Chapter 35

Thirty-Five

THE BRANDY ROOM

Late the next afternoon, Portia and I returned from our outing.

We’d gone into the village for lunch at the tearoom, and Portia also stocked up at the chemist when we popped in there.

We then took off to the ruins of a local castle, which were not exactly close. They were on the coast. They were magnificent, the view even better, and it felt good to breathe the sea air and tramp around outside.

It had been a nice day, but when we were nearing the house, she said, “I love Duncroft. It’s stately and beautiful. But even though I know why Daniel asked me to stay, I don’t want to go back there.”

I understood what she was saying.

“Daniel wouldn’t let anything happen to you,” I assured.

At the same time I said this, what I didn’t say was I hoped that was true.

“I know,” she mumbled.

“You two seem to have worked it out,” I noted.

“He’s very sorry, and he promised he was going to sort himself out. The way he did, I believe him.”

And I hoped yet again, this time there was something to believe in.

But I said nothing. She seemed content, and we’d had a good day together, getting along the entire time.

I didn’t want to rock that boat.

“It’s nice Ian offered to help Daniel with the money,” she ventured. “I probably shouldn’t have done it. Or at least not offered it myself, then quit my job.”

No, she shouldn’t have done that.

“Well, it’s handled now,” I remarked.

“Ian to the rescue again,” she mumbled, but in glancing at her, she didn’t seem downhearted about it. Just like she was noting the truth.

Even so, I told her, “He loves his brother, Portia.”

“Daniel worships him, you know. Part of that whole app thing is about making Ian proud of him that he did something smart. Made a load of money.”

“Yes, but Ian has mentioned Daniel is competitive.”

“He is, but it isn’t about that. I don’t think he thinks he can become a billionaire from an app. He just wants to make his own way. Especially with Ian soon to inherit everything. And I’m not making a thing of it, just stating fact, but I know how it is to depend on a sibling for money. He’s a man. It’s worse for them.”

Right or wrong (read: wrong), that last part was the truth.

However, until then, it hadn’t occurred to me to what extent Daniel might be concerned about the state of play with the title change.

I’d have to give Ian the heads up about that, though I didn’t relish it.

It seemed to all fall on him to make everyone feel okay about things he had no power over, and they’d all lived their lives knowing it would happen.

But then, in the end, he got the title and Duncroft.

It just proved nothing came without a price.

“Is Daniel upset that he had to rely on Ian to swoop in and save the day?” I inquired.

“Not at all. I thought he would be, but he’s excited about Ian being involved. Knowing what’s going on. This is probably because Ian was impressed with the project. He told me Ian seemed pleased, and that meant a lot to him. He was ticked at first Ian thought he was behind what’s going on at the house. But then, with what we pulled at the beginning, it wasn’t surprising. Daniel saw that. And then Ian involved Daniel in searching and keeps asking him what his thoughts are and stuff like that. I can tell, it makes Daniel feel important that Ian seems to be taking him seriously.”

Well then.

Good.

That said, since she brought it up.

“Why did you pull that shit with me?” I asked.

“You hate scary movies, and Duncroft is famous for its supposed ghosts. I know you. I knew you’d look into it before you came. I was messing with your head. I thought it would be funny.” She took a breath and said, “It wasn’t funny, and I feel like a total bitch I pulled that on you. Daniel was angry with me. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea in the first place. He thought it was immature. He said you’d never like him now.”

I didn’t say anything to that.

She turned to me. “I hope you know I truly am sorry. And I know you’re not sure about him, but Daniel really wants you to like him because he really likes me.”

Gah!

“I’ll give him a chance, honey,” I allowed.

“Yay!” she cried happily.

“I’m trusting him to take care of you during all this,” I warned.

“Oh, he will,” she promised.

Yes.

Gah!

Shortly after that, we rounded the drive and parked at the foot of the steps.

Stevenson met us at the door.

“Welcome home, ladies,” he greeted.

Home.

Portia and I exchanged glances.

She looked excited.

I was mildly freaked that he didn’t have to say it.

It felt like home already.

“Daniel is in the Bordeaux Room. Ian is in Brandy,” he went on to tell us in a genteel way where we were ordered to go next.

We loaded him up with our bags, scarves, gloves and coats, and we headed down the southeastern hall.

It was sweet when Portia stopped outside the Bordeaux Room to give me a hug.

She’d enjoyed our day too.

She then ducked in, and I walked to the end of the hall.

The door was open, so I went in.

“Hey.”

Ian was sitting on a sofa, surrounded by papers and a laptop.

He looked up, his face grew soft, then he ordered, “Here. Kiss.”

Lord of the manor, indeed.

I moved to him, bent to give him a kiss, and with his hand sliding in my hair, he changed my intention of a quick peck to a lot of tongue.

When we were done, while I recovered from the kiss, he shuffled his papers around so I could sit next to him.

“Do you want me to order you something?” he asked. “Some tea?”

“No. I’m good, honey.”

“So what did you two get up to today?” he asked.

I wanted to know more about what he did, but I told him, “The village. Lunch at the tearoom.” I grinned. “Provisions.”

He grinned back.

“And we went to the ruins.”

“Ah. Lovely,” he murmured.

“It was. Now, your turn.”

“I met Kathleen, my investigator, in town. She’s come and gone. I worked out upstairs. And now I’m here.”

I’d seen the rather large, very equipped workout room that had been installed on the first floor in the northwest wing, which was more bedrooms, mostly children’s rooms, and that workout room, so I asked after it. “Do you work out on the first floor?”

“Yes.”

“Did you put that room in?”

“Yes.”

Another grin from me, which Ian returned.

“Did Kathleen find anything?”

“She lifted a great many fingerprints. Took some pictures. She can compare what she lifted in staff rooms to what was found in storage rooms. It might come to nothing. This has all been very clever, carefully planned out, it would be an uncharacteristic mistake for whoever is doing it not to wear gloves.”

For certain.

“Did she take the samples of alcohol?”

He nodded.

Good.

“What did you think about the ruins?” he asked.

“Amazing. Beautiful location. A castle there would have been stunning. It’s too bad it’s mostly fallen down.”

“It went into disrepair after Alice married Wolf, which is understandable. She was the last of that line, and she came here.”

She came…

Here.

“Pardon?” I asked.

“Alice was the only child and daughter to Eustace, the last lord of the castle that is now the ruins. Eustace had an ongoing feud with Torsten, who was the liege lord of the fortress he built here. And as they did in those times, they settled their feud by marrying their children to each other, Alice to Wolf.”

“His name was Wolf?”

“Mm-hmm,” he said. “It was a common name back then, but apropos. He was reputedly a fierce warrior and a favorite of King Stephen, often called upon to fight England’s wars, not only the civil ones of that time, but also with David of Scotland. The earldom didn’t exist back then, but essentially the beginning of it was Torsten, however mostly Wolf. For his efforts, Stephen awarded him with great lands and wealth. It was the beginning of the endowment of Duncroft. Loyalty, bravery and smart allegiances in the ensuing centuries increased our wealth and lands, earned us an earldom, and here we are.”

I couldn’t stop staring at him.

So he asked, “What?

“I told you I dreamed of a man and woman from medieval times, and you haven’t mentioned them yet. All of my dreams have been permutations of stuff we’ve discussed. But not them,” I said shakily.

And not Rose, or David’s wife, Joan, now that I was thinking about it.

However, I could have run into both those names in researching, and I just didn’t pay attention to them, even though I thought that was thin.

That said, I’d never heard word of Alice and Wolf.

“Darling,” he soothed, “there are perhaps a dozen paintings and tapestries depicting Alice and Wolf all over this house. There’s one where she’s standing, wearing an ivory gown, reaching up to him wearing armor while he’s astride his horse in the Wine Room. They’re in the tapestry hanging in the Turquoise Room. Though small, they’re in the top, left corner with a castle behind them. She’s again in an ivory dress, he’s in armor, and they’re surveying all they owned, which is the rest of the twelve-foot tapestry depicting the moors.”

I was almost certain I hadn’t noticed them in that tapestry, but maybe I had.

I’d naturally seen the picture in the Wine Room. However, I didn’t put it together because I didn’t know it was a picture of Alcott ancestors. I just thought it was simply a picture someone liked along the way.

It certainly was pretty, and I’d had a good look at it.

“It’s what you’ve seen, what you’ve heard, how your brain is sifting through it,” Ian stated firmly. “It’s nothing else. Enough is happening, don’t frighten your own self.”

“Yes,” I agreed. Then I queried, “What’s their story?”

He gave a slight shrug, but said, “Apparently, she hated him on sight. He thought her a shrew. But they married anyway and had five children, only three of whom survived. Though, this was in the twelfth century, so there isn’t much left of them now to know what their lives together were like. But back then, it wasn’t unusual in arranged marriages for the spouses to live relatively separate of each other, but still find the means to procreate.”

I thought of the picture in Wine.

Admittedly, I also thought of my dream and how the woman seemed so happy he was home.

So I asked, “They didn’t get along?”

“Again. I don’t know. In what I’ve read, it’s more about Wolf’s talents on the battlefield, his single-minded brutality there, the fear he engendered because of it, his unwavering loyalty to the king and the rewards he collected from that, than about his marriage. He also had a reputation for being a brute off the battlefield. His courtly manners were famously seriously lacking, but Stephen didn’t mind, as long as he kept winning conflicts.”

And again, I remembered the picture in the Wine Room.

“If they didn’t like each other, then why were they painted like they were great loves?”

“Because people romanticize the past,” he explained. “That painting was commissioned hundreds of years after they were gone. It wouldn’t do for the two people who essentially started our legacy to be portrayed as shouting at each other.”

True.

“I can’t see many medieval maidens waiting breathlessly for their brutish husbands to come home, and she was no shrew in my dream,” I muttered.

“Daphne, it’s all manifestations of what you’ve seen and heard in this house. They’re simply dreams, nothing more,” he chided. “There’s enough to be worked up about. You don’t need to create things.”

“You’re right,” I allowed. “I’m just on edge.”

“We all are. But Stevenson has made a large dent in his inventory. He’s noted nothing else has been moved and nothing is missing. The storage rooms aren’t locked. If someone was paying attention, it’d be easy to watch when someone else entered the code. The safe in this room is a concern. It isn’t often accessed, and it’d be hard to see which numbers were selected on the dial unless you were very close and watching closer. But everything will be explained. And soon. My investigators don’t fuck around.”

“Okay, baby,” I whispered.

But I’d noticed he’d been getting pissed as he talked, and he stayed that way.

Therefore, I asked, “Have I made you angry?”

He shook his head. “This situation makes me angry. Mum’s good at keeping her emotions hidden, but she’s failing. She’s distressed. And she’s a mum. That’s worse because she’s distressed we’re all distressed. Dad is taking it like a declaration of war. His personal property has been violated. He’s furious. Danny is not thrilled with keeping Portia here if there might be danger. I’m the same with you. And we don’t like what it’s doing to Mum and Dad. I truly hope it’s sorted and soon. I want to know who’s done it, but more, I want to know why. You called it fiendish. It’s that and morbid and cruel. Dad can be an ass, but outside this house, he’s the courteous, if haughty, country gentleman. Mum’s never harmed a soul in her life. Brittany notwithstanding, Danny’s the kind of guy who’s everyone’s best friend. It doesn’t make sense.”

“When people do things like this, it never does,” I reminded him. “If you don’t have it in you to harm someone, you can never understand why someone could do it.”

“Mm,” he agreed.

“Is dinner in the Turquoise Room tonight?”

“Yes. Dad wants everything to go back to normal, and Danny and I agreed. It also makes sense. If we suddenly start huddling together in the Viognier Room or elsewhere, it’ll give it away.”

“So, do we have time to fuck before dinner? Or do you have to work?”

That alleviated his mood.

“We absolutely have time to fuck before dinner.”

“I bought three boxes of condoms.”

Surprising me, he frowned.

“I made sure they were your size,” I teased.

“I’m scrupulous about protection, Daphne.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“And I’m healthy.”

I got what he was saying.

“Oh,” was all I could think to reply.

His voice lowered. “If it’s too soon for you, I understand. But if you’re taking something—”

I cut him off, stating, “I’m on the pill.”

“Your choice. No pressure. I just want that on the table.”

I knew men got more out of the experience when they went in ungloved.

But this was something different.

Ian Alcott, soon-to-be-earl of Duncroft couldn’t go around taking chances at being baby daddy to all his lovers. He was rich, but there was a lot at stake. Not just his legacy, and his money, but his reputation and the reputation of soon-to-be Earl Alcott.

That he would trust me to protect both of us said a lot.

“Oh shit. I’m going to get all weepy because you want to fuck me and trust me to take care of us.”

He smiled. “Darling.”

I jumped up and offered him my hand. “Let’s go fuck. We’ll see how we roll. I’m positive I’ll get over it when we’re in bed.”

He took my hand only after he rose from the couch, and said on a wicked grin, “I’m positive too.”