“It is way too much.” He was smiling.
She turned onto her back and looked up at the underside of the canopy. It had been gathered like a fan, with a silk rose in the center. “I wouldn’t want a bed like this at home. It’s too much to take care of and I’d be scared of damaging it, but it’s like a fairy tale. When I was a kid, I dreamed of a room like this. It’s where the princess lives after she finds her prince. It’s...” She stopped talking.
Jack kept looking up, but he reached out and took her hand. Kate’s childhood had been far from that of royalty. She had a mother who was given to frequent bouts of deep depression, and uncles who were religious zealots, and... Jack squeezed her hand. “It’s beautiful. Not as pretty as you but it shows you off well.”
Smiling, Kate turned to look at him. “What did you and your invisible person talk about?”
He didn’t let go of her hand. “She said—”
“There you two are,” Sara said from the doorway, then gasped at the room. “Yeow! This is gorgeous. I’m in the Queen Anne room, one flight down. Beautiful but huge. Take the roof off and a helicopter could land in it.”
She flopped down on the bed between them and they pulled their arms from under her. Sara took their hands in hers and looked from one to the other. “Nice place, huh?”
Jack sat up. “Cut the crap and spill all.”
Sara and Kate were still lying down and holding hands. They were smiling at each other.
“Stop with the silent conspiracy,” Jack said.
“He met Puck,” Kate said. “He wants to save her.”
“Bella and I saw her from a window. She makes wreaths and little potpourri bags. Sells them to the hotel and to shops in Bath and London. I was told they do quite well. Bella also said that her mother is awful. She—”
“We met her,” Kate and Jack said in unison, their voices full of disgust.
“That bad, huh?”
Kate slipped off her shoes and sat up against the headboard. Sara did the same and sat beside her.
At the other end, Jack looked at both of them. He had never before realized that when Kate was Sara’s age, she’d look just like her aunt. “Are you two ganging up on me?”
“We’re preparing for the famous Wyatt temper.” Sara looked at Kate, who nodded.
“You mean because I’ve been tricked and lied to? Manipulated, conned, played for a sucker?” he asked.
“I never lied,” Sara said.
A tiny quirk of a smile appeared at the side of his mouth. “So tell the whole story.”
“I saw an opportunity and I took it,” Sara said. “Bella emailed me about the work they were doing during the March closing. I was on my laptop and I brought up Oxley Manor and found a little site that told of unsolved mysteries at great houses, then...” She shrugged.
“You read about the disappearance,” Kate said.
“Exactly,” Sara said. “Sent my curiosity through the roof.”
“Mrs. Aiken told us of some guests who are coming,” Kate said. “She’s not happy about it.”
“Is she really as nasty as Bella said?”
“Worse,” Jack said. “Her poor daughter hides in trees.”
Sara and Kate stared at him, waiting for more.
“I’m not telling anything.” He was looking at Sara. “Who are the ‘parasites’ she has to cook for?”
“Parasites? Interesting choice of word,” Sara said. “I think I’ll go—”
She started to get off the bed, but Jack clasped her ankle. “No you don’t.”