Campbell Manor
Fiona had never been
so glad to return to her home. After the painfully long drive in
the Saturday afternoon traffic, during which she’d done her best to
ignore Declan’s chattering and Christophe’s responses, she
practically flew out of the car.
As usual, Hopkins was
standing in the doorway. “Anything you wish to tell me? Shall I
offer my congratulations, perhaps?” His usual dry tone dripped
frost.
“Funny. Did you see
the press conference?”
He moved to let her
pass by him into the house, then shut the door behind them, right
in Christophe’s face. “Yes. I also saw the bit where your new
partner claimed the two of you were in love. Shall I serve lunch or
retrieve the Glock first?”
She sighed. “I don’t
know what we can do, so long as he has blackmail material on me.
We—”
The door opened, and
Christophe sauntered in. “I guess you didn’t see me,” he said to
Hopkins. “I’ll give you a free pass this time, but don’t let it
happen again.”
Hopkins looked at
her. “Definitely the Glock.”
“How about lunch? I’m
starving,” Declan said, following Christophe inside. “Hey, why are
we standing in the hallway? Let’s get some food. I’m off to get
cleaned up, back in a jif.” He bounded up the stairs, and Fiona
spared a moment to wish she had some of his energy. She felt as if
she’d been up for days.
“Indeed.” Hopkins led
the way to the dining room and then vanished, presumably to find
something for a late lunch. At the thought, Fiona’s stomach rumbled
a little. She hadn’t been hungry for the pastries and fruit they’d
had that morning, due to pre-book signing nerves, and was surprised
to be hungry now.
Someone claiming to
be her had murdered those guards. “Brutally murdered,” Lord Fairsby
had said. The room suddenly spun around her and she stumbled, only
to find a firm arm around her back.
“Are you okay? You
need to eat and have something to drink,” Christophe said quietly.
“You may be dehydrated.”
“No. No, I’m not
okay. I’m not dehydrated. I’m thinking about those men. How can you
joke about love and lunch and whatever, when somebody killed them?
Brutally murdered, he said. Somebody claiming to be me.” Her chest
was so tight. Too tight. Why was it so hard to
breathe?
“Not somebody
claiming to be Lady Fiona. Someone claiming to be the Scarlet
Ninja,” he said. “Nobody else knows that’s you.”
“Except you, and
you’ve already proven you’re capable of using it against me,” she
said, yanking her arm away from his hand. “Do you think that makes
me feel safe?”
His lips tightened
and his eyes turned to green ice. “My apologies for that bit of
foolishness. I give you my word—no. I give you my oath, as a
Warrior of Poseidon, that I will not betray your
secret.”
“Your oath?” She
shook her head. “I don’t even know you. Why should I trust your
oath? What’s a Warrior of Poseidon, anyway?”
“I have been the
victim of betrayal, Princess,” he said, so softly she had to strain
to hear. “I would never turn that anguish on another.”
Hopkins chose that
moment to pop his head out from the door to the kitchen. “Tea will
be served in a few minutes. I shall serve, since I gave the staff
the entire weekend off, due to our new circumstances. Do you have
any preferences?”
The pain on
Christophe’s face vanished as if she’d imagined it, and he grinned
at Hopkins. “How about some of those little cakes?”
Declan burst into the
room. “Oh, yes, definitely cakes. Roast beef sandwiches, too,
please. Thick ones—I feel as if I could eat an entire cow. Those
book signings always wear me out.”
Hopkins nodded and
left the room again, and Christophe roamed around, pacing the
floor, picking up objects and putting them back down.
“Casing the room, are
you?” Hopkins said, returning through a different
doorway.
Christophe shrugged.
“You still won’t tell me where the good silver is.”
Fiona remembered the
last time the silver had come up in conversation, and her face
heated up approximately a thousand degrees. Christophe must have
had the same thought, because he flashed her a wicked
grin.
Hopkins,
unfortunately, must also have remembered, judging by the way he
glared at them both.
“So, love at first
sight,” Declan said, breaking the heavy silence. “I always wanted a
brother.”