Lacybourne Manor (58 page)

He lifted up his hand and
didn’t break stride as he continued to walk through the kitchen. “I
don’t want to know.”

He’d encountered Sibyl in the
hall.

“Hi babe.” She brushed her lips
softly against his in greeting and he vastly preferred her welcome
to the dastardly trio in the kitchen. “Enchiladas tonight,” she
informed him.

He was relatively certain
enchiladas did not smell like what was in the kitchen and if it
did, he wanted no part of it.

“Is Mags cooking?”

She knew exactly to what
he was referring and her body started to shake with silent
laugher.

“
Yes, but I’ve made ones
especially for you
and
they contain meat.”

His
kiss of greeting was heavily weighted with
relief.

They had a relatively peaceful
weekend.

This was, of course, if
one didn’t count Sibyl’s extraordinary tirade when he’d had the MG
towed back to Brightrose and presented her with an Aston Martin.
This she categorically refused to accept and a reluctant compromise
was only reached when his mother suggested Colin take the Aston and
Sibyl use the BMW. The Mercedes was offered on the Alter of
Environmental Correctness and this last he agreed to but carefully
made no promise as he had no intention of getting rid of his car
mainly because he
liked
the Mercedes.

Tuesday night, Sibyl was tucked
against his side while Colin was staring at the ceiling and
contemplating the unacceptable lack of progress his investigation
team was making in finding Tamara Adams.

She was a socialite, not
a super sleuth. How she could be evading a ten-man team was beyond
him and Colin wanted answers
and
results.

As the days went by, Sibyl
seemed to be settling in quite contentedly at Lacybourne, almost as
if she’d forgotten someone wanted to harm them. She went about her
busy schedule, radiating happiness and warmth with unflagging
energy.

Even though Colin was pleased
that she obviously trusted him and was happily getting on with her
life, especially as that life included him, he was becoming more
and more impatient. He wanted this business complete so he and
Sibyl could move on. He wanted to come home to her (and even her
many and varied escapades) every night, his ring on her finger and
her carrying his name and he wanted all of this without death
threats hanging over their heads.

“
Do you think we have too
much sex?” Sibyl asked musingly, interrupting his unhappy reverie
with her mystifying question.

“
What?” he asked,
thrown.

She came up on her elbow and
leaned over him.

“
We have a lot of sex. Of
course, it’s normal to have a lot of sex when you start a
relationship but we have
a
lot
, a lot.”

He couldn’t answer her, his
unhappy thoughts shifted to even unhappier thoughts, including the
fact that she’d had lots of sex at the start of relationships with
other men.

Furthermore, she was right. He
had a very healthy sexual appetite but he’d never been as hungry
for a woman, carrying a constant, overwhelming desire, as he was
for her. He found himself wanting her more even when he was
embedded inside her. She was an obsession, even an addiction.

Upon brief consideration, he
found this didn’t bother him in the slightest.

“I think it’s the curse,” she
continued, either ignoring or not noticing his lack of response.
“Royce and Beatrice didn’t… um, get any and so we’re making up for
it.”

“I don’t care why I want you, I
just know I do, there’s no purpose in evaluating it,” Colin
replied.

“
Yes, but don’t you think
it’s
weird?
” Sibyl pressed.

“I hardly think it’s ‘weird’
for any man to have an irrational craving for you, you’re quite
simply the most desirable woman I’ve known.”

Her mouth dropped open then, to
his surprise, she clamped it shut on a disbelieving, very
unladylike, snort.

“Sibyl,” he remonstrated
softly, “it doesn’t suit you to fish for compliments.”

“Fish for…!” She started then
burst out laughing and he felt its beauty seep into his bones. When
she was done, she laid her hand on his cheek and smiled at him.
“Colin, you like me, we’re good together.” Her smile deepened. “Of
course you think I’m desirable but that doesn’t mean every man
does.” She carried on, as if he hadn’t even spoken, “Personally, I
still think it’s the curse.”

He stared at her assessingly
and realised she didn’t comprehend her incredible allure.

“You aren’t to be believed,” he
mumbled.

“What’s that?” She tilted her
head, the smile still tugging at her lips.

He pulled her weight on top of
his body and his arms stole around her.

Then he studied her beautiful
face for long moments.

Then he muttered, “Christ, you
have no idea,” and something about that knowledge awed him.

“Okay, I get it, you don’t
think it’s the curse but –”

“Sibyl listen to me,” he
interrupted her, “you are beautiful.”

Her eyes sparkled. “And you’re
very handsome,” she returned, completely unfazed by his words. “But
then again, I love you so of course I’d think you’re handsome, to
others, you’re probably very ugly.”

He found himself biting back
laughter at the same time growling with frustration and something
infinitely deeper. She lifted her knees so she was straddling him
and bent her head to kiss the base of his throat, her hair sliding
luxuriously across his chest.

“Likely extremely ugly,” she
muttered as she moved lower and kissed his stomach and his muscles
tensed as he understood her intent. “Hideous,” she whispered as she
moved lower.

He let go of his unhappy
thoughts and moved his hands into her hair to pull it away so he
could watch.

Later, after he’d yanked
her roughly back on top of him to finish what she started with her
mouth in an entirely different but infinitely pleasurable way, he
rolled them to their sides and her arms tightened around
him.

“That was nice.” She spoke what
he considered the understatement of the year and he chuckled.

He felt her body settle and her
breathing even out and he remembered a phone call he’d had that
day.

“Sibyl?”

“Mm?” she murmured against his
neck.

“Mrs. Manning called
today.”

“Who?”

“My housekeeper, she requests
that you not make the bed. She says it’s her job. Since I pay her
to do it, there’s no reason you should.”

“
The invisible
housekeeper,” Sibyl said quietly. “Now
that’s
weird. She’s here but
you never see her.”

He found that rather surprising
as he wasn’t letting Mrs. Manning in, he wondered who was.
Nevertheless, with other weighty things on his mind, he didn’t
spend any time thinking about it.

“I’d rather not hire a new one
–” he started but she cut him off.

She did this by declaring on a
yawn, “There are lots of things in life worth fighting for, Colin,
my right to make a bed is not one of them.”

And then she promptly fell
asleep.

And, as with nearly every night
since Meg had dinner with them, Colin did not.

Pensioner Posse

Sibyl stood in the doorway of
her office at The Community Centre. She watched as Mags, Marian and
Phoebe all concentrated very carefully on their bingo cards as
Marianne’s scratchy voice called out the numbers.

Sibyl was allowing herself the
luxury of contemplating her new life and further allowing herself
to decide it was, quite simply, wonderful.

Colin may not love her but
she’d come to the conclusion that, from Colin, she would take what
she could get. Furthermore, what she was getting was pretty heady
stuff so she felt it would show extreme ill-grace to complain.

It was clear to Sibyl that,
even if he didn’t return her love, she loved him enough for the
both of them. Threat or no threat, curse or no curse, she felt
invulnerable and strong, as if nothing could harm them. Her love
and Marian’s protection would be enough. Sibyl was certain of
it.

So, Sibyl ceased worrying.

Colin, however, had not.

She tried to make him feel some
of her calm but no matter how she tried to soothe him, it didn’t
work. As the days went by, he became more and more impatient and
tense.

And Colin could
get
very
impatient and Colin’s tense was a little scary.

She decided she loved
this about him (as she loved pretty much everything about him). He
was not impatient and tense worrying about himself, he was so
because he worried about
her
. If she didn’t have his love
then she was definitely certain she had his care, his concern, his
affection and his protection.

And that would be enough.

For now.

She’d worry about the rest
later, when all this troublesome business was concluded.

She moved out of the doorway
and sat down beside Meg who had come back to the Pensioner’s Lunch
Club that week, nearly fully-restored. Meg was now resting
comfortably in one of Colin’s new, plush chairs, watching but as
usual not participating in the bingo action.

When Sibyl had settled, Meg
patted her hand then her fingers closed around it to hold it
lightly.

“
It’s good to see you so
happy, Billie,” she whispered for it was a
very
bad thing to make too
much noise when bingo was under way, the players got somewhat irate
if their concentration was disturbed.

“Is it so obvious?” Sibyl
smiled, completely unaware that her glorious smile said it all.

“Oh yes, it’s very obvious.”
Meg’s faced collapsed happily and Sibyl gave her hand a soft,
affectionate squeeze.

Sibyl caught sight of Rick
prowling through Day Centre, glowering at the pensioners as if one
of them was, at any moment, intending to pull an Uzi out of their
carrier bag and go on a killing spree.

“He needs a girlfriend,” Meg
noted sagely, eyeing Rick.

“He needs a lot more than
that,” Sibyl agreed.

“All right folks, last game.
The minibus leaves in fifteen minutes,” Kyle announced, striding
through the room, completely unmoved by the glares he was
receiving. The only thing worse than interrupting a bingo game with
unnecessary noise was announcing it was concluding.

Kyle had finished his training
course the week before and now the minibus, Colin’s minibus, was in
full use.

Sibyl happily thought that
finally all was (nearly) right with the world.

And she’d never been
happier.

Never.

In her whole life.

As Sibyl began to assist some
of the folks who’d started quietly to pack up, she didn’t catch
Rick’s head snap around or his eyes narrowing as he focussed on
something outside the window. She also didn’t notice him have a
quick word with Kyle before they both exited the Day Centre’s side
door, splitting outside the door, Kyle going right, Rick going
left.

“
Bingo!” Phoebe shouted,
waving her hands in the air and everyone groaned. She jumped out of
her seat and gave a whoop of joy. “I never win,
ever
. Hurrah!” she
gloated and groans turned into grumbles.

At Phoebe’s victory, Sibyl
could help the oldies without having to be quiet and she started to
do so at the same time she began to clear up the bingo
paraphernalia and collect ashtrays. She was eager to get back home,
Colin may decide to work from home and she liked to be there when
he was there. Mentally she made a list of what she needed to do
before going to Lacybourne.

Put bingo supplies away.

Get Meg into her
wheelchair.

Get oldies out to the bus.

Clean out ashtrays.

Collect tea mugs and stack in
dishwasher.

Her mind occupied, she was
completely unprepared (though nothing would actually have prepared
her) for the sliding doors to the Hall being thrown open with such
force that they crashed loudly against into their pockets
frames.

She distractedly heard some
stifled and some not so stifled screams but definitely saw, clear
as day, Colin’s ex-girlfriend, Queen of Icicles and All Things
Frozen, Tamara, standing between the opened doors, her arm raised,
a gun clenched in her hand.

A gun that was pointed at
Sibyl.

Before Sibyl could react,
say a word, lift a finger, Tamara shouted, “I’ve had enough
of
you!
”

Then without further ado, she
pulled the trigger.

Sibyl’s heart stopped.
She thought she could actually see the tranquilliser dart in the
scant seconds it took to zoom toward her. What she most certainly
and astonishingly
did
see was the dart ping off some hidden barrier an
inch away from her shoulder emitting a small burst of white light,
like sparkler, and then fall useless to the ground.

This remarkable occurrence was
met with absolute silence as everyone stared at the tranquilliser
dart on the ground.

Then their eyes shifted and
they stared at Sibyl.

Then their eyes swung to
Tamara.

Tamara seemed just as
stunned by what happened as anyone because, indeed, it
was
stunning because it was
magic
. Then she shook off her
surprise and screamed, “
What?
”