Authors: Beth Trissel
W
ill only just
refrained
from giving Lyle
two fat lips
.
The local man
exhibited more tact
.
Rocking
back on his he
els, he
lifted his cap to scratch
his
thinning hair
.
“No, sir.
Odd, how it disappears.”
“It’s got to be here somewhere,
”
Will said.
Lyle
reached for his water bottle.
“
Brilliant
, mate
.
”
Will unknotte
d his tie, looped
it over a shady branch, then unbuttoned his cu
ffs and rolled up his sleeves.
“Let’s get to work.”
“In those fancy duds?”
Lyle scorned.
“Save yourself
for the adoring throng. Y
ou’re like a
bloody
rock star.”
“It helps to have a legendary ancestor.”
“And
to
look spookily like the
dead
guy.
Hell, Julia ought
to
be an easy
lay.
She’s all about that
dude.
”
Ron narrowed shocked
ey
es at the loud-mouthed Aussie.
Will quelled Lyle with a glance that promised
immediate
action with his next quip.
“You ought to be a standu
p
comic,
McChesney,
only no one’s laughing.”
Lyle raised and lowered h
is broad shoulders in a shrug.
“Good one, mate.”
Crouching on the grassy earth, Will
ran his eyes over the uneven ground
seeking
any trace of a disturbance
that
might stem
from ages past
.
A
sweaty half hour later
he still hadn’t
found anything
and the knees of his slacks had suffered from the search
.
His shirt clung to h
im and was streaked with dirt. He’d have to change.
For now, he stripped it
off and tossed it
up
beside his tie
.
Lyle gave a low whistle at
his
bare
chest.
“You’ll give those women a thrill, Captain Marvel.”
“Maybe I’ll let you give the next talk and go for a dip in the river.”
“Fine by me.
I’ll conjure up some shit about your buff twin.
Tell those broads what a ladies
’
man he was
––
you are.
Should get you some act
i
on.
”
“Or maybe
you
could shut your big mouth, Lyle,
and
I could be of help?”
Julia suggested
.
Will
swiveled his head to find her behin
d him like a wood
nymph
taking form
among them.
Lyle cracked a toothy grin
.
“In that white gown?
Don’t dirty your wings, angel.”
Ron looked
secretly
pleased by her stealthy
arrival
.
“It’s no work for a lady, Miss
Morrow
.”
“It’ll only take a moment
.
”
She pointed at the
existing wall
and
then angled her hand
,
gesturing
around the
trees and undergrowth in an unexpected
convolution
.
“This has all
grown up over the years.
You s
ee?
The wall curved that way to enclo
se this portion of the garden.
It used to
h
ave
masses of
herbs,
roses
,
a
nd lilies.
A few remain.
”
She gestured
at
the
clumps of
white
trump
et
bells
protruding
here and
there. “
Floods from the James must have wiped out the
bulk of the
flowers.
T
hese hardy trees and shrubs took over.”
Ron and Lyle stared at her, but a strange near memo
ry tugged at Will
like a current
carrying him back
to some
distant place he’
d left behind.
He eyed Julia long and hard as colorful images of a fragrant bower took bloom deep in his mind.
How beautiful, heavenly.
He could a
lmost smell the heady perfume.
All the flowers at Foxleigh now wer
e nothing in comparison to this sea of blossoms.
“Yes...
” he said slowly, “Cole’s mother, Lady Pembrook, over
saw the planting.
Seek
there for your wall, gentlemen.”
Julia smiled at him
as though a r
ay of sunshine had lit
her
soul.
“You remember.”
Lyle shook his head.
“
You two
are
weirding
me out
.
”
Will’s thoughts exactly.
He was past wondering about Julia’s amazing perceptions, but h
ow had he known?
Maybe Cole was communicating his memories through him
, or good heavens
above
, he was actually recall
ing
the past
.
It hardly bore thinking about.
He could agre
e with Lyle, or her
, or
walk away
and lose himself
in the James
.
It was times like this he wished he drank
heavily
.
Will knew Julia thought she’d glimpsed his inner mind.
Nay, his very soul.
No more.
He was pulling the shade.
Withdrawal from this mire of confusion the only viable option.
“Not now, Julia.
Go back to the house and tell Charlotte to tak
e that next talk.
”
Retreating from the bewilderment in her face, he
strode down
the path
toward the lapping water
.
Wait
––
p
eopl
e ahead.
And him without a shirt.
Altering his route, Will
slipped through the undergrowth
to
a secr
et path that would take him
further down
river beyond the reach of
visitors
.
“Will
!
H
old up
!”
Julia
called, hastening behind him.
Damn
ation
.
Couldn’t she ever do as he said?
Guests
idling at water’
s edge,
enjoy
ing
the sc
enery
,
turned
at her call
.
She must’
ve
forgotten the almost continual presence of outsiders.
Onlookers
peered
at
them
throug
h the shady
cover.
Older men and women hung back discreetly, but y
oung women in particular
converged on
this far more interesting spectacle
.
He was done for.
A small crowd gathered
around him in a circle
like wolves for the kill
.
“Where are you going, skinny dipping?” one teen giggled behind her braces.
“I’ll come too,” another freckle-faced girl offered.
Thankfully
,
their mothers had the good taste to look embarrassed and haul their daughters off
by the arm.
That still left him surrounded
by three or four
bold
er
women in their twenties and even thirties
.
They weren’t
easily dissuaded. He felt like dinner beneath their less than casual examination.
“Is it true you’re gay?” asked a brassy blond with too
much
pink
on her
lips.
“What a waste of gorgeous,” said a mousy brunette.
“We could put him to the test,” pu
rred the third, a fiery redhead
spilling out of her
skimpy halter top.
Here was trouble.
She sashayed up to him, hips swaying in her short shorts, and p
ressed her ample chest to his.
“Still prefer men?” she
asked
, angling glossy
lips for a kiss.
Then Julia w
as there, eyes sparking
, flushed,
sputtering,
“Get away
!
”
Will
dodged the redhead
and reached through the sexy stalkers
.
Grabbing Julia’s wrist, he
jerk
ed
her beside him.
“
Thanks for the
tempting
offer, ladies, but here’s
what I prefer.”
A
n arm around Julia’s waist
, he tipped her back and bent low
,
covering her startled mouth with his.
She never made a sound, but gave him exactly what he wanted, a meltingly swee
t kiss that sent their audience
back
paddling
.
“Guess that’s his girlfriend,” the blond muttered as she left.
“Figures,” the redhead agreed. “She’s pretty enough.
And just asking for it.”
“You are, you know,” Will whispered against
Julia’s
lips.
He drew back slightly.
“As anyone can see.
”
She swallowed
, her cheeks flushing.
“
I never meant
to look like some kind of slut
––
like they do.
”
Will
never meant
for
her to
either, or to hurt her feelings
.
He straightened and released her, an acutely painful act, but right now he w
anted some space between them
to regroup and figure out what the hell was happening.
“Don’t you think you’d better go to the house now
and speak to Charlotte
?
”
he suggested.
Julia
nodded mutely.
Lips pursed, he
ad held high, she walked away.
Only the swipe at her eyes told how deeply it had cost her.
Will
quelled a nearly overwhelming
urge to go after
her
and crush her against him
.
Instead
,
he headed for the water.
Perhaps
he could sort himself out
in
there
, the ancient womb
.
****
For one
shining moment Julia
had seen
that Will remembered
what she had
about the
old
wall
,
that
in some inexplicable way t
hey’
d
been here before
, or
at least were deeply attuned to
Cole and Julia Maury
.
Then, he
’d
cut her off
.
J
ust like that.
And she’d been foolish enough to pursue him when clearly he
’d
wanted to be left alone.