Page 12 of Her Dark Lies

All things, all people, can be conquered. I’m not silly enough to believe otherwise.

The beach below is raked clear of rocks and seaweed; there are chaise longues and umbrellas, though currently being stacked and lashed to the rocks in preparation for the storms to come. Two stone jetties abut each side of the beach, creating a natural cove.The Hebrides, looking even more imposing and elegant from afar,is back in full view, being serviced by the crew at the pier. The hydrofoil has put in at the other pier and people are wandering off, taking pictures or simply staring up at the Villa, then getting in line for the funicular that will bring those less inclined for a hike to the top of the hill.

It’s such a shame that everyone’s taken a week off to be with us and it’s going to rain most of the time. About as fair as getting your period for the wedding night. Ah, well. Life is cruel.

I scan the people disembarking for familiar faces. Most of our guests are friends Jack has collected over the years, and the Compton family. I’m expecting only my mother and stepfather, my sister Harper, and my best friend Katie. I don’t see any of them.

I’m not the type to surround myself with acquaintances. The curse of the introvert, Jack calls it. I don’t see it as a curse at all. I just don’t play well with others.

“It’s quite grand, isn’t it?” Jack asks.

“What? Oh, the Villa? It’s absolutely beautiful. But what did you want to tell me, Jack?”

He walks me to the stone wall. The calico blinks and yawns, and I run a hand down her silky back. The cat’s eyes slit with pleasure and she stretches two long front legs contentedly, claws unsheathed, purring like an outboard motor.

“That’s Rosa and the tuxedo is Nina. They’re my mother’s cats.”

“They’re beautiful.”

Jack takes my hand, gently kisses my knuckles.

“Oh, Claire. It’s so good to have you here. I love you, and I am so happy to be marrying you.”

“Me, too.” I watch him, eyes searching his, sensing there is more. He’s being so formal, so unlike the Jack I know. He looks away.

“Maybe now isn’t exactly the time.”

My heart stutters.Oh, no. He’s changed his mind. He doesn’t want to marry me. He’s figured me out.I’m being jilted.I tense, fighting my instincts.Run, Claire. Run. Get away, now!

“Not the time for what?”

“For this.” With a sly grin, he pulls a long flat box from his pocket and hands it to me. The black velvet is warm from where it was nestled against his body.

I hold my breath as I pry it open.

The pearls are so luminous they shine up from the velvet as if lit from within. They are graduated, smaller near the clasp, growing in size to the center pearl, which has to be the size of my thumbnail.

“Oh, Jack. They’re gorgeous.”

He looks very young in that moment. Though he is ten years my senior, he sometimes looks as vulnerable as a teen. His words are soft.

“They were my great-grandmother’s originally. Eliza wore them every day, and when she...died, they passed to my grandmother, May, who also wore them until her death. I want you to have them. To wear them, always, like my grandmother and great-grandmother did.”

“I don’t know what to say.” I truly didn’t. I’d never owned anything fancy or beautiful before Jack. Now, thanks to a chance meeting a year ago, I’m being bedecked in bright diamonds and a dead woman’s pearls.You’ve come a long way, Claire.

“They can be your something old. If you like them.”

I swallow back the tears. “Jack, I love them. Thank you. I’m...so touched.”

He snakes the pearls around my neck. I feel them settle at the base of my throat like they were made for me, specifically measured to fit into the sharp, hollowed notch between my collarbones. Jack steps back and looks at me approvingly.

“They are perfect on you. I knew they would be.”

I touch them self-consciously. “I never thought I was a pearls kind of girl.”

“All women are made for pearls. And you most of all.”

He settles his mouth on mine, warm and soft, and in our rising passion, the intense connection I feel to him whenever we touch, I am able to push away my traitorous thought.