.

“The wind must have caught them,” Ellie said as she walked down.

The hearts twisted and turned but went straight up. “Do you exhale pure helium?” He put his arm over her shoulders.

“I never want to blow up another balloon as long as I live. All I can taste is rubber. Think there are any strawberries left?”

“Let’s go and see.” He dropped his arm to hold her hand tightly.

* * * *

This had been a brilliant day. Jago hadn’t thought about problems with the house, or about money. He’d just enjoyed talking to people and being around Ellie. The last stragglers were on their way down the drive, and pretty soon, he’d have the woman beside him in bed, and the day would be completely perfect.

“Come on,” Ellie said.

She caught his hand and pulled him over to the empty bouncy castle.

“Oh no.” He shook his head and let her go.

Ellie laughed at him. She kicked off her sandals and scrambled onto the ribbed inflatable, jumping and bouncing from side to side, her dress flying up to reveal her long legs and red panties.
Christ
. He’d be better off on there than watching.

He toed off his shoes, dropped them on the mat next to hers, and climbed on. Ellie was taking huge leaps to get from one side to the other. Jago jumped on the same part as her, and Ellie shot into the air squealing. She tried to do the same to him, but she wasn’t heavy enough, and he barely moved.

They laughed as they chased each other around the square of the castle, and finally Ellie fell onto her back, and Jago dropped next to her, bouncing her into the air.

“You’re losing the contents of—”

Jago thought he had to be hallucinating, but when he touched the rose-gold ring and it felt hard under his fingers, he knew he wasn’t. What the hell was Ellie doing with the ring he’d sold at auction? He showed it to her and watched her face pale.

“You’re conning me somehow,” he said quietly. “Everything you’ve done and said has been a lie. You bought this and followed it back here. That’s the reason you came. You’re looking for more. You’re a thief.”

He wanted her to deny it, and he waited and waited, and she said nothing. Jago threw the ring at her and stumbled off the bouncy castle. He didn’t bother putting on his shoes, just grabbed them and stormed back to the hall.

Only when he was in his room did he take another breath. He let his shoes fall and flung himself on his bed. Ellie had bought the ring at the auction, or someone else had, someone she was working for. She was here looking for more jewelry. All that crap about business development… She was after something. Jago sat up.

He was halfway down the corridor before he turned. Back in his room, he slipped on his shoes, headed to collect the crowbar from the tool shed, and then made for the baron’s hall. He was relieved to find the door locked. He guessed Ellie had used Henry’s key to get in that first time. When she’d asked him to show her around Sharwood, she’d been after something, not to help him but looking for something
she
wanted.

Jago was awash with emotion. Fury at her deceit, anger at her treachery, and soul-deep disappointment that what they’d done together meant nothing. She probably wasn’t even a virgin, just hadn’t wanted him and was tight and—
fuck
. He stomped across the stone floor. Okay, she probably had been a virgin, but that showed the level of her deception, how far she was prepared to go. He dug the crowbar into the gap between the stones. He knew the hearth lay here, though he’d never seen it. It had been covered since before he was born. He pressed down on the crowbar, and the stone didn’t move.
Damn
. He used the pronged end to scrape away between the stones and tried again. This time the slab shifted. Jago put all his weight behind it and pressed down to lever the stone up.

He managed to shift it slightly to the side and stood up panting. The crowbar wouldn’t help now. He sat and pushed with his feet and couldn’t move it. He’d exposed no more than an inch of open space. Jago took his phone from his pocket and called Henry.

“I need help.”

“Where are you? What’s the matter?”

“In the baron’s hall. I’m trying to move the hearthstone.”

There was a pause. “Why?”

“Can you come and help?”

Henry huffed. “Okay.”

“Come alone.”

There had to be something here.

* * * *

Ellie wanted to curl up in a ball and howl. Taking a deep breath, she put the ring in her pocket and crawled to the edge of the castle to get her sandals. Her hands shook, and she gulped as long brown fingers moved over her foot to help. Ellie looked up into the face of her brother Micah.

“Ohhh.” All the air whooshed out of her, like one of the balloons she’d released to make the children laugh. Tears filled her eyes but didn’t fall.

Micah kept her upright.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered.

“Let’s go somewhere quiet.”

He sat her on a bench near the herb garden and dropped down next to her.

“What’s happened?” he asked.

She opened her mouth and then pressed her lips together.

“You do remember that I can tell when you’re lying?”

Ellie looked into Micah’s expressionless face, his dark green eyes unblinking, and she knew there was no point in trying to hide anything.

“Do you want to live in Faerieland?” she asked.

He thought for a long while before he answered. “I don’t know. We’ve never been. We have no idea what it’s like other than what we’ve been told.”

“Pixie says she doesn’t want to live there.”

He snorted. “Pixie changes her mind when the wind blows from a different direction.”

“Mum and Dad want to go. So does Asher.”

“And you?”

Ellie sagged. “I’ve spent my life being told that was the dream. Then, once Dad had searched for fifty years, finding a way back to Faerieland became the sole focus of my existence. Well, not to me so much as to Mum and Dad, but I went along with it because I had no choice.”

“And now?”

“I don’t want to go.” But if Jago didn’t want her in this world, what she wanted no longer mattered. Ellie felt as though she’d been battered in a storm and left exhausted.

“Have you found the Kewen?”

“I think so.”

“Where is it?”

Ellie swallowed hard, but the lump in her throat stayed put.

“Where is it, Ellie?” Micah whispered.

Once the words were said, she’d lose Jago. If the words remained unsaid, she’d lose her family. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Micah’s eyes opened wider. He’d never seen her cry. She was the one who always had a smile on her face.

“Jago needs the jewels, Micah. He needs the money they’ll bring at auction.”

“For a house? What’s a house compared to our family’s reputation, to our parents’ happiness? How long have you known this man? You can’t give everything up for him without truly understanding the consequences.”

“Twenty-four hours,” she said. “I want twenty-four hours.”

“You can’t have twenty-four hours. Pixie’s spoken about the ring. Others know. They’ll be on their way here.”

Ellie sagged. “What sort of others?”

“Not human.”

“Oh Pixie!”

“Dad sent me to help you retrieve the Kewen.”

“Let me have tonight. One last night.”

Micah nodded, hopped to his feet, and walked away.

Ellie pushed herself up and headed for the house. She thought she knew where she’d find Jago. He was bright enough to have put two and two together, though he wouldn’t quite have made four.

He assumed she’d bought the ring at auction and thought there was more where that came from.

He knew she’d searched the house.

He might think she’d collapsed to distract him and used sex for the same purpose.

Therefore, she was a thief and didn’t care for him at all.

When Ellie went into the baron’s hall, Henry and Jago were struggling to shift the hearthstone to one side. She walked over, and Jago glared at her. Was that why her heart beat so fast? His anger and disappointment? Or the presence of the Kewen?

“Want a hand?” she asked and used her energy to shift the stone.

“Shiiiit,” Jago gasped as the slab suddenly slipped to one side.

He scrambled forward to look into the hole and pulled back with a deep sigh.

“Nothing.”

Chapter Fifteen

Ellie waited to see what Jago would do, not sure whether she wanted him to look deeper into the hole or not.

“What were you expecting to find?” Henry asked.

“Henry?”

Three heads swiveled. Diane stood by the door, and Henry pushed himself to his feet.

“I need to drive some volunteers home,” Diane said. “What would you like me to do with the money?” She held up a canvas bag. “The businesses in town that sold tickets brought in their cash too, so I think it’s more or less all here. I did a rough count. There’s around four thousand pounds. Isn’t that fantastic?”

“Fantastic,” Jago said in a dull voice. “Can you put it in the safe, Henry? I’d hate for it to get stolen.”

Jago fixed his gaze on Ellie, and she pressed her lips together. A hundred and fifty pounds of it was hers for the strawberries, but she said nothing. Henry took the bag from Diane and headed for the door.

“You know the combination?” Jago asked.

“Oh no.” Henry laughed and walked back.

“Six, six, seven, four, nine,” Jago said before he reached him.

Ellie knew he’d said it out loud deliberately. A test. Disappointment crumpled her. Henry and Diane walked out, and Ellie dropped to her knees and stared into the hole. At the bottom was a flat pitted stone, stained black by fire. The tingling in her body told her something was here. She almost wished it was a demon waiting to drag her into hell, but her heart told her it was the Kewen.
Ah right, it
is
a demon going to drag me into hell.

“There’s nothing there,” Jago said.

“Yes, there is.”

“Ooh, invisible. How useful.”

“It’s under the stone, I’d guess,” she said quietly.

“What?”

“Treasure. Jewels.”
My broken heart
. “It’s called the Kewen.”

Jago hooked the crowbar under the edge of the slab and tried to lift it. That wasn’t going to work. Ellie used a burst of her energy to raise the stone until it leaned against the side of the hole. She sat back breathing heavily. Her vision wavered, and she dug her nails into her palms. Jago didn’t seem to notice how easily the stone had lifted, or her distress. Ellie had little choice but to let this play out.