CHAPTER 17
“ I gnore the texts and tell me what happened,” Ian urged.
His words were romance to my ears, and after I detailed what had precipitated my fall, I asked, “By chance, did you notice two men hightailing it out of the bookstore?”
He shook his head. “I wish I had, but I was too busy signing books, and the store was exceptionally busy today. You didn’t recognize either voice?”
“Whispering made it difficult, though the one guy had a gravelly tone to his whisper. They could have been speaking about anyone but since they ran as soon as Vera called out my name, I figured it was somehow connected to the vanishing guy situation.”
“If he’d only wake up,” Ian said.
Our phones wouldn’t stop dinging, so while we enjoyed our tea, Ian and I decided to respond to the many texts. My phone rang before I got the chance to start.
“Amy,” I said, looking at Ian, her name having popped up on the screen. I knew what the first words out of her mouth would be.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I am. Nothing more than a few bruises to add to my raccoon eyes and a ton of embarrassment.”
“Embarrassed? How could you be with those wonderfully romantic photos of you in Ian’s arms? Social media is exploding with them and Ian is being hailed as Sir Galahad. His gorgeous eyes oozed love and concern. Gotta go, I figured you were all right when I saw the photos but I wanted to make sure. Beau and I are going to the garden center. Time to get some plants. Talk later.”
As soon as I hung up with Amy, my phone rang again. “I’m good, Dad, a foolish tumble that’s all, but I do have something interesting to share with you.”
My news had him relieved that he kept an officer on the vanishing guy and after assuring him again that I was fine thanks to Ian’s quick reaction, he hung up without lecturing me.
My phone rang again, and I scrunched my brow. Slyvia Rubin, my agent. She couldn’t have seen the photos that fast, or had she?
“Those photos are gold, Pepper. My phone is blowing up with texts from endless industry people who want to talk, your editor being one of them. She wants to talk first thing Monday morning. Ian and you make a gorgeous couple, and everyone loves seeing a gorgeous couple.”
I hurried to get a few words in since it’s usually impossible to do with Slyvia. “I’m a prepper, remember?”
“So, is there something wrong with being a gorgeous prepper with an equally gorgeous boyfriend? Strike while the iron is hot, Pepper. We’ll talk on Monday. Oh, cut back on the massacre. You looked like you were wearing a raccoon mask.”
I stared at the phone, Slyvia having hung up.
“What’s wrong?” Ian asked.
“Slyvia Rubin,” I said.
“Oh.”
Her name was enough to have him understand my befuddled look.
I responded to a few more texts before my stomach let me know that tea wasn’t enough to quench my hunger. Ian felt the same. We stopped at B.O.B, Bundles of Burgers in Barnsville, Mo’s favorite place to eat since the owner, Gus, loved Mo and always served him a double burger.
Ian caught me off guard when he said, “I’m planning a trip home to Scotland just before Christmas and I want you to join me.”
My burger never reached my mouth and neither did a response. This was serious stuff which was why it left me speechless.
“I want you to see my home, where I grew up, get to know my family and meet my friends. I thought Beau and Amy might like to join us. Beau has a slew of friends there, mates from his time at Oxford, that I know he’d love Amy to meet. Also, I need to do some Highland photo shoots.” He leaned across the table and tapped my nose with his finger. “Fill that open mouth of yours with a bite of your burger then you can tell me what you think.”
I hurried, my mouth shut, not realizing it had been hanging open and returned my burger to my paper plate while my stomach pleaded for a bite.
“It’s time, Pep. We both know this is a permanent relationship and it’s only logical to move forward with it. Though, if you feel otherwise?—”
“I don’t,” I said without thinking about it or maybe I did. “I would miss you far too much if you weren’t around. Heck, I sometimes find myself missing you during the day, and I have gotten far too comfortable having you in bed with me. You just surprised me that’s all.”
“And?”
He knew when I held back and although I didn’t want to admit it, I owed him the truth. “I worry what your family will think of me.”
“You have met them through video chats, spoken with them on the phone and they already love you. Now they need to meet you in person.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I confessed. “Something is bound to happen that might change their mind about me being with you.”
“It is my decision when it comes to you, Pep, not theirs, and I have already made up my mind. I intend to spend the rest of my life with you, and they know that.”
“They do?” I asked.
“Aye, they do. I made it very clear, which is why they are eager to meet you in person. It will probably be around early November and we’ll be gone for about three weeks. Mo can come with us. He just needs a pet passport to travel overseas.”
“He has one and he loves to travel, and he travels well,” I said with pride.
“Great, then we can talk with Beau and Amy and see what they think about joining us.”
“Are you kidding? Amy will jump at the chance. She’ll have a list of places she’s read about in her historical romance books that she will want to visit the day after we talk with her.”
A grin spread across his handsome face. “Good, then it’s settled, you’re going home to Scotland with me in November to meet my family.”
I sent out an SOS to my deceased Aunt Effie. If there was anyone who could help prepare me for this visit it was her. Having been a top fashion model, she had traveled the world and kept journals about her travels. Somewhere in those journals was wise advice for this occasion and I intended to find it.
Clouds rolled in overhead as we pulled into the cemetery and parked a short walk up a slight incline to the Willow Mausoleum. Mo began sniffing around, though I didn’t worry about him soiling sacred ground since I made sure to walk him in a designated wooded area at B.O.B.’s, Gus being a super dog lover and owner of four dogs from small to large.
Ian pulled up the aerial map of the cemetery on his cell and we zeroed in on the surrounding area of the mausoleum. “It doesn’t make sense that it would be a long escape route since it would have taken a lot of digging. It makes more sense that an escape route would come out somewhere nearby.”
“And naturally it would avoid disturbing any graves,” I said, looking around and noticing there was a clear swath of land behind the mausoleum and one to the right of it. The one to the right held a flower garden with benches where visitors could sit. The space behind the Willow Mausoleum was empty and led to another gated mausoleum with old headstones crowning the graves that flanked it.
We walked to the mausoleum, and Ian and I stared at the name… GIBBONS.
“Do you think these people could be any relation to the groundkeeper’s family at Willow Mansion,” I asked.
Ian appeared perplexed. “If so, how could a groundskeeper afford such a structure?”
“If this place holds Charlie’s family, he could get us entrance to it,” I said excited at the possibility.
Ian walked around to the side. “It’s not as large as the Willow Mausoleum but looks to be built just as sturdy, built to last. I wonder when it was constructed.”
I cast an eye back at the Willow Mausoleum. “It doesn’t make sense to have an escape route that takes you to another mausoleum where you would be seen exiting.”
“Unless it was meant to keep a path clear of graves to the actual escape exit.”
I stepped around the mausoleum, Mo coming to send beside me, and we both looked at what lay beyond… the old section of the church.
“Reverend Hebert will never allow us to search for a hidden door to a secret tunnel and if word got out about a possible secret tunnel you just might see a swarm of treasure hunters descend on Willow Lake,” Ian said as I rested against him on the sofa.
We beat the rain, and the chill it brought with it, home and when Mo parked himself in front of the fireplace to stare at us, we got the hint. Ian saw to setting a fire and Mo stretched out in front of it to sleep. Roxie curled herself up against him after she ate and slept just as soundly as Mo.
A sudden thought hit me, and I sat up fast, wincing, feeling the aftereffects of my tumble down the stairs.
“You’re the one who needs protective armor, Genevieve,” Ian said, teasingly but there was concern in his eyes. “I’ll get you something for the pain.”
“First, a thought struck me. The key my aunt left me could unlock the door to the secret passageway.”
Ian nodded. “A possibility.”
I rested my head back against the sofa my thoughts drifting to the vanishing guy. If only he would wake. He could solve the mystery or a good portion of it. Another thought struck me, and I wondered if falling down those stairs rattled something loose in my head and it bothered me that I hadn’t thought of it right away.
“We, meaning not only you and I but my dad as well, figured the vanishing guy was meeting someone in the parking lot of the restaurant. But who and why the restaurant?”
Ian handed me two pills and a glass of water then sat beside me. “I assumed he was secretly meeting someone since he did a good job of avoiding being seen in public.”
I swallowed the pills followed by a generous amount of water.
“Right, but who?”
“Good question.”
I smiled. “Don’t you see? We have a list of suspects now.”
Ian’s brow shot up. “Stone. He was at the restaurant.”
“So was Professors Anderson and Swatcher and they left before us.”
“My money’s on Stone.”
“That’s because you don’t like him.”
“You’re right I don’t like him, and I don’t trust him, and I bloody hell don’t like that he makes no bones of showing that he’s interested in you.”
I’ve seen Ian get annoyed, but I never heard him sounding as angry as he did now.
“Sorry, Pep, but it irritates me that Stone thinks he even has a chance with you and is so blatant about it. I so badly want to?—”
“Easy, Lancelot,” I cautioned, resting my hand on his chest. “I have no interest in him and my heart belongs to you and you alone.”
“I never doubted that though I do like hearing it. It’s a territorial thing with guys. You’re mine and he should respect that.”
“Women too,” I said. “I don’t always like seeing the women paw you like cats in heat. If you noticed I said women, not woman. There are a bunch of them out there that would surrender to you in a heartbeat.”
“It’s part of my job, but that doesn’t make it any easier for you to deal with and you have been so understanding about it. I really appreciate it, Pep, and just remember,” he said, pulling me into his arms. “You are and always will be the only woman I love and want with all my heart.”
He kissed me and odd as it was, I swore I could feel how much he loved me. I almost shook my head thinking for the hundredth or more time that I was in one of Amy’s cherished romance novels and this time I realized it wasn’t a bad place to be.