Hot Whispers of an Irishman (20 page)

When he was done, Astrid took Vi aside. “Do you ever take on commissions? We’re looking for an artist to do something like tapestries for the walls.”

It was a question most artists hungered to hear, but not Vi, and for two reasons. Aye, she’d had some meager creative stirrings, but she’d hardly reclaimed the zeal that once had driven her to paint hours on end. And beyond that, even when the fires burned strong, she did best when answering to no one’s expectations. Still she knew an opportunity when one was waved in her face.

If she answered yes to Astrid, she would be trading on the one tenuous gift she held above all others. But if she answered no, she might well be spoiling her chance to get inside the castle, and she was beginning to suspect that Liam might have found a drawing much like she’d seen in her great-grandmother’s journal.

Liam was nudging her in the small of her back, and Vi was readying to speak when Hank O’Gorman stepped into the breach.

“At least come to the castle and have a look around,” he said. “Then you can decide whether you’d like the job.”

“Come to the castle? I suppose I could have a peek, right?” she asked, as though consulting with Liam.

“I have the perfect night coming up,” Astrid said. “I’ve decided I want to try running a spa during the busy months, and we have an evening planned Wednesday for tour operators and magazine writers. It’s an overnight stay with a full meal and spa treatments.”

“Overnight?” Vi echoed. Liam nudged her harder, and Vi fought back a wee yelp.

Astrid nodded, her sleek blond hair shimmering in a way that Vi had only seen in television commercials. “Yes, if you’re free.”

“I’d love to,” Vi said. “And if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, might I bring a friend?”

“Then you, too, Nora,” Astrid invited, sending her a smile.

Cullen cleared his throat in a way that nearly covered his laughter. Nora began stammering something, and Vi looked to the carpet in order to hide her smile.

She’d have to be doing good acts for the next decade in order to balance out the glee she now felt at Liam’s roiling temper. She knew, though, that she could not leave him behind, not when he’d done it to her so often in life.

“If you don’t mind, Astrid, I was meaning Liam,” Vi said.

Astrid looked him up and down as though deciding whether the man might clash with her décor.

“You’re a Rafferty, too, aren’t you?” she asked.

“I am.”

“There’s an awful lot of you guys around here.” After giving him one last considering look she added, “It’s no big deal, but I don’t suppose you sing or something?”

Vi shook her head. “He doesn’t, but I do.”

Cullen laughed full-out at that, and Liam made a low sound that Vi could only interpret as a growl.

“Wednesday, then?” Vi said.

“Four o’clock,” Astrid agreed, offering her hand for a shake.

As Vi left the office with Liam all she could think was that some days it was a fine, fine thing to be queen.

Don’t ever be in court or castle without a woman to make your excuse.

—I
RISH
P
ROVERB

C
astles were interesting things, but on this Wednesday afternoon, Castle Duneen was sorely wasted on Liam. Actually, most anything have would been.

Tuesday had been a day of relentless digging in the rain, with spectators dropping by fence-side at Nan’s field. Wet to the bone and in a foul mood, he’d listened to them trading wry wagers on what he might find and how long it would take to do so. He’d found nothing other than a few rusted horseshoes and spent the whole bloody day doing it. Vi had visited from time to time, offering him hot coffee and amused commentary, one of which was appreciated, the other…not. Still he supposed he might have received worse from her, considering her attitude toward him on Monday night.

Since Liam’s role for the balance of this day was clearly bag-handler for Vi, he was doing just that as Astrid O’Gorman led them down a posh hallway to their quarters. He stayed a step or two behind the women, half listening to their chat about the dozen other guests and Astrid’s spa plans. More though, he mentally focused on the map that last night he’d had his brother-in-law Tadgh draw of the renovated castle. Tadgh had said that the New Tower—which they were now in—was fairly shot through with hidden passageways.

As a youth, Liam hadn’t gotten much beyond one exterior room in this area of the castle. The New Tower was taller than the older parts of the structure, and less safe, also. Too many floors had been burned out, and even for a boy fond of risk, it had seemed potentially suicidal to climb high just to plunge through water-rotted wood. The one time he’d considered a look, ten-year-old Vi had been tagging along, and had threatened to run home and tell his mam. Liam patted the map in his jacket pocket, content that at least tonight’s explorations would be rain and threat free.

At that, Vi briefly turned to shoot an arch “really now?” look his way. Startled, Liam slowed. He’d forgotten that eerie knack of hers to occasionally catch his stray bad thoughts.

Astrid interrupted the odd moment, asking Vi, “I can understand why you might think a mud bath is a little much before dinner, but won’t you at least try a hot stone treatment?”

“A
what?
” Vi asked.

“It’s a form of massage,” Astrid explained. “The masseuse places heated stones on your acupressure points. It’s very relaxing.”

Vi’s shudder was subtle and likely discerned only by Liam. “I’ve never been very fond of stones or burning,” she said.

Liam grinned. Her type had never been.

They climbed another flight of stairs and soon stopped at a richly varnished door labeled “Sarah’s Suite.”

He didn’t suppose that Astrid O’Gorman knew the full tale of Lady Sarah and how she’d met her end at the bottom of a stairway. Legend had it that her husband had become displeased when she’d refused to occupy his bed once she’d been given over to the earl of Ormond. One slight stumble and it had been nothing but darkness for Sarah.

“Brave woman,” Astrid said to Vi, tapping once on the door’s sign. “But not too practical about her position in life.”

Then again, perhaps Astrid was quite sharp indeed, for those had been nasty times.

“I think you’ll find this suite to your liking,” their hostess said as she swung open the door.

“No doubt,” Liam murmured, for the place looked to be as luxe as the expensive hotels he’d always treated himself to while on the road.

A small fire burned in the sitting-room fireplace, and on a low table in front of an antique sofa, a bottle of white wine sat chilling in an ice bucket with two glasses nearby.

“Cocktails are at six-thirty and dinner’s at seven,” Astrid said. “And I’ve scheduled you both for facials at five. I hope that you’ll at least try those.”

“We will,” Vi answered, and Liam shot her a glare for the use of “we.” His concept of luxury did not include pampering his pores or getting his nails all shiny.

“Perfect!” Astrid replied. “When you’re ready, you’ll find the spa rooms in the castle’s old quarters. Just head down a floor and follow the west corridor. Vi, maybe when you’re finished, we could take some time to talk about the tapestries?”

Vi nodded. “Of course. I’m looking forward to it.”

Astrid moved toward the hallway. “Well, I’ll leave you two to get settled. Is there anything else you think you might need?”

“Not a thing,” Vi assured her.

The door had scarcely clicked shut before Liam let loose. “I’m to get a
facial
? What sort of Kilkennyman gets a facial?”

Vi laughed. “Your sort, I’d be saying. And I won’t tell your brothers your dark secret…for a price, that is.”

“And a high one, I’m sure,” Liam said, pulling the wine from its ice bucket. If he was to survive the indignity of a facial, anesthesia would be required.

“Not so very high,” the local witch replied from the bedroom. Liam watched through the curved archway as she slipped off her shoes, then fell backward, arms spread wide, upon the high four-poster bed. Vi gave a sigh that sounded of sheer comfort. “This will do quite grandly for the night.”

He removed the bottle’s foil with a deft cut of the corkscrew, then set to work on the cork. Liam poured a glass for Vi and one for himself, then joined her in the bedroom.

“Wine?” he asked.

She sat upright and held out her hand.

Liam shook his head. “First, about this not so very high price you’ll be charging?”

Her warm smile was the sort of enticement that had lured men to their dooms. “A full night in a bed with you, of course.”

Doing his best to summon a put-upon expression, Liam handed her the glass. “I suppose I’ll suffer through.”

“I’m sure you will,” she said tartly. After taking a sip of wine, she placed the glass on the nightstand to her left, then patted the mattress. “Join me?”

He knew that if he did, they’d never arrive for their facial appointments, which was no sacrifice at all. However, neither would they get straight their plans.

“I think we need to talk about tonight, first.”

She laughed. “And here I thought we just had.”

Liam put his wine glass on the nightstand by Vi’s, pulled out his map, and then sat on the edge of the bed.

“I had Tadgh draw this,” he said, showing it to her. “While working, he and his mates used to explore the passageways in this part of the castle. I want us to walk them tonight, as according to my late grandda, at least some of the gold might be hidden there.”

She arched a fine red brow at him. “You’ve been talking to your grandda from the beyond? Keep that up and you’ll be making me redundant.”

He smiled. “It’s a job I’ll leave for you. Actually, Da was telling me about it the night we returned from Dublin.”

Vi nodded. “I think your da’s got the right of it, too. At least a hundred years ago, the gold was there.”

Now there was news to savor. “You know this for certain?”

“Be right back,” she said, then slipped past him and walked to her bag, which Liam had left in the sitting room.

As she departed, Liam enjoyed the view. Vi walked like a warrior, straight and bold. To him, that gait was more arousing than the hip-wiggling shimmies favored by a few women he’d dated. They’d worked too bloody hard at being sexy. Vi simply was.

She returned and dropped her bag on the end of the bed, then began digging though it. Finally she settled next to him, offering a scrap of paper that had obviously been torn from a notepad.

“And this is?” he asked.

“Hand me your map,” she said.

He did so, and she scanned it.

“Ah! Just as I’d hoped.” She held both pieces of paper so they could look together. “See? That odd turn in the passageway Tadgh drew matches my sketch. And I copied this from something I saw in my great-grandmother’s journal…you know, the one who worked here as a servant?”

“A fine coincidence,” he agreed, feeling his interest begin to wake.

“The drawing was titled ‘The Guardian,’ which struck me as strange, considering it’s nothing more than lines and sharp angles.”

“Even better,” he said.

“And the design stitched on the journal’s cover exactly matched the wax cast we saw in Dublin.”

“Sold,” Liam announced.

“As was I.” She handed him the sketches and returned to her bag. While she searched though it, Liam turned the papers about, confirming that the drawings did indeed match. It seemed that the passageway exited from a ground floor room that his brother-in-law had marked as a library.

“I’ve brought these,” Vi said, pulling out two battery-powered lights.

He stood and gathered his bag, then pulled out the two lights he’d packed. “Great minds,” he said to Vi, “frequently think alike.”

At half-one in the morning, Vi had put aside any consideration of how great her mind might be. And as for Liam’s mind, the way he was now wandering the O’Gormans’ library, she was growing convinced that he’d misplaced it.

They had both been here before. In fact she’d happily lost her virginity here. It was a far finer room now than it had been then, complete with a locking door. True, the view to the King’s River was presently obscured by drapes and nighttime, but the interior walls were uncharred and thick with books.

“The floor looks more comfortable,” Vi said softly, so as not to disturb anyone else who might be skulking about, though she had her doubts that anyone would be. The group had eaten endlessly, drunk even more, then finally wandered to their rooms.

Liam, who was feeling his way along the paneling, glanced her way. “More comfortable than what?”

Had he not made the connection? It took a moment for Vi to get past that unsettling thought. “Why, the last time you had me here.”

“Had you? How?”

She caught his smile as he gave up his search and came her way. It was then she realized that he was playing her as finely as his sister did the fiddle.

“Shame on you, Violet,” Liam said, now beside her. “Did you truly think I’d forget?”

She punched him on the arm as much for the Violet as for scaring her so.

A kind man, he feigned pain. “Let’s leave me both arms working, at least until we’re through searching,” he said.

Then Liam pulled Tadgh’s map from the pocket of his denims and frowned at it for an instant. With a decisive nod, he walked to a bookshelf adjacent to the room’s fireplace. “If Tadgh drew true, the hidden door should be right…about…here.”

He worked his fingers into an indentation between the built-in bookcase and what looked to be solid paneling. A latch clicked and a narrow door sprung open.

“It looks nasty in here. You can wait,” he said. “I’ll be back in a heartbeat.”

Vi peered into the darkness. Compared to some of the places she’d lived in her day, this was none too bad.

“You’re not leaving me behind,” she said.

“Just trying to be chivalrous,” he replied.

“Castle or not, in this case chivalry is dead.”

Liam gave a resigned sigh. He pulled out one of the two flashlights he’d tucked into the waist of his denims and handed it to her. Vi switched it on before tugging shut the small door to the outside world. Now they were stooped over in a dark, stone-walled corridor built for souls half her size and she was beginning to wonder if she might have a touch of claustrophobia. Not that it would matter, for she was determined to see this through.

“We’ll head right,” Liam said, and so they did with their flashlights trained downward. Vi spotted a small pile of empty wine bottles coated thick with dust. She wondered if it had been one of her ancestors in here, drinking filched Dunhill wine. She surely hoped so.

The further along they headed, the more the ground grew thick with rubble. Some seemed to be leftover bits of stone, whether from this renovation or an earlier one, she’d never know. Dirt was dirt and it all looked old to her. She shone her light upward. Cobwebs hung thick, and her nose began to itch at the sight of them. She rubbed at it, hoping to ward off the sneeze that was beginning to make itself known.

Twice they passed what were obviously other entries into the passageway. Liam paused at a third, then looked back her way. Even without light, Vi knew he was grinning, for the sounds coming from the other side of the doorway were unmistakably those of passion.

“More, Hank!” Astrid cried.

“Love match,” Liam murmured and then walked on.

Soon they came to a T in the corridor. Liam paused and shone his light on the map, then turned left.

Vi hesitated. “I’m sure it’s right we want to head.”

“No, if we’re to follow the map, it’s left.”

“Wait,” she said, then heard the rustling of paper as Liam again pulled the map.

Vi peeked around him and bit back a groan. A well-fed woman with pampered skin shouldn’t be in a position such as this. She reached forward with one hand and took the map. While shining her light on it, she whispered, “You’ve got it upside-down,” then handed it back to him.

He peered at it a moment and then gave a subdued “Oh, right, then.”

“And you’re the grand adventurer, eh?”