Books by Maggie Shayne (272 page)

And now I’m just letting Raven’s madness poison my mind against my own father. Just what I don’t want to do.

But he’d been suspicious of his father’s motives long before Raven had come onto the scene. Hell, he’d been suspicious of his father for most of his life, particularly whenever the coldest man he’d ever known started making fatherly overtures toward him.

He just wasn’t sure anymore how much of that feeling was his own gut instinct, and how much was the power of suggestion Raven St. James wielded.

“Frankly, son,” Nathanial went on, “part of me wanted to call the police, swear out a complaint, something like that. But I realize she… well, she means something to you.”

“You do?”

“She does, doesn’t she?”

Blinking, wondering just when his father had become sensitive enough to pick up on something like that, he nodded. “Yeah. She does.”

“That’s why I decided it would be better to make peace than to wage war. For your sake.”

“For my sake.”

“I don’t want her coming between us,” he said, very softly.

And a tear shimmered in Nathanial’s pale, cold eye. A real tear? Duncan didn’t know. He’d never seen his father shed one before.

Jesus, between the two of them, they were ripping his heart to shreds.

Swallowing hard, feeling a softness he hated toward the hard man who was his father, he reminded himself not to believe too strongly, not to hope for too much. And he made a decision. One way or another, he was going to get a look at Nathanial’s left hip. Tonight.

“Why don’t I pay the girl a visit tonight?”

Duncan paused in his constant, sickening perusal of the place—his father had been busy today—and felt a new chill lift the hairs on the back of his neck. “What girl?” But he didn’t really need to ask.

“You know,” Nathanial said. He stood in the center of the room, hands on his hips, looking around just as Duncan had been doing since he’d arrived here. Duncan had refused to take part in things, until his father had hurt his back trying to set up shelves, and Duncan had somehow ended up jumping in to help. He’d been here ever since. Shelves stood everywhere, all of them filled with “artifacts.” It made Duncan sick to look at them.

“The self-proclaimed Witch,” Nathanial went on. “I can deliver the cauldron along with an invitation to our grand opening. Maybe smooth those pretty ruffled feathers of hers, hmm?”

Straightening, Duncan sent his father a look of disbelief. He didn’t like being here. Didn’t like
himself
right now, for giving the old man the benefit of the doubt. Wasn’t he surrounded by proof of the man’s true nature? Wasn’t all of this just a little too cruel to be the result of ignorance or even narrow-minded bigotry?

“I don’t think visiting Raven St. James is a very good idea, Father.”

“And why not? It’s the least I can do! After all, you were making inroads with her before I stepped on her delicate toes with this museum. I’m well aware I messed things up for you.”

“No, you didn’t.” He lowered his head, shook it, couldn’t quite bring himself to tell his father that he thought Raven might be a bit… confused. Maybe because when he said it aloud he realized that he didn’t believe it. Not really.

“Still, I fear I got off on the wrong foot with the woman. And she
is
a local. I’d rather not have the locals turning against me before I even begin. Maybe I can make her see reason.”

“She doesn’t seem to know what reason is,” Duncan muttered. Then again, neither did he just now. “Besides, she’d never agree to see you.”

“I’ve thought of that. Still, I want to gift her with the pot, personally, an overture of friendship. You’ll just have to arrange it
for
her.”

Duncan turned from surveying yet another shelf and faced his father slowly. “What do you mean?”

“Set us up. She’ll never agree to meet with me, but she
would
if she thought she were meeting you. So ask her to meet you somewhere. Someplace… private. I… wouldn’t want to embarrass her, after all. And then I’ll meet her instead, gift her with the cauldron, and become her friend.”

His father’s eyes were as still as glass. His lips smiled, but the rest of his face seemed frozen, expectant.

“I don’t think I can do that,” Duncan said.

“Nonsense! Of course you can. It’s the only way it will work. I can see you care for the girl, son. This way she and I will mend our fences and she’ll see I’m not the monster she thought. That ought to smooth things over substantially between the two of you. Don’t you think?”

Swallowing the dryness in his throat, Duncan nodded. “It might.” No way. No way in hell. And what was he reacting to? His own gut instinct? The cold look in his father’s calculating eyes? Or maybe Raven’s crazy stories were making him feel this icy foreboding in the pit of his stomach.

“Well then?”

Duncan shook his head firmly. “It would be too cruel, Father. She thinks you’re some kind of murderer. Can you imagine how frightened she’d be to show up somewhere and find you there, waiting?”

“Yes,” Nathanial said. “I can.”

Duncan blinked. He’d never seen his father’s eyes look so dead. What the hell was happening here? Wasn’t it obvious? Nathanial was trying to manipulate him into setting Raven up. The question was why?

He wants me dead, Duncan
.

No. Not that, it wasn’t that. Nathanial might be a cold, mean SOB, but he was no killer.

“What do you say we grab a late dinner, hmm?” Anything to change the subject. He didn’t like discussing Raven with his father. It seemed like some kind of blasphemy.

He wanted her. Maybe even needed her. Probably loved her. My God, he probably loved her.

But he needed her sane, dammit, with all these delusions blown out of her mind.

Unless of course, they
weren’t
delusions.

And now who’s crazy
?

“Dinner?” Nathanial said. He glanced at his watch. “Damn, boy, dinner was hours ago! You should have said something. I got so caught up in this project I lost track of the time.”

“I’ve been doing that lately myself.”

“It’s late to go out.” His father frowned in thought.

“We could order in,” Duncan suggested. “If you’ll tolerate pizza, I’ll tolerate wine.”

“Ahh, we’ll dine in that quaint style… early redneck. Perhaps even put one of those… videos into the machine and stare mindlessly at it.”

Was he being hatefully sarcastic, or joking around? Tough to tell. He’d never
heard
his father joke around before. “You don’t have a VCR,” he reminded the old man. “But I’m sure we can find something on TV. It’s Monday night. Should be a football game on.”

“Ahh, yes, the sport of champions. Well, I’m willing if you are.”

“Great. What do you like on your pizza?“‘ Duncan picked up the phone, punched buttons.

His father shrugged, not even looking at Duncan. “I can’t imagine it much matters.” Then he sighed. “Perhaps we could invite your friend here. Not that blonde she had with her. I… I didn’t like that one. Still, your Raven could join us in this modern-day ritual. It would give me a chance to get to know her.”

Duncan’s hand tightened on the phone and he knew without a doubt he didn’t want his father anywhere near Raven. “You’re like a dog with a bone about this, aren’t you? She wouldn’t accept. Just give her some time and space, and maybe she’ll come around.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“Then she doesn’t.” Duncan shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, but I’m afraid it does, Duncan, my boy.”

Before he could ask what his father meant by that, the pizza guy answered the phone to take Duncan’s order. And by the time he hung up, his father was off on another subject. As if he’d forgotten all about Raven.

But Duncan had a feeling that might be an illusion.

So far, neither Raven nor Nathanial was proving to be what either seemed.

I paced outside the courthouse, a safe distance away, but close enough to watch the door. Duncan was inside, and he hadn’t left yet. There had been a delivery boy, a pizza box, and the mouth-watering aromas had reached me. Spices, tomato sauce, cheeses, and fresh crust. My stomach rumbled. I’d been too tense and worried and… yes, heartbroken, to eat today, and now I regretted it. But I didn’t regret being out here. I glimpsed Duncan in the doorway, just briefly. Dark, and beautiful, forbidden to me just as he’d always been. By choice this time, rather than by vows. But just as forbidden. Just as unreachable. His dark hair played with a stray breeze as he handed the delivery boy some bills. And when the boy left, Duncan stood there a moment longer, head cocked to one side, eyes scanning the benches and the fountain and the park beyond. Scenting the air like a wolf, I thought. He knew I was there. Sensed my nearness somehow. He probably didn’t even realize it, but he did.

And yet it seemed he’d deny the connection between us with his dying breath. Why must he be so stubborn?

Sighing as he moved inside and the door closed again, I sank onto the stone bench beside the fountain, elbows on my knees, head in my hands.

“Raven…” The harsh, familiar whisper brought my head up fast. Arianna came skulking from the shadows like a Halloween spirit. “What are you
doing
out here?”

“You must have radar,” I told her. “It’s barely been an hour since I slipped away.”

“I don’t need radar and you know it.” She came closer but didn’t sit. Instead she stood over me, feeling taller than me for a change, I thought. Her short hair riffled like dove feathers as she looked down at me from those huge brown eyes. Her Peter Pan stance, I called it, when she stood like this. Legs shoulder-width apart, hands planted on her hips, elbows pointing to either side of her. Give her a hat and a feather, and she’d probably fly. The leggings she wore, and the green velvet tunic that reached to midthigh enhanced the image considerably. I almost smiled.

“Are you going to tell me what you’re up to, or sit there inspecting my wardrobe?”

I shrugged. “Peter wore less jewelry, of course,” I muttered. She frowned harder. “Then again, so do most of the royals.“

“Are you mocking me? After I came all the way out here worried half to death about you and—”‘

“Hush, Arianna. I love you, you know that.”

“Then talk to me.” Her hands lowered to her sides, and she paced. “It’s to be tonight, isn’t it? You’ll go after him tonight.”

“Yes.” I drew my dagger, ran my thumb across its edge to test its readiness. A nervous habit I’d repeated a dozen times today. “It’s time.”

“You’re not ready.”

“And I’ll not become any
more
ready by putting it off.”

“He’ll kill you.”

“Duncan is in danger!”

She rolled her eyes. “Duncan should have listened to you in the first place.” Then she paused, glaring at the courthouse as if trying to send it up in flames with the sheer force of her gaze. “I’m beginning to hate them both.”

“Not Duncan,” I protested. “You’re my sister. You can’t hate the man I love, Arianna.”

“I can if his foolishness gets you killed.”

I closed my eyes. I didn’t want that to happen. And I knew it was possible. I just wished she wouldn’t remind me quite so often.

“So what are you waiting for? Having second thoughts?”

I shook my head. “Duncan’s inside. I’m afraid he’s going to spend the night. He thinks he needs to protect his…
father
from me.”

Arianna lifted one brow. “His
father
could probably roll a bus onto its side without breaking a sweat, as old as he is.“

I wasn’t being fair, I knew that. Duncan had said he meant to protect both of us, from each other. But it still felt like betrayal to me.

Arianna eyed me. “What if he’s weakening?” she asked suddenly. “Maybe that’s why Nathanial is so determined to have you this time, Raven. Maybe he needs a heart soon. You… um, you didn’t tell Duncan about that part of it, did you?”

“There are a lot of things I didn’t get around to telling him,” I whispered, averting my eyes.

“So what
did
you do all that time you were with him this morning? Or need I ask?”

My chin dipped lower. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I beg to differ! It certainly
does
matter. If he made love to you, Raven, then he must care. And if he cares, he’ll believe you over Nathanial.” I looked at her, my doubt in my eyes. “He
will!”
she insisted.

“He thinks I need mental help.” I heaved a deep sigh, leaned over, and trailed my hand in the icy-cold water that rippled in the fountain. Soft blue lights lit it from below, so my hand seemed to glow in the choppy water. Pink lights illuminated the flow that spilled from above, tumbling down the stairlike layers of the statue’s base, and losing itself in the pool.

“He’ll believe you if you just give him time.”

“There
is
no time. I can’t let him go on being so close and so damned vulnerable to a man who could kill him at any moment. And I can’t just wait for Nathanial to come for me. The waiting is going to drive me insane. I can’t eat or sleep, and that will all work to the old man’s advantage. You know that.”

“What I
know
is that your lack of appetite and restful nights has nothing to do with Nathanial, and everything to do with Duncan.”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.” My gaze returned to the courthouse. My vigil began anew. The lights still blazed from the windows.

“You can’t go through with this,” Arianna said, apparently reading my eyes as easily as I could read hers. “Not tonight, not with Duncan right there.”

“I didn’t think I could kill Nathanial in front of Duncan,” I told her. “But it doesn’t look as if I have a choice. Besides, when he sees his father wield that blade with every intention of doing me in, when he sees the old man’s skill—his
well-practiced
skill—then perhaps he’ll know I told the truth all along.” A light flicked off on the lower level. But seconds later one came on upstairs. “Still,” I said, sheathing my blade, getting to my feet, “I’ll spare Duncan seeing it if I can.”

“How?”

I shrugged. “He has to sleep sometime.” I started forward, crossing the cobbled street so reminiscent of old England. But Arianna’s hand on my shoulder stopped me, and I turned. “This will be a fair fight,” I told her before she could speak. “I won’t have murder on my conscience. I won’t attack Nathanial with the odds stacked in my favor. You’ll stay out of it, no matter what. I want your promise on that.”

Lifting her chin, my sister swallowed hard. “I don’t want to lose you again, Raven.”

It was not often I’d seen tears in Arianna’s eyes, but I did now. All her harshness and brass melted into twin pools that shimmered in her eyes.

“I know.” I hugged her gently. Stroked her short hair, kissed her face. “If I’m meant to triumph over him, I will.”

She nodded, sniffled, and straightened away from me.

“If I fall…” I began.

“If you fall, I’ll kill the bastard myself,” she told me.

I met her eyes and knew there would be no talking her out of it.

His father had seemed averse to the idea of Duncan staying over. That reaction offended Duncan slightly, hurt him a little, and prodded his suspicious mind a lot. Still, he’d talked the old man into it. No way was he leaving Nathanial alone tonight. He was half afraid the old man would head out after Raven the minute he was alone—and half afraid she’d come after him instead.

There was a guest room overlooking the circle, the park, and the fountain. His father’s room was on the opposite end of the hall, overlooking the road that led back to the mainland. There appeared to be several bedrooms in between, but the doors were all closed, and Duncan didn’t want to let his father know how little he trusted him by peering inside those other rooms as they passed. Still, he thought there was likely no reason he couldn’t have used any of the in-between rooms. And then he wondered why his father would want to keep him at a distance.