Magnificent Folly (12 page)

“I slept. I can usually force myself to sleep when it’s necessary.”

“Good. For someone so easygoing Quenby was positively fretting. She and Gunner really care about you.”

“Does it surprise you that I can occasionally inspire affection in others?”

“Of course not. I knew you could be very charming when you—”

“I’ve been standing here thinking about you.”

“You should be thinking about Cassie.”

“You’re part of her and she’s part of you. One leads to the other.” He paused. “I’ve been thinking about you and your mother.”

She stiffened. “I don’t want to talk about my mother.”

“I know. It still hurts you. It’s natural that it should, but not that the wound should still be so
raw. I’ve been trying to puzzle it out. Tell me, do you think your mother would blame you for making the mistake of trusting Baldor?”

“Who wouldn’t blame me?”

“Lily, did she love you?”

“Yes …” Lily’s voice thickened. “Yes, she loved me.”

“Then don’t you think she would have forgiven you for being fooled by Baldor?”

“Yes, but I—”

“Then why can’t you forgive yourself?”

“This isn’t about forgiveness.”

“I think it is. I think that’s why the wound hasn’t healed all these years. You were bitterly sorry, but it was too late for you to tell her, to ask to be forgiven. You
needed
to ask someone for forgiveness, and there was no one there.”

He was right, she realized with astonishment. Until he had put it into words, she hadn’t known how desperate had been that need.

“Are you sorry, Lily?” he asked gently.

“Of course I’m sorry.”

“There, you’ve said it now. Your mother would
have forgiven you for your mistake, so let it go, Lily. Forgive yourself and be as happy as she would have wanted you to be.”

Something incredible was happening inside her; something cold and tight was loosening, warming. “She was … my best friend.”

“Then don’t condemn the memories of your best friend to live side by side with bitterness. She deserves better than that.”

Lily closed her eyes. “I’ll think about what you’ve said.”

“There’s one more thing I wanted to say to you.”

“I said I’d think—”

“I love you.”

The words came out of the darkness with stunning force.

Her eyes flew open. “You never cease to surprise me.”

“I wanted you to know. I’ve been afraid to use the word
love
before, but now it doesn’t matter if it scares you off. The situation couldn’t be any worse than it is.” His hand clenched on the
drapes. “Things are going to happen tonight that you won’t understand, things that you may hate.” He paused. “Lord, I hope you won’t hate me too.”

“I don’t hate you.” Her emotions were in such turmoil, she wasn’t sure what she was feeling for him at that moment. “I don’t think I could hate you. Though heaven knows I wanted to cut your throat when I found out you knew something about Cassie’s kidnapping.”

“But you won’t let yourself love me, either.” His tone was strained. “You may never love me. I’ve known that all along, but I had to try. Since the moment I saw you I knew there would never be anyone else for me.”

“That was only a few weeks ago. Hardly enough time for a permanent—”

“A few weeks?” He shook his head. “It’s been over eleven years since I saw you the first time.”

She stiffened, gazing at him in bewilderment. “You
saw
me?”

He nodded. “Henry had requested I come to Franklin University to help with one of his patients,
and I saw you walking across the campus. I just stood there, looking at you, and I thought: Here it is. This is mine.”

Lily swallowed to ease the sudden tightness in her throat. “How impossibly romantic. Just what I would expect of you.”

“I didn’t feel romantic. I felt”—he paused—“as if everything had come right, as if all the parts of the puzzle had come together, letting me see the entire picture for the first time.” His tone became bittersweet. “And what a picture it was. I was just a kid whom you wouldn’t have looked twice at even if you hadn’t been undergoing the fallout from that nightmare with Baldor. Everything was against us: time, circumstances, my work. So I had to take the only chance that would assure me a place in your life.”

“Cassie.”

“Cassie.” Andrew straightened his shoulders as if shifting a burden. “I just thought you should know.” His hand released the drapes, and he turned away from the window. “Will you ask
Gunner to come in now? We’ll have to make a few plans while I dress.”

“A few plans? You can’t expect to walk in and overpower those men without a struggle.”

He turned on the lamp on the table beside the bed. “Don’t worry—it will be over in a matter of a few minutes once we’re in the room. We just have to be sure that neither man is near Cassie when Gunner attacks.”

She shook her head. “You’re making it sound too easy. These are vicious men, Andrew.”

His lips tightened as his gaze went to her cut and bruised temple. “I know. They hurt you. I didn’t think I believed in revenge, but I was wrong. I’ll see that they suffer for it, Lily.”

“I don’t want anyone to suffer. I just want Cassie safe.” She turned and opened the door. “And then I want answers to a few hundred questions.”

“You’ll get those answers,” Andrew said quietly. “But you probably won’t like what you hear.”

•  •  •

“I should have gone along.” Lily paced the length of the room. “Andrew said it would only take a few minutes, and—”

“It’s only been fifteen minutes,” Quenby said soothingly. “I’m sure they’ll be back soon. There’s truly very little danger, Lily.”

“How can you say that? Those men hit me over the head and kidnapped a helpless little girl.”

“Gunner will take care of them. He’s handled men far more dangerous than they.” Quenby hesitated. “It should be over by now. Do you want to go see what’s holding them up?”

Lily stopped short. “Could we? There would be no danger to Cassie?”

Quenby got to her feet. “We can at least walk over toward the chalet and see if there’s any sign of—”

The door opened, and Gunner walked into the room.

Lily whirled to face him. “Cassie?” Her gaze searched eagerly over his shoulder. Andrew wasn’t with him. Her heart lurched sickeningly. “What’s happened to Andrew?”

“They’re both still at the chalet,” Gunner said. “She’s not hurt, Lily. Andrew will bring her as soon as he finishes working with her.”

“Working with her?” Lily ran toward the door. “You’re not telling me the truth. Something’s happened to her.”

“No.” Gunner stepped in front of the door and grasped Lily’s shoulders. “Andrew will fix it. You don’t want to go there now.”

“The hell I don’t.” Lily tore herself from his hold and ran out the door and down the path toward the chalet next door. The lights were streaming from the casement windows, and the chalet looked as innocent and cozy as a gingerbread house. What had happened to Cassie in that house? She threw open the front door. “Andrew? Where’s Cassie?” She entered the foyer. “I have to see Cas—”

Two men were lying crumpled on the floor of the living room.

Lily froze, staring down at them. She recognized the scar-faced man at once as the intruder in the cottage. The other man was heavier, older.…

They were dead, she thought with sick horror. They had to be dead. No one could be alive and still be so rigidly inert. And their faces … features contorted with pain, mouths open in a silent scream, eyes glassy and staring straight ahead.

“You shouldn’t be here.” Andrew stood in the doorway across the room. “Dammit, I told Gunner to keep you away.”

“They’re dead,” she whispered.

Andrew shook his head. “They’re only locked.”

“But they look …” She tore her gaze away from the pain-racked bodies on the floor. “I want to see Cassie. What’s happened to her? Did they hurt her?”

“No, they didn’t hurt her.” Andrew hesitated. “It would be better if you’d go away and leave me with her for a while longer. I may be able to—”

“How can I leave her?” Lily strode toward him across the room. “I have to see her.” She pushed past him into the bedroom. “Cassie, I’m here. Are you—Oh, my God.”

Cassie was lying on the bed, still dressed in the
pajamas she’d worn the night before when Lily had tucked her into bed at the cottage. Her apparel was the only hint of similarity between that child and the effigy lying before her. A waxlike pallor clung to Cassie’s face; her eyes were wide open and unseeing, her muscles locked in the same deathlike rigor as those of the men in the living room.

“Cassie?” Lily whispered as she moved slowly across the room toward the bed. “Baby?”

Cassie didn’t answer. Her gaze remained unflinchingly fixed straight ahead.

Lily sat down on the edge of the bed, unaware of the tears rolling down her cheeks. She brushed a lock of sandy hair gently back from Cassie’s temple. “Answer me, love.”

Cassie showed no reaction.

“What have they done to her?” Lily asked dazedly.

“Nothing.” Andrew was standing beside her, his hand clasped comfortingly on her shoulder. “She’s done it to herself, Lily. She’s withdrawn inside and locked everything out.”

“Locked. You said that about those men out there.”

“It’s not the same,” Andrew said gently. “There’s no pain where she is. It’s as if she’s sleeping.”

“Comatose.”

“A little like that.”

“Why?” Lily asked brokenly. “How could this happen?”

“Shock. She loves you more than anything in the world, and she saw you lying on the floor hurt and bleeding. She called to you, and you didn’t answer. She thought you were dead. There was too much violence, too much horror, and she had to shut it out.” Andrew’s hand moved to rest gently on Lily’s head. “But it’s not permanent. I can bring her out of it.”

“You?” Lily shook her head violently. “We have to get her to a hospital. She needs medicine, doctors.”

“It wouldn’t help. She wouldn’t respond. They wouldn’t know how to help her.”

“And you would?”

“I’m the only one who could know,” Andrew said quietly. “We’re alike. I can reach her. I hoped I’d be able to wake her before you had to see her, but she’s very stubborn.”

Lily’s hands tightened on Cassie’s blanket. “I know you mean well, but can’t you see that Cassie has to have professional help? Look at her.”

Andrew nodded. “Cassie will have professional help, Lily. This is what I do. This is my job.”

“You’re a doctor?”

He smiled. “No, but I fix things that are broken. The way Cassie is broken.” He gently pulled Lily to her feet. “Now we have to get Cassie out of here and back to the cabin. Gunner and his men will be here soon to pick up Kalom and Baharas.”

“What will they do with them?”

“Put them on a plane for Sedikhan. Gunner has a jet standing by at a private airport near here.”

“You said the Clanad was more efficient,” Lily said abstractedly, her gaze moving yearningly over Cassie’s face. “Sweet heaven, I don’t know what to do. This is all so crazy.”

“Then trust me. You know I care about Cassie and would never hurt her. I
can
fix what’s wrong with her. Just this once, trust me, Lily.”

She gazed up at him and was caught by the sheer intensity of his plea. He believed what he was saying. He believed he could help Cassie. Why not let him try? “What do we do first?”

Relief brightened the gravity of his expression. “You’ve already started.” He bent and lifted Cassie in his arms. “You’ve given me your confidence. That’s always the most important step. Now let me do the rest. We’ll take her back to our cabin, and Ill get to work.”

He turned and carried Cassie toward the open door.

Andrew placed Cassie carefully on the bed and turned to Lily and Quenby. “I need one more thing from you, Lily. Leave me alone to do my job.”

“Why can’t I stay?”

“You wouldn’t understand, and you’d undoubtedly be upset.” Andrew smiled crookedly.
“I can usually close everyone out, but I wouldn’t be able to do that with you. My concentration would be blown.”

“Why do you have to concentrate? You’re not performing brain surgery, for Pete’s sake.” She ran her fingers nervously through her hair. “Or maybe you are. How the devil do I know?”

“Come with me, Lily.” Quenby put her arm around Lily’s shoulders. “It will be better if we wait in the living room. Andrew will call us when Cassie wakes up.”

If she woke up.

No, Lily wouldn’t even consider the possibility that Cassie wouldn’t be all right. She let Quenby propel her toward the door. “How long?”

“As long as it takes.” Andrew was no longer looking at Lily, but at Cassie. He dragged a chair close to the bed and sat down on the cushioned seat. “You can turn out the light. I won’t need it.”

Quenby switched off the light as she drew Lily from the room and closed the door.

“Why am I letting him do this?” Lily asked as she dropped down on the couch in the living
room. “For all I know he’s one of those acupuncture specialists and he’s going to stick pins into Cassie.”

“You’re doing it because you believe more in instinct than you think you do,” Quenby said gently. “Just as you believe in Andrew.”

“What’s he doing to her?” Lily asked, her gaze meeting Quenby’s. “For heaven’s sake, tell me. I deserve to know. How would you feel if it were Jed who was lying in there?”

Quenby sat down in a chair opposite the couch. “Terrible. I thank God every night my son’s never gone into this kind of shock. Gunner and I were lucky. Jed isn’t nearly as sensitive as most half-breeds. Gunner says it’s due to my very pragmatic genes.”

“Half-breed?” Lily gazed at her in bewilderment.

“Gunner is Clanad and I’m not.”

“What difference does that make? The Clanad is a corporation, not a …” Lily stopped and sat up straighter. “What are you telling me?”

“The truth,” Quenby said. “Or as much of the
truth as I think you can take right now. I’ve decided we’re all being ridiculous. Gunner thinks it’s Andrew’s place to tell you, and Andrew doesn’t want you frightened any more than you are already.” She made a face. “It’s typical muddled male thinking, and I’ve been going along with it. In the meantime, you’re suffering more from confusion than you would be from facing the facts.”