Part 33 (1/2)

”This doesn't change anything,” Grey said.

”I know.” She was beaming. Her eyes were radiant. ”I know.''

His brows came together. He spoke slowly, as if to a child. ”I mean I'm still angry with you.”

”Yes,” she said. Her smile didn't fade at all. ”But it doesn't change anything. You don't love me any less. I'm just understanding that part.”

Grey shook his head, relief and exasperation tugging at his expression. ”It's d.a.m.n well about time.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her along, stopping just once to scoop up the wayward bonnet.

Anderson Shaw stood at the window of his room. He didn't turn until Grey and Berkeley disappeared from his narrow view of the street. ”I think I made the better bargain,'' he told Garret.

Garret Denison shrugged and dropped himself casually into the overstuffed arm chair. He leaned back his head and momentarily closed his eyes. ”I got what I came for,” he drawled softly.

”Are you certain?”

The question surprised Garret. What was its purpose? ”What are you saying? That I'm wrong about the earring?” He sat up and looked behind him for Anderson's reply.

”No, only wondering if you're sure.”

”Of course I'm sure. It's not easily mistaken. There's not another like it.”

Anderson said nothing. Actually, he was thinking, there were two.

Berkeley disappeared into the dressing room as soon as she and Grey returned to their suite.

”Don't think you can hide in there!” Grey called from behind his desk in the library. He poured a cup of tea for each of them from the tray Annie Jack had prepared. To Berkeley's he added a dollop of honey. He held out the cup to her as she swept back into the room. She had removed her cloak and bonnet. The reticule and gloves were gone as well. His eyes dropped to her hands. They were empty. ”I believe, ma'am, you have something that belongs to me.”

Berkeley reached for her tea, but Grey drew it back suddenly. She frowned.

”My knife?” he asked.

Berkeley had the grace to blush. ”You might have said something before I went to all the trouble to put it under the armoire.”

”Why on earth would you put it there?”

”To make it appear it fell out of your boots when you dropped them there.”

Grey said nothing. His look in response to this bit of misguided subterfuge told Berkeley quite clearly what he thought of it ”You'll be so kind as to get it for me.”

”If you must have it.” She sighed. A few moments later she was exchanging the knife for a cup of tea.

Extending his leg, Grey slipped the blade back into the sheath inside his boot. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Berkeley watching him with some consternation. ”Did you think perhaps that I had another?”

”I thought you must,” she offered lamely. ”Somewhere.

Though I admit I was distressed when I couldn't find one. It would have been my first choice.”

Grey could only shake his head with a vague sense of disbelief. He pointed to the chair opposite his desk. ”Sit down, Berkeley.”

She sat. It was not so very different than her first interview with him, she thought. He had not been complimentary regarding her intelligence on that occasion either. ”I know you think I've acted unwiselya”

”Not in all things,” he said quietly. He saw her head come up and rivet her attention on him. ”But yes, it's difficult to act or think reasonably when one is as frightened as you were. I wish you could have trusted me with your fear, but I don't fault you for it. It was just last night that I finally understood the only thing that really frightened you was losing me. In your own way you were trying to protect me. Have I got it right?”

She nodded. Her cup rattled a bit against the saucer. She steadied her grip.

”Thinking back,” Grey said, ”I believe it's been about eight days since you discovered Garret was in San Francisco and Anderson was alive.” He saw by the slight widening of her eyes that he had hit the time just about right. ”That would make it the day after our wedding. You and I had had a disagreement, and I walked out. When I came back you weren't in the suite. Someone said they thought you were preparing to move your belongings from your room into ours. I went looking for you. Do you remember meeting me in the hallway?”

Berkeley's eyes dropped a fraction. She remembered throwing herself at him. She had been desperate to get him away from her room. ”I remember,” she said. Her voice was reedy, not like her own. She cleared her throat uncomfortably.

”Perhaps if you drank some tea,” Grey suggested gently.

”Oh, yes. Yes, of course.”

He covered his faint smile by drinking from his own cup. He watched her over the rim a moment before he set it down. ”I have fond memories of that afternoon. You were rather insistent in your attentions, as I recall.” Grey saw her cheeks pinken. ”I'd like to think your desire was not solely to keep me from your room.”

Berkeley bit down on her lip.

”Oh, then perhaps it was.”

”No,” she said quickly. ”That was part of it, of course. A good measure, I should think. At least at first. But when we were alone, and I knew there wasn't any immediate danger, well, then it wasa well, then it was just desire, I suppose.”

Under the desk Grey crossed his legs at the ankles. He leaned back in the leather chair. ”So they were in your room then.”

”Yes.” Berkeley looked at him oddly. ”You just saida oh, I see, you weren't entirely certain. You fl.u.s.tered me into that admission.”

Grey thought he shouldn't be feeling so smug. It was too early for that. Berkeley wasn't likely to be tricked as easily again. ”Tell me what they wanted.”

”Garret wanted the earring. I was wearing it around my neck but under my dress. I couldn't give it to him as a necklace. Anderson would have known immediately that it was the fake. He knew I couldn't have tolerated the real one next to my skin. I needed time, and I bargained for it. Your arrival was helpful. Anderson was going to escort me back to our suite for me to get the earring. I'm not sure how I would have managed if you hadn't appeared. Did you suspect then that I wasn't alone?”

”I merely suspected something was wrong. You said you had seen me arrive. I wondered at the lie. It was an odd thing to tell me when I came in the front of the hotel and your rooms face the rear.”

Berkeley didn't recall saying anything of the kind. ”I chatter sometimes when I'm nervous.”

”Oh? I hadn't noticed.”

She regarded him suspiciously. His eyes were not so cool as their flint color would have suggested. ”Hhmmpf.”

Grey suppressed a grin. ”And Anderson? What was his game?”

”To torment me.”

Grey waited, expecting some further revelation. When Berke-ley remained silent he realized she was quite serious. ”You mean it, don't you? That's all he wanted.”

”And money. But that was part and parcel of his torment. As a boy Anderson was the sort who liked b.u.t.terflies better without their wings.”

”As a man, too,” Grey said quietly. Berkeley had never lost the vaguely fey, otherworldly expression that focused beauty in her eyes. Anderson would have tried hard to steal that from her.

Berkeley s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably under his steady regard. ”I'm hardly a b.u.t.terfly.”

”More like a woodland fairy.”